Creating an educational simulation for your employees can improve engagement and increase learning retention, when implemented correctly.
Workplace training methods are continuing to evolve with the emergence of new technologies and the development of employee research, as business leaders will know all too well. It is becoming increasingly important to optimise training programmes to save time and money as well as proving ROI.
Educational simulations can help to develop the commercial skills of individuals by allowing them to move away from traditional methods of learning to focus precisely on the commercial skills they’ll need to work efficiently in the workplace.
What are educational simulations?
Educational simulations provide employees with the information they’ll need in order to work at their roles in a setting that replicates the environment they will experience in real-time, but without the risk. The benefit of using educational simulations is that when it comes to facing a workplace situation, employees will be able to remember exactly how to work through it efficiently, drawing on their previous training experiences.
When planned, executed and reflected on correctly, educational simulations will equip employees with all of the information they need to succeed in an engaging and active way by utilising perceptual thinking methods. By recreating the environment in which employees will handle workplace tasks, learning retention will improve. Read our blog on perceptual thinking methods in experiential learning for more information.
What makes a useful educational simulation?
Many aspects need to be carefully constructed when creating an effective educational simulation, notably; setting out clear goals, focusing on commercial skills and adopting an effective analysis method. Read our blog on building an effective business simulation event for more information.
In regards to educational simulations, business leaders must take care to implement the information they want to convey to employees without overwhelming them. One of the key disadvantages of traditional workplace learning methods is that employees are merely fed information without the opportunity to actually trial their decisions and learn from mistakes, which leads to disengaged employees.
While business simulations prepare employees for corporate situations, educational simulations allow a workforce to develop the commercial skills that will ultimately help them to improve in all aspects of their roles. This means that educational simulations can be more informal and fun while ensuring that commercial skills are being developed in a positive environment.
How you can utilise educational simulations as part of your next workplace training event
When constructing an educational simulation as part of workplace training, it is essential to make the experience as “real” as possible in order to mirror their actual working environment. Doing this will encourage employees to embed learning and take it back into the workplace, thus making the process worthwhile.
Similarly, allowing employees to undertake a hands-on approach to simulations will increase learning retention. By making a simulation empowering, employees are given the responsibility to learn relevant information for themselves and later reflect on how well they have retained it. In doing this, business leaders will begin to see tangible results in the workplace.
When constructing a new workplace training programme, business leaders in any sector should consider allowing their employees to participate in educational simulations. Engaging a workforce in this way is more than likely to deliver results and ROI.