Upskilling in Action: The Value of Professional Development

As business and people leaders, we know that investing in our team members’ professional development is critical to keeping them engaged and feeling supported in their careers. At the same time, with almost all business activities requiring a clear ROI, we need to be able to measure tangible benefits and justify the value of upskilling. How can we do that?

Meet Megan

Megan Tse has always had a passion for education. She graduated from Queen’s University with her undergraduate degree in education just as the pandemic hit in 2020. In her role as an End User Support Program Manager at D2L, she works on training development and instructional design to improve customers’ experiences with end user support teams.

Fueled by her drive to learn, Megan was able to continue building skills through D2L’s Catch the Wave program, which provides an easy path for D2L employees to take professional development courses. Megan was drawn to the Digital Marketing Certificate program offered by McMaster Continuing Education. She was especially interested in the Content Marketing course, feeling that it would help her develop more engaging content for learners.

Putting New Skills to Use

One of the assignments in Megan’s Content Marketing course was to write a blog for an organization that aligned with its public content. Naturally, she chose D2L. She decided to highlight the synergy her team has realized with microlearning and the ability to develop a growth mindset. Her assignment not only was shared with internal teams but also has been featured on D2L Wave’s blog and through its social channels. This work opened new opportunities for Megan to contribute as a thought leader within the marketing team and share her passion for learning with an even broader audience.

By highlighting her work, Megan is hoping more people will be able to benefit from her experience and be encouraged to pursue their own skill development. Through her marketing course, she has come to recognize that she can take marketing concepts and, with a little outside-the-box thinking, apply them to her day-to-day work.

The Benefits of Professional Development

Enhancing Employee Engagement

Successful employee retention requires that employees have opportunities to grow their careers and develop their skills. From Megan’s experience, being empowered to grow her skills and look beyond her current role has increased her job satisfaction. As she told me, “I’m so happy with where I am at D2L, and I would love to explore the other opportunities that exist for me here.” Professional development opportunities like these increase employee engagement and the liklihood of people staying with the company. In Megan’s case, she’s had the opportunity to apply her learning, seeing its impact not only in her career but also with respect to customers in the service and support they receive.

Creating a Learning Culture

Knowledge sharing helps learners retain their learning and contributes to creating a culture of learning within the organization. Through the professional development available at D2L, Megan has found multiple ways to share her knowledge and skills. Sharing her blog on microlearning and a growth mindset allows others to reflect on her experiences and learn from her team’s success. Sharing her story with Catch the Wave also helps other employees gain insights into and see the benefits of the program. This generates excitement and encourages others to consider taking advantage of these learning opportunities, building on the learning culture that D2L prides itself on.

Megan’s Final Advice

Upskilling and professional development provide many opportunities and benefits for both employees and companies. But organizations have to make the learning experiences valuable, and they have to enable people to engage with them. So, to close in Megan’s words: “Just go for it! Ongoing learning is truly something that everyone should participate in on a regular basis. Taking part in continuing education helps us stay motivated and eager to expand our own knowledge in disciplines outside of what we already know, furthering our true desire to learn.”

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Interested in developing a professional development program for your company and learning how it can be simple? Check out D2L Wave! It’s a free-to-use upskilling education platform that includes micro-credentials and programs focused on specific skills. It streamlines how employees search for, request, register for, and pay for professional development activities.

Read Megan’s blog on How Microlearning Builds a Growth Mindset

Try D2L Wave Today to transform your workforce with upskilling education

Written by

Grace Sham

Grace Sham is a Marketing Specialist for D2L Wave, specializing in digital and content marketing. Grace holds a Bachelor of Management and Organizational Studies from Western University, a Social Media Marketing Certificate from George Brown College, and a Marketing Management Post-Graduate Certificate from Fanshawe College.