MindLeaders: Fueling the Learning Revolution

The Top Ten Training Needs

MindLeaders gets a lot of information about what people want to learn more about. We hear it through our clients, usage of our courses, the topics people ask us for or search our listings for, and conversations with others in the industry. An important part of my job is trying to distill all that information to figure out what training topics are important, and who they're important to.

Here are the latest results of the top ten topics that have the most demand for online training:

1. Microsoft Excel
2. Communication
3. Customer Service
4. Project Management Professional (PMP)
5. Project Management
6. Time Management
7. Microsoft Access
8. Microsoft Word
9. CompTIA A+
10. Management

A couple of notes about the results:

• Excel is #1 by a HUGE margin. It seems to be a perfect storm of an application in ubiquitous use and complex enough that lots of people feel a need to know more about it.
• Project Management is so gigantic that I track the PMP certification separately from general project management, and yet the split vote still makes #4 and #5 on the list. (Combined, they still wouldn't quite beat Excel for the #1 spot.)

According to Bersin & Associates' brand-new Corporate Learning Factbook 2009, the topic areas this top ten falls into (Desktop Applications, Interpersonal/Soft Skills, and Management/Supervisory) are #9, #6, and #5 on their survey of training priorities. I think the difference is because they're tracking overall training programs (so company-specific information is easily #1), while I'm tracking the e-learning needs in particular. My results are a subset of the larger training industry.

What do you think of this top ten? Does it cover the topics you think of first when you think about online learning needs for yourself or your company?

New e-Learning courses

MindLeaders has released 27 new courses this week! Most of the courses focus on leadership and business skills: controlling time, sparking creativity, communicating powerfully in emails, and building constructive, fast solutions to problems.

We haven't forgotten technical and software skills, though, with two new Windows Server 2008 certification study guides and new Lotus Notes content.

These series have new courses:

• E-Mailing Your Way to the Top
• Innovation in the Workplace
• Lotus Notes 8.5
• Problem Solving through Productive Thinking
• Time Management for Maximum Productivity
• Windows Server 2008 Applications MCTS 70-643
• Windows Server 2008 Active Directory MCTS 70-640

Some of the text around our courses have been improved, too: we've clarified the instructions on the scores and mastery pages to help you when you want to re-take tests to improve your score. And we've re-written the course evaluations, with fewer questions to answer and hopefully lots more ideas about ways we can improve.

Do you like the latest courses or topics? Already have feedback you can't wait until the next course to give? Please hit the comments and let me know!