Defence Online

The Army digitalises professional development with LinkedIn Learning

Homeland December 9, 2020

The Army is helping its personnel gain critical technical skills with LinkedIn Learning, the online learning platform from LinkedIn.

The Royal Corps of Signals, which provides IT, cyber and telecommunications expertise to every part of the Army, has rolled out LinkedIn Learning to 6,500 soldiers to support their technical training and professional development.

More than 60,000 hours of learning courses have been watched in the past six months alone, with cybercrime and computer forensics courses currently the most popular.

As part of an organisational shift designed to help soldiers upskill and meet the challenges of modern warfare which is data-driven and technology-led, the Royal Corps of Signals selected LinkedIn Learning to provide accessible digital learning courses to its personnel.

The learning courses, which  are taught by expert instructors, span topics on everything from hard technical skills to essential business and leadership skills. They are helping soldiers and students gain cutting-edge skills, while giving them the opportunity to learn flexibly at their own pace.

After identifying a technical skills gap in its middle-management, the Royal Corps of Signals moved quickly to equip soldiers with technical training to support their development. The LinkedIn Learning courses have already proved to be a success with more than 28,000 courses taken to date and 250,000 videos viewed.

Captain Neil Donaghy, Royal Corps of Signals, said:“To help soldiers keep their technical skills sharp and stay ahead of the innovations in modern warfare, LinkedIn Learning has given us a solution that offers targeted professional development while also helping us to create a modern digital culture.

“The Army faces a fairly unusual challenge when it comes to learning and development because we primarily hire at entry level, and bringing in experienced talent doesn’t work in the same way it does in most organisations. We needed to find a solution to upskill our soldiers while giving them the flexibility to structure their learning around their work and family commitments, which is what the online learning courses have enabled us to do.”

The Royal Corps of Signals is working to digitalise its learning culture and has created ‘learning champions’ to drive engagement. Building bespoke learning paths specific to the way the organisation operates ensures personnel can easily source the role-specific information they need to optimise their performance.

If you would like to join our community and read more articles like this then please click here

British Army LinkedIN MOD Royal Corps of Signals

Post written by: Matt Brown