Flexible Learning

Toyota New Zealand has partnered with Udemy for Business to offer more than 4,000 online courses to permanent staff. Udemy is a leading global online learning and instruction tool providing high-quality instruction.

Udemy is designed to teach new skills with maximum flexibility and convenience. TNZ staff have unlimited access to its highest-rated courses, which cover a variety of topics.

Vocational courses range from data science and cloud computing to human resources and stress management. There are also many leisure choices available to view in one’s spare time, for example, to develop or improve language learning, drawing and painting, or playing an instrument.

The roll-out was originally planned for later in the year, but it was brought forward to allow staff to take advantage of the opportunities to progress their professional development during the COVID-19 lockdown in March.

On completion of a course, the participant can rate it with up to five stars, which helps ensure the content offered continues to remain useful and relevant to other users. Udemy can be utilised in the following ways:

• Independent learning: individuals take charge of their personal learning by choosing courses that interest them or by following a series of courses in a general ‘learning pathway’. For example, managers can select from new manager essentials, established manager or mastering management. New staff can work through onboarding: diversity and inclusion pathway
• Manager-assigned learning: a manager can assign a course or a learning pathway to a specific individual or an entire team, as part of their development plan, such as a corporate account management refresher

TNZ’s People Development team works alongside managers to create bespoke learning packages for their departments, recommending relevant courses of a similar theme to a number of individuals.