Siemens and Learnlight have worked together to develop a unique language training solution that foregrounds their learners’ needs.

Learnlight’s virtual training solution offers today’s busy professionals a time-efficient way to manage their work and learning. Learners only need to block out 30 minutes per week for classes and can reschedule up to 50% of their sessions if something urgent comes up. The learner can easily fit learning into their schedule without major disruption or having to work late to catch up.

“I like it, because flipped classroom means that you’re learning new stuff on your own and then use the time with the trainer to do your exercises.”

The training content is easy to scale: the trainer assigns preparation work for the week via the Learnlight platform, including videos, listening activities, reading texts and comprehension exercises. However, if learners want to do more, they can explore Learnlight’s huge resource library, which is filtered to their level to help them find the most relevant activities to work on specific areas.

The intuitive navigation built into the Learnlight platform gives learners the freedom to take control and self-direct their learning. Each employee follows a personalized learning path, which helps them track their progress, as material builds on their achievements and supports their weaker areas. Learners can adjust how quickly they work through the activities, depending on the time they have available and how urgently they need to develop specific language skills.

“I think Learnlight does this very well, because you have the self-paced stuff that you can do beforehand, rework afterwards and then in the training session you can really concentrate on what’s very important in learning a language – talking with somebody who knows this language perfectly.”

The on-demand nature of the learning content means that it seamlessly becomes part of their day-to-day life, including giving them access to a variety of resources, such as email templates, culture guides and an accents and dialect center, which can help them prepare for meetings in specific regions.

All of Learnlight’s blended programs incorporate a cutting-edge flipped classroom approach. This method equips learners with key knowledge before each session, which means that they can optimize the time with their trainer, putting this knowledge into practice. Activities which don’t require trainer input can be completed online before the session and then the newly acquired knowledge and skills are consolidated during the live session.

The platform also offers bite-sized micro-learning activities that are easy to digest. This is a significant improvement on the dense information that is presented in a traditional classroom-based course.

Further reading