Can Open Source Solutions Benefit Your Organization for Training? by Ken Myers

My guest blogger today is Ken Myers. Please be sure to check out his unique guest post. Guest posts are always welcome, please contact me.  

Furthering the education and training of your employees can be very beneficial to your organization. It is a method that can keep your company competitive and knowledgeable while making your staff more versed in your business niche. Unfortunately, many businesses simply can't afford to send their staff to take college courses or specialist classes. In light of the costs, can an open source application  be used to encourage additional training for your staff?

What Are they? - Open source software are essentially free applications that you can use to teach anyone virtually anything. They are designed to be operated and maintained with the full functionality of online educational facilities. The best part about these applications is that they are free to use. Most of the time, they can be easily installed on a local network server or on your own website hosting provider in order to provide classes covering any subject you want including images, sounds, files and more.

Learn from Home - By installing these applications on your website or allowing remote access to your business network, you can allow your staff to learn new aspects of your business from home. This means you don't have to sacrifice down-time in order to promote training of any material to those within the company. You could develop long, information-rich classes that users can benefit from without having to clock out or schedule attendance. No one would have to come in on his or her day off in order to attend a class that they can access from home - at any time of the day.

Full Control - Another enticing aspect of using open source applications is the ability to have full control of the content and registration aspect. If you don't want certain material in your "classroom," then you can simply omit the information. You are in complete control of who learns what when in the application's environment. You can make the courses as easy or as difficult as you need them to be without spending extra money on changing levels.

The Cost of Success - The only real drawback to using an open source solution for your education and training materials is you have to develop the courses yourself. This can take a great deal of time depending on how detailed you want the information to be. You can always pay a third-party professional to develop the material, and it still may be considerably cheaper than paying an organization to teach your staff. Perhaps you could hire a part-time teacher to help you develop the course or even hire someone in-house that has vast experience to share.

Encouraging Employees - Providing certificates to staff can be incentive to develop online courses for the business. This information can then go into personal records within the company in order to boost promotions and career advancement. Although the certificate won't be from an accredited college or school, it can still be added to a resume especially if the employee is young and hasn't developed marketable skills themselves.

Advancing knowledge in any field is always beneficial to the organization. By providing training and education, you keep your business performing at optimal levels for continued growth and success. Take a closer look at what open source educational applications can do for your company and see the difference in how well your staff performs afterwards.

About the Author:

Ken Myers is a father, husband, and entrepreneur. He has combined his passion for helping families find in-home care with his experience to build a business. Learn more about him by visiting @KenneyMyers on Twitter.

Many thanks to Ken Myers.
Enjoy your reading!