Gone may be the days of the VHS, but digital video is a hot commodity for learning leaders looking to boost digital skills through bite-sized demos. (Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)
Antiquated Paris Hilton slang aside, video training is apparently quite hot and getting hotter. Video training company Grovo just raised $15M in series B funding to advance its short video learning strategy. For those who aren’t up on their venture capital lingo that essentially means, this is the second time the company has convinced investors to invest. I personally think $15M is a respectable chunk of change. It says quite clearly, ‘I believe in you.’
One piece I read stated that Grovo CEO Jeff Fernandez still wants the company to help consumers understand how to use popular web services, but it is now less focused on attracting consumers and more focused on working with organizations with teams — like multinational energy company Chevron — that need digital skills. That’s probably most teams, I imagine.
On the company’s website it says, “Every year, the digital skills gap drives almost a $1.3 trillion productivity loss for the U.S. economy. More than 200 million adults in the United States are part of the digital workforce, yet 58 percent of them feel they are not productive with the digital tools their organizations use.”
To help close that digital skills gap, Grovo has a library of some 5,000 videos covering 150 professional skills on its platform. Its approach is focused on microlearning; each video lasts 60 to 90 seconds.
That makes sense. Journalists like myself are contending with changing reader consumption patterns that promote shorter, hopefully pithier pieces — like this one. Workforce development leaders are also facing the same issue, compounded by the fast pace of global business in general.
Video might be an answer to closing the digital skills divide.
