Hi Emma, great question. I know from my auditing time this year with my clients most have logged fewer training hours this year than in previous years. There was some training that was delayed or cancelled as a result of the pandemic. Recently, I have seen a significant shift toward online or virtual training. Some companies have opted for hybrid training programs, online when they can and classroom training when can. There are many choices when it comes to training in a COVID-19 world, I look forward to other responses from other members.

We now complete a majority of our training virtually, when we can.
My company invested time & money by providing the Teams platform and headsets for all associates in manufacturing.
The support staff were already using Teams, so this was an easy transition for that group.
For hands on training, we are running these with multiple sessions and smaller groups. The hands on training sessions do not exceed a 30 minute window.
So far, this is going well for us.

I would like to ask what technology people are using to host virtual audits? We are using a surface book with a detachable monitor to "carry" the auditor through the facility, however we are not happy with the equipment performance. Does anyone have any recommendations in terms of surface books, laptops, etc...?

Thank you~

As a trainer I can tell you that some customers halted completely their external training program. On the other hand, others migrated to a virtual external training program. Mainly based in video conferencing platforms (Google Meet, Teams, Zoom).

The training time was reduced. 4 o 8 h programs were cut down into 2 h. So mainly they became more like conferences on different topics.

Also larger training programs have been change to multiple 2h sessions on different days.

In many cases, due to the overload of the internet network the sessions are performed with cameras shutdown. Most interaction is via chat and audio participation.