Why Companies Move Away From Traditional Belt Training

The webinar is titled "No More Belts: An Alternative Approach to Skill Development, with Katie Bockwoldt.  Katie Bockwoldt and Justin Kenny are the guest hosts from the state of Vermont.

Transition Away from a "Belt" Program:

• Vermont previously operated a belt program for skill development.
• The state is transitioning away from the belt program towards a more flexible approach.
• The transition is still in its early stages, approximately six months in.

Challenges with Belt Program:

• The belt program faced challenges in applicability across diverse job roles.
• It focused more on technical skills than soft skills.
• The hierarchical certification structure hindered participation in Improvement efforts.

Alternative Approach to Skill Development:

• Vermont aims to foster a culture of Improvement across the organization.
• The new approach focuses on developing both technical and soft skills.
• It seeks to address the limitations of the previous belt program.

Flexible Learning Opportunities:

• The new program offers various learning paths and badges for skill development.
• Participants can engage in courses individually or follow recommended learning paths.
• The program emphasizes practical application through workshops and communities of practice.
• Vermont aims to maintain accessibility and support for continuous Improvement efforts.

Course Forward:

• At Belt Course, even though our name could be misleading, we also moved away from the traditional belt training.
• We made our programs job-specific, spaced out with Blended Learning and time to apply and become an expert at each phase of someone's learning path. 
• Examples of "badges"

• Example Simulation-based Blended Learning pathways

Take advantage of our promotion taking place now for our A3 Problem-Solver course shown above!  Learn more about it here:  https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7142627086560624640/

Source:

• Katie Bockwoldt serves as the Performance Improvement adviser from the Chief Performance Office in Vermont.
• Katie manages the state's Continuous Improvement network and directs teams on process Improvement and strategic planning.
• Justin Kenny is the Chief Performance Officer for Vermont, overseeing organizational Performance Management Systems.
• Justin drives the adoption of continuous Improvement methods such as Lean and Ghana.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQNbG_t_ucY&t=2354s