How Can the Public Sector Improve Training? (hint - it involves gamification)

He didn’t know it, but Benjamin Franklin was a big advocate for gamified training: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” 

And of course, that applies to training for business as well as government agencies. Government jobs are clearly defined, so adaptable solutions present material that matches the skills required not just for current positions, but for upskilling so they can keep advancing. 

And since government employees must follow more comprehensive and meticulously detailed processes than in corporate America, it’s easy for the training to become less emotionally engaging and even dull. Gamification makes learning more active and enjoyable, while also helping with retention. 

In short, game-based learning is a more effective way to train employees on the skills and processes they need, and for the digital natives now joining the government workforce, learning is expected to be mobile, interactive, and immersive, which gamification delivers.

Unfortunately, a better way to train isn’t being adopted universally yet. Elspeth Munden, a newly hired Administrative Assistant for Gulf Shores Public Works in Alabama, was trained on one or two tasks at a time in person over a fairly long period of time. She says that “help me visualize locations, projects, and people.” However, these are exactly the kinds of things that gamified training can replace, along with the added benefits of freeing up co-worker’s time to train, and providing information that can be referenced later should a review be necessary. And with the right platform, measurements of how well she was actually digesting the information would also be available.

According to a recent article by Deloitte Insights, to accomplish that, the future of learning in government needs to follow these five design principles.

1. Outcome-based: Anchor learning against business objectives, capability needs, and performance objective

2. Skills-focused: Create personalized learning journeys and solutions based on skill needs, using human-centered design and adaptive learning and pathing

3. Balanced: Employ the right use of holistic modalities, enabling learning in the flow by emphasizing smaller, modularized, and point-of-need assets

4. Adaptive: Proactively and rapidly identify future-focused learning needs, and ideate and iterate solutions to quickly test, assess, refine, and implement

5. Optimized: Prioritize content curation before new content design, and streamline and automate content for a targeted and intuitive learning experience

Can these design principles be met using gamified training in conjunction with AI to further customize it? Could current training be shifted to more gamified courses? 

In New York City, training is offered through their Department of Citywide Administrative Services, and according to their website “...are taught by a mix of government, university, and private sector experts.

But with rigid start dates, high costs ($500 for a course on “Chaos Containment: Executing Plans Despite Chaos and Disruption”), is enrollment what it could be? Is this methodology the best use of time and energy for all involved? Could many of these classes be taught or supplemented with alternate means so learning can be self-paced and accessed through multiple devices? And while there are a few eCourses, the vast majority are in person.

For the City of San Francisco, there are also in-person career development courses as well as set day/time virtual presentations. As an example of cost, a half day virtual on “Managing Implicit Bias” is $250. And while there are procedures for reimbursement, classes must be paid up front. Mandatory onboarding online courses for new employees are delivered free of charge but the total number of onboarding checklist items is close to 50, and they are all located in different areas of the website. Could gamified linear training be set up that would start with the items common to all and then diverge based on each employee’s specific role within the City?

The Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) designed its education system to let public servants shape their own education path. Employees have access to a catalog of almost 400 classes according to their interests, like a video game character moving through a skill tree. While CSPS suggests a progression for some topics, most can be chosen and then accessed at a self-directed pace. Supervisors can also track employees’ progress. 

Another trend related to gamification is microlearning. CSPS’s Digital Academy splits lesson plans into what they designate as bite-sized “busrides”. Short enough to complete on the bus to work, these modules make learning skills flexible and less intimidating. Curriculum can easily be revised and adapted and users determine their own paths. The basics of important skills are covered, with options to explore more in depth. Even without more in-depth study, workers still have a foundation to understand partners in a collaborative work environment.

Kelly Barrett, a knowledge management specialist at the IRS, also understands microlearning. For the last seven years he has created short, narrated video tutorials to help IRS employees navigate commonly used tools such as Skype, WebEx, and ConcurGov, as well as topics like leadership and paid parental leave. Now a servicewide initiative, there are more than 500 videos in the library with more than 360,000 views.

Public sector organizations can make the most of microlearning by awarding and tracking credentials for skills learned. These credentials can not only clarify more specifics of a person’s technical knowledge than a degree, but also help motivate learners.

An aspect of gamification is also happening in public servant training in Argentina. In-game education credits incentivizes students to participate. They can earn anywhere from 2 points for attending a lecture to 100 for an in-depth class. To qualify for promotion, each employee must earn 60 points within a year. 

Gamification done with AI on the correct platform also makes it increasingly possible to curate from existing content, personalize content delivery to employees’ learning styles, track educational achievements with digital dashboards, make learning more accessible, and assess effectiveness. Based on these assessments, AI can make recommendations for not just training courses but learning journeys or pathways that can bring together a selection of courses for a learner to build fluency around a topic or skill, if desired.

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Transformational Training Techniques provides original insights for professionals interested in improving training, onboarding, outreach and sales presentation results. We publish as a free service for industries including Food, Beverage, Manufacturing, Finance, Healthcare, Automotive, Nonprofit and Public Sector.  For sponsoring our research and articles, we thank incentive and training solution Brand Intros.