Significant Benefits Of Off-The-Shelf Training Content That You Just Can’t Overlook

Articles about improving the effectiveness of training material all have one thing in common- the mention of custom training content.

While there is no denying that custom training content offers some great benefits, the truth is, in the bid to highlight these benefits, the advantages offered by off-the-shelf training content are often overlooked.

Created by experts for easy consumption and designed to improve retention and comprehension, off-the-shelf content offers many of the qualities we look for in bespoke training content.

THe high investment of time and money involved in developing bespoke training content is preventing many small and medium sized businesses from getting started with their training initiatives.

If you relate to the last statement, this article is meant for you.

In the following sections, we will be discussing the amazing benefits that businesses can derive from off-the-shelf training content.

Let’s begin:

Affordable And Accessible

The affordability associated with off-the-shelf training content is the reason behind its popularity, and also one of the reasons behind the bad rep surrounding it.

Thankfully, when it comes to off-the-shelf training modules, you get far more value than what you pay for.

The reason behind this is that the creators of the off-the-shelf content are tapping into the economy of scale. That means, they are generating profits by making their product more affordable, and in turn, available to a larger audience.

Helps Create A Consistent Training Experience

When you purchase course content from a particular vendor, you get courses that are presented in a consistent and professional format. This means, your learners only have to learn to navigate through the training content once.

After that, they can enjoy a consistent training experience that provides valuable information in a structured manner.

Instant Deployment

Another well known advantage of off-the-shelf training content is its plug and play ability.

Unlike bespoke training content, you don’t have to spend weeks developing the training content. Even if one outsources the task to a professional elearning development company, receiving the final product can take a lot of time.

Typically, developing one hour of elearning training content can take up to 118 man hours. When you choose off-the-shelf training content, you can avoid this enormous investment of time and begin training your learners immediately.

Access To Training Content Developed By Experts

This is one attribute of off-the-shelf learning content that is often forgotten. However, the truth is, any off-the-shelf training content that has decent reviews has performed well because it was developed by an industry expert.

In fact, if one particular course has been used by several people, it means that the course content has been proven to be effective.

This means, when you invest in off-the-shelf training content, you get tested training content that is created by the collaboration of subject matter experts and instructional design experts.

Unmatched Scalability And Variety

Finally, since developing custom training content is a time consuming and investment intensive task, it is not exactly scalable.

However, off-the-shelf training content is actually the opposite. When your organisation’s training needs grow, you can instantly address them by purchasing another off-the-shelf course.

You will not be restricted by time boundations, or the limited expertise offered by the fixed teams of elearning content providers.

Conclusion

It is important to note that the ideal choice of training content will ultimately depend on the organisation and its unique training needs. With that said, if your business is just beginning its training journey, chances are, off-the-shelf training content will turn out to be the ideal solution for you.

Have you used off-the-shelf training content in the past? How was your experience? Share with us in the comment section.