Salesforce has taken the wraps off myTrailhead, a personalised learning platform that will help level the skills playing field for those already in the industry and those just joining.
As disruptive technologies such as AI continue to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) around job displacement and loss, the company said at its annual conference Dreamforce in San Francisco.
myTrailhead will open up opportunities to a broader audience through learning and skills training, according to Alex Dayon president and chief product officer, Salesforce.
“There is lots of anxiety about this new world and technology and what it means for us. We are at the tipping point. People don’t need another library. They want point and click AI,” he said.
“We want to give access to the broader group to those new opportunities and those new jobs. Some people have no college degree and now they have a senior VP job in a company driving digital transformation. That’s why we’re focused on this aspect rather than just the technology aspect.”
The platform is designed to encourage a pattern of continuous learning through targeted and interactive engagement that can evolve to suit the changing needs of an individual’s current or aspirational career.
“It’s about helping everybody skill up. It’s something no other software company is passionate about. We unveiled Trailhead at Dreamforce in 2014, since then been on an amazing journey. We have a thriving community of millions of trailblazers that are learning and helping each other. We just reached milestone of four million badges,” said Sarah Franklin, senior vice president of developer relations and general manager of Trailhead.
“We have been using trailhead with a customised version to help up-skill our own employees. Now, every company can empower their employees with the skills needed for the fourth industrial revolution.”
Rather than traditional learning methods, which are increasingly becoming unfit for purpose, Trailhead features a guided set-up tool dubbed Trail Maker. This lets companies brand and personalise the experience to their own unique company needs.
Companies can add their own resources or make use of a pre-curated library of existing materials.
Each employee then has a Trailhead Profile, which shows at a glance, their expertise and skillset. In addition, it showcases Trailhead badges earned and provides a holistic view of what that individual has to offer current and future roles.
Trail Mixer offers workers the opportunity to create and share custom learning paths, called Trailmixes. Trail Checker lets companies create challenges to assess skills levels and rates experience and issues rewards.
And, finally, Trail Tracker acts as a motivational app to help managers keep track of and assign targeted learning for their reports, as well as gamified leaderboards.
“Companies need to invest in people ad help them learn skills. In this time of uncertainty, we are the company that is the beacon of light and is the hope for the future,” Franklin added.
“That’s why myTrailhead is important. We’re seeing this magic happen so we want to empower customers to do that for their employees too.”
The idea is to benefit both the individual employee and their employer’s business, Franklin said, adding that some $350 million is lost by businesses, on average, due to lost productivity.
“The global demand for 21st century skills is increasing,” said Josh Bersin, principal and founder, Bersin, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “Offerings that provide fun, easy-to-use, gamified training in modern topic areas can add value to individuals and companies all over the world.”
Trailhead was launched back in 2014 as a learning platform based on gamification. This latest iteration builds on that foundation to put more power in the hands of individuals.
The new platform will be piloted in early 2018, with general availability later in the year.
