Tech Training Maturity Model

Generate your tech training maturity profile and improve your training ROI

Request a Consultation

Table of contents

Intro

Top leaders ask difficult questions in order to drive strategic success. In their most basic form, many of these questions boil down to “Where are we now?” and “Where do we want to be?” Answering these questions requires both a candid look at your own organization and a strong vision of your organization’s future.

Maturity models, sometimes called “maturity assessments,” help to capture the answers to these key questions. Leaders in technology as well as Learning and Development (L&D) can leverage this Cloud and Technology Training Maturity Model to ensure their training program is supporting key business objectives. Plus, leaders can quickly see what can be done to gain more value from their current technology training program.

As you’ll see, world-class technology training programs often see a 70% increase in course completion – which means a 70% improvement in learning spends efficiency, as well.

Please note: While this is not an IT maturity model or cloud maturity model, both IT and Cloud-focused teams can learn how to raise their tech maturity level through effective skill development. Comprehensively trained teams with demonstrated skills see significant benefits. For example, organizations see a 57% greater improvement in IT operations, a 56% greater improvement in customer experience, and are 60% more likely to advance their cloud strategy and cloud adoption through comprehensive training (IDC 2022).

What’s the benefit of maturing your tech training?

As training programs mature, they can deliver more ROI with less effort.

For example, typical e-learning programs see 5-15% completion, while a mature skills readiness program sees 75-85% completion. Maturing your skill development program can reduce wasted training time and “forgotten” learnings by 70%, simply by implementing mature strategies such as hands-on learning and real-time skill insight.

Ultimately, the goal of this Tech Training Maturity Model is to give you a sense of where your organization sits today and how to evolve for the future. Many organizations spend significant time upskilling or reskilling their tech staff – from cloud fundamentals to gaining expertise in AWS, Azure, GCP, and OCI, to mastering data science and AI in cloud applications, just to name a few. This Tech Training Maturity Model shows a smarter way to a smarter team.

If you are interested in using this Tech Training Maturity Model to generate a profile of your organization, simply follow the steps in the sections below. Or request a consultative call to guide you through a curated Tech Training Maturity Assessment and recommended next steps.

Request a Consultation

What are the different levels of tech training maturity?

For simplicity’s sake, your organization’s maturity may be broken down into three main stages or levels: Emerging, Progressive, or World-Class. This section will briefly describe each of these levels and the main areas needed to “level up” to the following stage.

Emerging organizations

Emerging organizations have started their technology training journey. These organizations typically have some sort of training program and/or e-learning training vendor. Staff are provided with a way to access courses and learning needed to stay current and “team ready.” Learning leaders and managers can measure the usage of training content (sometimes called “learning content consumption.”)

Progressive organizations

Progressive organizations take the next step by measuring their skill gaps and assigning targeted training to their staff. These organizations typically have a paid or internal method of estimating their current skill inventory. They have a system in place to onboard staff, train them for key roles, and/or offer certification preparation. Learning leaders and managers can measure both baseline skill levels and training consumption.

World-class organizations

World-class organizations set the gold standard for excellence in technical learning and development. These organizations “go beyond training” to ensure that staff aren’t just trained, but job-ready. Staff learning is curated, customized, and connected to OKRs and real business results. Staff skills and gaps are available in real-time and visible to executives via executive dashboards. And the importance of skill readiness isn’t underestimated: it’s prioritized through time, incentives, and more to keep staff at the top of their game.

Keep in mind that terms like Emerging, Progressive, and World-Class are generalizations. Many organizations are world-class in one area, but progressive or emerging in another area. That’s why the next section breaks out this maturity model into 5 discrete categories.

What is the Tech Training Maturity Model?

The following tech training maturity model identifies 5 key categories for tech training success. For example, the “Uncover Knowledge” category focuses on identifying your team’s current skill sets, and how proficient they are in each key technology. Meanwhile, the “Measure results” category focuses on how your organization measures training progress, skill growth, and training program success.

Key idea:

Improving the maturity of your tech training program will increase the value (or ROI) you gain from training your team.

Mature organizations will gain job-ready skills and key organizational insights to move the needle forward for their business. For examples of how this works, see the “examples of world-class training” at the end of this article.

The diagram below provides a snapshot of the Tech Training Maturity Model. Our Tech Training Maturity Model Assessment is included in the following section, to guide you in the use of this model.

 

How to use the Tech Training Maturity Model?

Ready to level up your technology training initiatives? Follow these three steps to assess your level, align your stakeholders, and progress to your desired maturity level. Then you can leverage this maturity model – and the recommended next steps – to help drive business strategy for your 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year plans.

Step 1: Assess where you are

To generate your current maturity index, use Cloud Academy’s Tech Training Maturity Model Assessment (see below). Based on five responses, this quick assessment will automatically “score” where your organization falls on the maturity map. We recommend that the assessment should be completed both by L&D leaders and applicable technology heads. A workshop is an ideal forum, where attendees respond to comments and questions, and where they can converge on a level that they all agree with. If many parties are involved or you can’t gather in a workshop, conduct one-on-one interviews. Then, consolidate the input based on the most common response.

Download Tech Training Maturity Assessment Scorecard Template
Google Sheets | Microsoft Excel

Step 2: Align stakeholders

It’s not enough to simply assess your current level; that information must be shared with key stakeholders to gain organizational alignment and buy-in. In addition, this provides an opportunity to identify the areas where you may want to increase your maturity, and whether a new tech vendor might require.

Step 3: Make progress

Now that all parties are aligned, it’s time to bridge the gap between where you are and where you would like to be. Consider what additional resources and tools you may need, as well as what strategies you may want to deploy. Is there an opportunity to lead by example, with executives racing frontline staff on cloud practitioner training (or even a Kubernetes certification)? Would it make sense to provide coaching within your reporting structure or outside of it – perhaps tapping into a training vendor’s team of learning coaches? Do you need to optimize or deploy skills readiness solutions within your vendor, to better prioritize learning to your business goals and see measurable results?

Remember – becoming a “world-class” organization is a journey, not a destination. If it feels like the goalpost is always moving, recall that the fast-moving world of technology rewards those who stay ahead of the curve and keep moving forward. And if you need some support staying ahead of the game, talk to your Cloud Academy representative. We’re here to help you achieve skill readiness for all of your departments and business goals.

What are some examples of world-class tech training?

To make this assessment more practical, we’ve sourced some examples of world-class tech training and cloud learning leadership. These are all customers of Cloud Academy, and they each have market-leading maturity in one or more areas. Use these as examples of inspiration for your own leadership and team.

Example 1: A global financial services leader who breadcrumbs learning KPIs to business OKRs

A global leader in financial services is currently undergoing a cloud transformation process where their goal is to migrate all remaining on-prem apps to the cloud. They are also identifying the various roles within their organization that would be needed, the skills related to each role, and the training journey required to upskill existing staff members from their current skill set to their future roles.
The world-class solution? A curated blend of AWS, Cloud Academy, and organization-specific content and instruction to guide the journey toward cloud migration skill readiness. All key steps of this program are measured with KPIs that all tie back to business priorities. For example, a KPI might be “one-time course completion” leading to the outcome of “98% of professionals associated with the apps targeted for migration are proven ‘workload ready’ through upskilling on Cloud Academy.” While the OKR it connects to may be “an effective blueprint to migrate and optimize 2000+ applications in the cloud” which results in “20-30% cost savings.” The board of directors all have a line of sight into this journey through shared analytics and KPIs that are breadcrumbed to business OKRs.

Example 2: A large life insurance company blends curated “graduate programs” with executive transparency that results in impressive growth

AIA, the largest life insurer in Asia, has grown to over 17 million group insurance members and over 40 million individual insurance policies. The public cloud was one way to scale, but they also required a solution to rapidly enable people at scale. In partnership with Cloud Academy, they developed “graduate programs” to upskill employees on 4-step “learning streams” or learning paths. Each of these streams was curated to contain relevant skill-based content for each department, assigned to specific students, and given a due date. A student is considered a graduate when they complete the learning streams. AIA sets goals for the number of graduates each year – and has blown that number out of the water with Cloud Academy.
What really takes AIA’s curated, careful upskilling approach to the world-class level is this: AIA leadership also monitors skills growth of each of the graduates. Through APIs, they pull the “graduate program” information out of Cloud Academy and into executive dashboards. This gives stakeholders full transparency into the status of the graduate program so they can appropriately dial up or dial down training initiatives if needed. The combination of executive buy-in, fully-transparent reports, and curated goal-based learning paths has resulted in impressive skill readiness for AIA to build, maintain, and optimize their organization for the cloud – so they are realizing a cost savings benefit of more than 20% compared to on-prem while positioning themselves for profitable AI/ML projects to enhance recruitment, underwriting, claims, and much more.

Example 3: A provider of the best-in-class banking platform drives engagement and sales success through incentivized certification

Tenemos, the industry-leading banking platform, understands how important it is to keep staff current on the latest technology services and cloud offerings. Both their Services teams and their Pre-Sales/Sales teams use Cloud Academy to gain certifications and practical, real-world experience via labs. Staff with cloud-ready expertise are vital to selling the value of their cloud banking platform: skill readiness means better conversations with Tenemos prospects and increased market share within the banking sector.
A few factors elevate their tech training program to the world-class level. First, and foremost is that executives have engaged learners by speaking to Cloud Academy’s value and adding MBOs tied to learning. In addition, bonuses incentivize staff to gain certifications. In addition, Tenemos adds its own proprietary content to Cloud Academy, creating a custom and curated experience for learners. Altogether, the focus on prioritizing learning is driving increased training adoption – and soon, the expected result of increased business velocity.

Example 4: A global technology consulting firm centers its L&D strategy around employee engagement to “skill at scale” and drive digital transformation

A technology firm and global leader in modernization and process transformation is committed to staying ahead of the changing business and technology landscape. In their own words, “Technology is no longer just a business enabler; it is now core to the business model itself, no matter what industry.” As such, they found Cloud Academy was a partner who was equally committed to continuous learning and the ability to rapidly translate that into business outcomes.
Several factors take their L&D training model to a world-class level. First, they provide customized role development plans for each associate, powered by Cloud Academy’s training programs. Then, they incentive L&D by both providing a skills premium allowance that makes compensation more competitive for those with niche digital skills and also by including training progress as a competent of regular performance reviews. And last, they use Cloud Academy’s analytics to identify top-performing SMEs that can mentor, coach, and lead their peers. This keeps skills (and niche tech skills) on the cutting edge to support their global clients and expand business opportunities.

Level up your Tech Training Maturity with Cloud Academy

In today’s complex world, the pressure to adopt and embrace new technologies and cloud skills will only intensify. A maturity assessment can serve as a great benchmark for organizations to identify where they currently stand, and how far they need to go to advance up the matrix.

Digital modernization requires organizations to continuously acquire new skills and processes. Partnering with Cloud Academy can help you achieve world-class tech training maturity and deliver real business results tied back to your training program. Our built-for-enterprise skills readiness platform equips tech leaders to uncover knowledge, prioritize learning, master skills engage learners, and measure results. It’s the smartest way to a smarter team.

Request a Consultation