Always a good day when we’re on our way to the UK.
This October, we’re heading to Birmingham for World of Learning, two days dedicated to learning, development, skills and the technology that supports them.
Taking place at the NEC on 6–7 October, World of Learning brings the L&D community together to talk about how people actually learn, develop and perform at work. And for us, there’s an obvious question sitting underneath a lot of those conversations:
How do you know whether someone can actually do what they’ve learned?
That’s where assessment comes in.
From learning to proving it
Finishing a training course is one thing. Knowing whether someone has actually understood it, and can use what they’ve learned, is another.
That’s where assessment comes in. It gives organisations a much clearer picture of what people know, where the gaps are and whether they’re ready to put that knowledge into practice.
At World of Learning, we’ll be showing how Cirrus can support everything from simple knowledge checks to more practical, skills-based assessments.
We’re also planning to get away from the stand ourselves when we can. We’ve had a look through the seminar programme and picked out a few sessions we’d particularly like to catch.
What we’re watching on Day 1
Forget the framework. Fix the problem.
Tuesday 6 October, 10:45–11:15 – Seminar Theatre 2
Phill Lord-David and Justin Chave are tackling something we can get behind: focusing less on frameworks for their own sake and more on the actual performance problem you’re trying to solve. This is especially relevant when assessment comes into the picture. Before deciding what or how to assess, you need to understand what competence actually looks like and what evidence would prove it’s there.
The learning canvas: Build a strategy that actually works
Tuesday 6 October, 13:30–14:00 – Theatre 4
Nelson Sivalingam’s hands-on session looks at turning big learning ambitions into something practical, measurable and connected to real business challenges. The word measurable obviously caught our attention.
If learning is meant to improve performance or change behaviour, organisations need a way of knowing whether that’s actually happened. We’d argue assessment deserves a place on that canvas.
And on Day 2…
Build a business case for L&D buy-in
Wednesday 7 October, 12:15–12:45 – Theatre 4
Getting people excited about learning is one thing. Getting the business to invest in it is another.
This session looks at how L&D teams can connect learning initiatives to genuine business challenges and make a stronger case to decision-makers.
Being able to demonstrate outcomes makes that case considerably easier. Completion tells you someone finished something. Assessment can tell you what they actually learned from it.
Fireside chat with Alex Brooker
Wednesday 7 October, 14:15–15:00 – Main Stage, Seminar Theatre 1
And then there’s Alex Brooker.
The presenter and former sports journalist, probably best known from Channel 4’s The Last Leg, will be joining Helen Marshall for a live fireside chat. We don’t have an assessment-related excuse for this one. We just want to see it ;)
Come and talk assessment with us
World of Learning covers a huge amount of ground, which is exactly why we’re looking forward to it.
Learning technology is evolving. Expectations around accessibility are changing. Organisations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate that training works, skills are genuinely being developed and people are ready to perform when it matters.
Assessment has a role in all of that.
So if you’re thinking about how you measure learning, demonstrate competence, make assessments more accessible or simply move beyond the obligatory end-of-course quiz, come and find us in Birmingham.
We’ll happily show you what Cirrus can do, talk through what you’re trying to achieve, or swap notes on the sessions worth seeing.
And, as usual, there’s a decent chance we’ll have stroopwafels.
See you at the NEC, 6–7 October, Booth G180
