As the response to the novel coronavirus continues to restrict travel and cancel major public events, one company is committed to ensuring staff training and development continues.
Canadian-based Velsoft Training Materials is offering unrestricted access to its learning management system for companies scrambling to deal with the fallout from the spread of the virus.
The workplace learning and development (L&D) industry has been hit hard by the cancellation of face-to-face events. It is expected that the Virus will continue to spread throughout the world, causing havoc on travel or gatherings for public events. Companies are frantically establishing contingency plans but the coronavirus continues to move faster than their preparations.
“Many training events have been transformed to online or virtual events to stem the spread of the contagious virus,” says Jim Fitt, founder of Velsoft. “However, not every organization knows where to start in providing virtual or distance training.” Fitt and his team have created a plan to offer their technologies to help companies move their corporate training online.
Working remotely has quickly become an accepted practice, with companies attempting to shield their staff from the epidemic. Many companies, such as Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Ford Motor, HSBC, AT&T, CNN, Citigroup and Twitter, have directed employees to work from home to reduce the risk of spreading the virus.
Fitt notes that many organizations currently offer online staff training, but others have not yet embraced this model. “All we are hoping for is to help get things back to normal as quickly as possible,” Fitt adds. “Cancelling or postponing training will have a lasting effect on companies already bracing for impacts likely to reverberate across corporations long after the outbreak is eventually brought under control.”
Fitt and his team are committed to ensuring as much training as possible go uninterrupted, which is why free access to Velsoft’s eLearning platforms is being offered to those wanting to train their teams remotely. Until the end of April, companies can access all course authoring and learning management system software for free with no obligation whatsoever.
Velsoft believes the effect of the coronavirus on global higher education is a predictor to a disruption about to happen to the $366.2 billion USD workplace L&D industry.
The company’s Chief Operating Officer David Gormley says the company is paying very close attention to what schools and universities are doing. “As the number of people impacted by the virus grows at alarming rates, students at universities in affected areas face the prospect of losing an entire semester or more,” Gormley says.
Moving classes online is the number one way higher education institutions are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak.