Today’s business environment is complex and ever-changing. Challenging business problems require technical expertise to create cost-effective & sustainable solutions. Almost all industries need technical skills to accomplish complex actions, processes, and tasks relating to computational and physical technology and a diverse group of other enterprises. Advanced technical skills require specific education, certification, or training, often with practical hands-on learning.

Technical education was pushed to the side for years, replaced with skills often obtained from more prominent colleges. Now the times have changed, and finding employees with technical skills is getting more difficult.

As job markets continue to become more competitive, today’s career candidates must learn to work harder to separate themselves from candidates competing for the same jobs. Acquiring relevant technical skills is quite possibly the most effective way to accomplish this goal and earn you the meaningful, long-term career you deserve.

Naturally, this means continually investing in yourself to ensure you have the right skill set to keep you on top of critical job duties. You can take courses in your spare time that will help you improve your job as you work to qualify for promotions and other career advancements. The opportunities are virtually endless regarding maintaining technical skills in the workplace. You’ll need to dedicate sufficient time to learning and re-learning technical strategies as they evolve. D&L Education Solutions offers one of the market’s most innovative technical skills certification solutions. They are a national technical workforce development company passionate about helping organizations train and retain exceptional employees and frontline workers through innovative instructional training programs.

They combine immersive learning techniques, world-class training, and focused expertise to help businesses engage learners and improve performance through various delivery formats, new technologies, and innovative approaches.

The following excerpts are from a conversation with Mark DeHart, CEO of D&L Educations Solutions

Q. How is D&L Education Solutions an asset to companies in terms of retaining employees?

The key to most customer-faced businesses is the employee. Just like investing in our future, D&L understands the need for companies to invest in their employee’s future. Not only does this increase the bottom line, but it also creates more satisfied and productive employees. We design customized training programs to fit the company and employee needs and increase productivity.

Q. What does innovation mean to you?

In today’s ever-changing business environment, innovation is the key to staying on top of the respective service area. We feel that innovation and creativity go hand-in-hand, from taking an idea and developing an implementation plan to creating a situation where the employees can be successful. Through training, the employees will have a more educated pathway to assist the company in turning the idea into reality.

Describe a time when you helped to inspire innovation or creativity in others.

A company that had a specific need approached us. They saw a lot of warranty claims on a particular part of their product. We were called in to complete an analysis of the product and working conditions. We developed a training solution to combat the problem and thus helped the company redesign their training program to be more productive and increase the employee knowledge in this particular case. In this situation, we watched the quality of training increase and the repair times decline, resulting in less downtime for the dealers and happier customers. And we all know what happier customers mean.

Q. How have you used innovation to overcome workplace challenges?

COVID-19 created challenges for companies nationwide as the old “desk and row” training method was no longer possible. This presented a challenge for D&L and created a situation where we had to be innovative. 

We started redesigning our training material into a sort of “flipped classroom” model. We took our hands-on training online with the aid of programs that enabled students to “use their hands” to complete the tasks. An example would be virtual reality (VR); D&L assisted with designing a VR program for the transportation industry, where students learned to complete industry-standard tasks through the oculus rift headsets and well-designed programs.

Shed light on your training programs and whether they are being beneficial.

Our training programs are unique to the customer. No “one size fits all” training solution exists because each company and situation is unique.

The first step in our development is to spend time with the company and get to know them. Moving forward, D&L and the company will develop goals or objectives for the situation— from a simple training course to an entire training department redesign. Once the parameters are set, we can create a customized training solution that increases employee knowledge and puts the company in a more competitive position.

Q. What are some of the biggest challenges facing technical training today?

Desks in rows and the “death by PowerPoint” mentality are not productive in today’s training model. We have to flip the old way of teaching on its head and create a classroom where people are excited to learn. Active learning is critical to training adults in a work environment. The more active the students are, the more they comprehend the concepts. In most cases, active learning produces better results.

Q. How are you proving to be the best by reviving a great culture in a company?

When we are called to design a training solution or redesign a training department, we get to know the company and the trainers. Evaluating the trainers is a critical piece of developing training. Understanding the team member’s strengths and weaknesses helps to organize the training to get the best results.

Helping businesses invest in their employees, increase profits, and be better prepared for the future.

Mark DeHart is the CEO of D&L Education Solutions. From a high school dropout to a military veteran to a college professor, Mark has thirteen years of teaching and curriculum design and development experience.

Mark successfully uses adaptive development and teaching strategies to deliver hands-on content in a digital environment. Ranked by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top 10 Inspiring Education Entrepreneur to watch in 2022, Mark and his team develop and deliver training content for schools and industry nationwide. With a passion for educating, Mark is dedicated to student success in and out of the classroom.

Meet the CPO

John Lee is the Co-Founder of D&L and is an ASE Master Technician in Diesel. He travels the world training career technical education topics for various industries. With a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Science in Technical Education, John has been developing industry related curriculum 15 years.