With people forced to work from home due to the novel coronavirus, organizations are taking the opportunity to encourage online training and learning. To shed light on helpful learning resources, Aragon Research released a report outlining three hot vendors in learning for 2020.

The coronavirus has taken a significant toll on the enterprise, resulting in furloughs, layoffs, and hiring freezes. Last week, 2.4 million Americans filed for unemployment, bringing the total to 38.6 million since the start of COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders, the Washington Post reported.

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Training and certifications have always been a way for employees to add credibility and value to their positions—a tactic that is even more critical with organizations making major employment cuts. As a result, enterprise eLearning has skyrocketed since the onset of COVID-19.

“During COVID, you still have to train. You need to learn new things if you want to get promoted. It’s even more on the top of mind for people now than it’s ever been,” said founder and CEO of Aragon Research, and author of the report. “Microsoft had their Build conference this week, and they spent a lot of time talking about the importance of developers learning these new tools.”

Learning is valuable for both employees and organizations, Lundy noted.

“If you look at top performing companies like Microsoft or Google, [they] both have their own internal learning platforms they’ve rolled out,” Lundy said. “It’s an attribute of high performance companies.”

While off-the-shelf content, or catalogs of training, are popular, they tend to be a little general. Custom content for organizations is becoming more critical as employees want to learn more specialized skills, the report found.

After analyzing the learning and development (L&D) market, the report determined three hot vendors in learning that are catering to the needs of modern employees.

Hot vendors in learning

1. BenchPrep

BenchPrep is an immersive learning management system (LMS) provider that focuses on a customizable learning experience, according to the report.

What got BenchPrep on this list was its emphasis on “enabling certifications and mastery to ensure high performance,” as stated in the report. The program allows organizations to define personalized pathways that cater best to their employees’ learning styles.

“They have excelled at helping both companies and associations build certification mastery,” Lundy said. Organizations looking to foster unique skills can build a curriculum that meets those needs and ends with a degree or certification.

2. GoSkills

GoSkills landed on this list because of its impressive off-the-shelf content, Lundy said.

These courses are offered as “bite-sized lessons” for quick consumption. It is also optimized for mobile use, making on-the-go learning easy. The platform can track learning across individuals and teams, listing the number of courses completed, tests taken, certifications earned, and time to completion, according to the report.

GoSkills also has a social learning tool that allows users to check in on each other’s progress,the report added. The platform is ideal for enterprises wanting a solid set of off-the-shelf course offerings.

3. TalentLMS

TalentLMS provides LMS via gamification, learning pathways, and certifications, Lundy said.

What qualified TalentLMS for this list is its modern approach and its ability to white label the platform to brand it for the enterprise’s corporate university. Enterprises looking for a more focused approach to learning will want this platform, according to the report.

The platform also has a course marketplace for companies, making it a one-stop-shop for organizations wanting a complete solution for learning and training.

For more, check out Online learning gets its moment due to COVID-19 pandemic: Here’s how education will change on ZDNet.

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