Summary
Why E-learning for blue collars?
Skilled laborers, machinists, truck drivers, skilled craftsmen are just some of the occupations commonly referred to when talking about blue collar workers. These are jobs that have evolved over time to become highly mechanized occupations or subject to specific procedures.
For this reason, too, much of the training of the departments in which these professionals work has had to follow continuous specialization. And what better way thanE-learning?
Able to be ubiquitous but at the same time non-intrusive, digital training can provide “blue collar” people with professionalizing content aimed at enhancing technical and other skills. Their enjoyment, which can be perfectly synchronized with work rhythms, has no time or space dictated by a precise schedule and manages to adapt well to a life on the move, shift work or the absence of a dedicated training space.
But E-learning for blue collar workers also means a previously unimagined explosion of potential: access to corporate intranets and LMSs enables any worker to better understand the importance of continuing education.
In addition, the freedom granted to users on these platforms allows them to take firsthand action on their own training, without limiting themselves to content strictly preparatory to their work, thus side-by-side with material of a different nature. This approach-perhaps hinged on a solid microlearning pathway and with the right sprinkling of gamification-enables blue collars to become their own advocates for growth in the company.

Blue collar increasingly specialized
While it is true that the term blue collar-originally-explicitly referred to blue collar workers, it is also true that its meaning has broadened over the years to include a wider range of occupations.
Today’s “blue collar” workers also include categories of workers such as-for example-skilled technical personnel who are relocated or often work as transfer workers, employees of cleaning companies, drivers, and truck drivers.
These are operational personnel whose training, until recently, focused mainly on strictly work-related aspects: procedures and standards, invariably combined with occupational health and safety courses; conducted generally in the classroom, often due to the absence of a dedicated workstation, and scheduled at set times.
The increased specialization of these roles, however, has gradually required increasingly frequent and timely training. That’s when E-learning came into play, able to continuously reach more and more workers. Fundamental to this transition, of course, has been the technological and digital evolution that has allowed each of these professionals to have a tool in their pocket that allows them to easily access their training: a simple smartphone.
The increasingly close relationship between people and smartphones has, in fact, created a sufficient level of digitization-as well as an appropriate channel-for the digital delivery of courses.
The benefits of E-learning for blue collars
The world of E-learning has thus granted blue collars multiple opportunities for growth and further education, thanks to its countless advantages: large-scale training, anywhere, anytime, and-at the same time-high levels of personalization based on initial framing.
Consider, for example, the onboarding of employees inlarge-scale retail trade (GDO). Previously, all new hires were herded into a room and had to take the course in its entirety, regardless of their prior skills. Now, from their smartphones, each person can fill out a pre-evaluation questionnaire that will screen them at different times during the course.This results in less time for the user and increased user satisfaction.
Still on the user side, it is important to consider how greater freedom in managing one’s training also brings with it a better attitude toward the tasks at hand, an aspect that-among other things-can help avoid risks such as burnout.
Supporting blue collar E-learning training is also its cost-effectiveness, mainly related to the possibility of optimizing paths, reusing content, and updating courses already produced with a commitment (of time and money) far less than that required to hold an in-person refresher course.

Beyond mandatory training
As we have seen, one of the defining characteristics of blue collars is the high level of specialization. This aspect also has an impact on the design of the training courses dedicated to them: it is no longer a matter of just thinking about setting up an appropriate on boarding and comply with regulations on refresher courses, but rather to develop an awareness that blue collar training should go far beyond the perimeter of necessity and mandatory.
One of the cultural limitations related to blue collar training lies in perceiving them as not very “reachable” by training since, more often than not, they are mobile professionals who spend most of their day away from their desks. Starting from such a scenario, it is not difficult to imagine a training course as disrupting, interrupting other activities.
Blue collars and safety training.
When it comes to blue collar training pathways special attention deserves the topic of safety. It is essential in any field, but in the case of “blue-collar workers” it is cause for greater attention, since we are talking about professionals who often perform activities with higher safety risks than office-based activities.
A first aspect to emphasize is the need to shift the focus to ethics rather than compliance. The former focuses on what is right, the latter on what is in accordance with applicable laws or regulations. Both are important, but when it comes to people, ethics must prevail, and in this specific case, care must be taken to ensure that blue collar safety training sessions are not only those required by law, but extend to a range of more specific courses on corollary topics such as the environment, eco-sustainability, and life-work balance.
This task is certainly facilitated by E-learning, which opens the door to asynchronous, dislocated, independent and personalized learning.
We at Frog, for example, have gathered our courses into one dedicated catalog to meet this need:
Moocca
. A substantial number of titles, divided into categories, with which specific training paths can be created, ranging from mandatory to corollary topics that are equally fundamental.
Reflection of the same nature deserves the topic ofupgrading. Blue collars are professionals in the field, have technical skills and an increasing level of specialization.
This premise makes it necessary for companies and workers themselves to be fully aware of the need to intensify refresher courses by taking advantage of the enormous capabilities of E-learning.

E-learning for blue collars: methodology and tools
Having seen that E-learning turns out to be the winning approach for learning new skills, it is now incumbent to ask what methodologies and tools best meet the needs of companies and workers. Whether it is safety courses, more technical courses or purely content courses, a very effective approach is definitely one based on microlearning.
It is not just a matter of enjoying the benefits born of dividing the training content into small units, but rather of making the worker autonomous in managing the course to be taken. Opting for agile and fast content, in fact, untethers the formative moment from the computer and landline-thus from the desk-and entrusts it to the ubiquitous smartphones and tablets.
The ability to take training courses from mobile makes the user autonomous in choosing the timing and mode of training. In addition, the specificity of microlearning training modules makes it possible not only to have the content on demand, but to find the information very quickly within a specific, contained and non-dispersive section.
Another significant benefit of microlearning is fostering the ability to learn procedures and practices that might otherwise be cumbersome or boring. This will make training easier and more immediate.
The commitment of companies, in this case, is obviously to meet the training needs of workers by providing them with specific technologies. Moreover, given the need to move beyond an approach that puts the reasons of regulatory compliance before those of ethics, trends in safety training are increasingly moving toward continuous learning. This finding reinforces the need for tools that are able to perform tracking of each individual user in order to have accurate information about their level of preparation and their progress in acquiring or upgrading skills.
Training for all
In light of the above, the message should be shouted: training must be continuous, enjoyable, easy and for everyone! Therefore, the task of those who care for people within companies is to put them in a position to perceive learning as a traveling companion, always present and efficient. Learning that is accessible, technologically agile, and structured in an interesting way for the user.
Academy, Mooc and many other tools can fully meet this need.
For the curious who want to know, the doubters who want to peek, and the concrete who want to apply-we are here!