David Jones has adopted the Brightspace platform through learning technology leader, D2L to shift employee onboarding and continuous professional development (CPD) online and provide more flexible and collaborative training experiences.

David Jones training and development specialist, Juanique Vorster, who manages day-to-day training across the merchandise, foods, and digital ecommerce teams, said preserving personal connections, enabling collaboration, and inspiring teamwork in the digital learning environment was a key priority.

“Maintaining personal engagement when shifting to a digital platform was crucial to me,” she said.

“One of the reasons we decided to go with D2L for programmatic learning was the platform enabled live collaboration and teamwork within the system, so I can foster a team dynamic in the digital realm which we then nurture during face-to-face practical sessions.”

In addition to onboarding, David Jones wanted to support the ongoing professional development of workers. By partnering with D2L, micro learning can be recorded into the Brightspace platform to easily service workers rather than trying to facilitate this face-to-face.

D2L regional director for Australia and New Zealand, Tony Maguire said Australian organisations are building new training and development strategies with the understanding that learning and professional development are not standalone point-in-time phases.

“This new ‘normal’ demands that training and development strategies and learning experiences be designed to build success regardless of where and when learning occurs,” he said.

“If workplace upskilling and development is to be valuable to both the employer and employee, then learning must be authentic, founded on evidence-based learning models, and puts the learner in control of their own development.

“Brightspace provides comprehensive capabilities where employees can take control of self-paced training and face-to-face practical and knowledge application sessions while managers can easily track and support success and encourage career pathway development.”