The pandemic forced us to experiment with things we previously believed impossible. That is just as true in corporate training as anywhere else in life and work — the future of hybrid learning is now.

Prior to the pandemic, virtual instructor-led training (ILT) was seen as a worst-of-both-worlds compromise between the gold standard of face-to-face training and the cost-effectiveness of self-paced online resources. But the limitations of the pandemic made everyone take another look at it. We’ve heard firsthand from our clients that although the adoption of ILT initially developed out of necessity, both learners and corporate L&D organizations have learned to appreciate its value and convenience.

Forced to innovate rapidly, the corporate training world has regained a taste for experimentation.

All sorts of assumptions are up for grabs, and one of them is that ILT has to happen either face-to-face or online — partly because global offices are returning to normal at different paces. It’s also partly because the experiences of the pandemic have forced us to be more open to new ideas and opportunities. Training organizations are beginning to experiment with hybrid learning environments, in which some participants are co-present in long-abandoned conference rooms and others attend from the comfort of their repurposed breakfast nooks. After all, for many of us, our work environment has been a hybrid of virtual and face-to-face since long before Covid: Why should training be different?

At Abilitie, we’re excited to be riding this wave of experimentation.

It allows us to practice what we preach as advocates of experiential learning. And as we like to say in our programs, “experiential learning” is just the fancy way to say “learning from mistakes.” We’re proud to share some of our misses and victories as we contribute to the growing body of best practices informing the future of hybrid learning.