Keeping your company’s learning materials up to date against a backdrop where more is required, but less budget is available can feel impossible. But, through a structured plan and some agile thinking, you can breathe fresh life into your existing materials and save yourself time and money, shares Kayleigh Atherton of Evolved Automotive Learning.
Over the past decade, most automotive brands have invested heavily in digital training programmes. These curriculums are specially developed for a range of roles, from technicians and sales teams to OEM roles. Replacing traditional classroom learning, they now form the backbone of employee development across the sector.
However, with advances in technology and the industry constantly changing, learning materials can become out of date frustratingly quickly.
Regulatory changes, new technologies, evolving consumer behaviours, and cultural developments such as greater awareness of neurodiversity are reshaping what staff need to know. The customer journey, for instance, is no longer a linear process. Some buyers prefer to complete the bulk of their car purchase online, only stepping into the retailer to collect the keys. Others still value the more personal in-store showroom experience. As a result, training content must now reflect this complexity and keep pace with it.
Naturally, businesses can be reluctant to dismantle learning systems that have taken years and significant amounts of investment to build. Traditionally, large-scale content refreshes were carried out every couple of years, often requiring long lead times, big budgets, and substantial rework. But all of that may not be necessary.
You may be surprised by what’s possible when you refresh what you already have. Instead of throwing away your existing materials and starting again, try reassessing and reconfiguring them in a more agile and efficient way to see what can stay and what needs tweaking.
The “refresh” process becomes more manageable when you follow three core steps – The Evolved 3Cs: Collate, Curate, and Create.
Collate Most businesses have content scattered across different departments, systems and formats. The first step is simply to gather it all together. Only then can you gain a comprehensive picture of the existing learning resources, which often span years of development.
Curate Once collated, the next phase involves sorting and structuring the content. Much of what you need is likely already available, just in disconnected pieces. Curating enables you to create structured learning pathways and identify gaps that require attention.
Create The final step, and often the simplest, is the actual creation of new content. By this point, you’ll only be developing materials that are either missing or outdated. By focusing on specific areas when creating new content, you can ensure it is high quality, maximising value and minimising unnecessary effort.
This agile method helps organisations respond to change without resorting to large-scale overhauls every time the industry faces a new challenge. Crucially, you don’t need proprietary software or a specialist partner to apply these principles. This approach can be applied internally, offering benefits such as cost savings, better learner engagement, and faster time to update.
So, rather than seeing existing training assets as outdated or redundant, consider them as foundations to build upon. By refreshing rather than rewriting, you may find that moving forward is much easier and cheaper than you thought.
Author: Kayleigh Atherton, founder and managing director of Evolved Automotive Learning