Pluralsight Skills is a skill development solution that enables employees to build in-demand skills in a way that’s personalized to their current knowledge and preferred way to learn. The course library includes content on software development, DevOps, machine learning, security infrastructure, and cloud, as well as certification practice exams, hands on learning experiences and cloud labs, and skills assessments.
$29
per month
Vector LMS and Industrial Manufacturing Training
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Vector LMS (replacing the former Convergence LMS) is a learning management system designed specifically for the needs of industrial & manufacturing facilities. It is designed to identify skill and compliance gaps, deliver consistent training, and build a stronger workforce, and is delivered from Convergence Training, a Vector Solutions company (acquired 2018).
Awesome tool for teams looking to gain new skills or refine and update existing skills. I love the convenience of using this tool for recertification credits (i.e. PMP). Instead of identifying which classes I need to take, I can identify my interests and have recommendations presented for what paths I should take. It is a really helpful tool to create ladders for my team to transition from one role into the next. I think this is going to be a really beneficial tool.
A good scenario for this program is when you need to roll out more customized and specific content that is targeted to a specific department or group. Each leader or department can create their own content that makes it easy for their own employees to complete and finish it at their own pace and on their own hours. It is not that great for leaders or administrators that want to create and upload custom content, this process is not easy and takes more time than it should.
Pluralsight has hundreds of authors that are constantly producing new content, which is valuable for the tech industry that is constantly moving at a brisk pace.
Many content authors are respected leaders in the topic they're presenting. You are able to trust that their content is thorough and authentic.
Niche expert-level topics are presented in a curated video format which is difficult to find anywhere else.
The user interface and command are fairly self-guiding and self-explanatory. It's not that difficult to know or figure out where to go next or what to click next.
The lesson progression and tracker are clear as well. You know easily where you are in a module, how much is left, etc. It also is easy for managers and those on the backend to track progress and see completion.
It reaches all employees virtually which is crucial since we are fully remote now and have employees in all time zones across the country.
Companies don't change technologies in their products often. For example a product that was built on AngularJS is still viable and the company may have no plans to upgrade it. Pluralsight could do a better job of providing new courses on technology that's still useful, though somewhat dated; like AngularJS for example.
Pluralsight has a bad habit of throwing all their courses in a large bucket. For example, when I log-in and look to see what new I often have to wade through courses on tools that a web artist or designer would use. I wish Pluralsight would categorize course and let us (their customers) flag what types of videos we wanted to see, or better yet exclude from our view.
Years ago, Pluralsight would let its customer download the courseware and that was great. I was disappointed when they stopped this feature.
I'd love to see more course where the goal is to build a particular type of software. For example, lets have one where you build a blog using ASP.NET and deploy it to Azure. Let have one where you build a survey application, etc. Learning technologies is great, but I'd love to see courses where the goal is to build a particular type of application.
Customizing the [Vector] LMS content can be difficult sometimes on the backend, it is not intuitive and our [Vector] LMS administrators have to get involved every time - even for simple customizations.
Improving the experience on the backend when loading or curating content needs improvement. Once it's uploaded it's fine, but getting to that point is cumbersome.
Platform stability is questionable at times in terms of timing out, glitches, having to restart modules, etc. This should be looked into and made more stable.
Before using Pluralsight, staff was using YouTube to help them with developing certain aspects of their knowledge. However, YouTube is much less structured/organized than Pluralsight. Pluralsight has a very wide offering of courses and it has lot of good content. One quick search and we can get started.
I was not involved in the selection process for [Vector] LMS; however, from my experiences with other platforms, this one seems to be solid. It's not perfect as no platform is, but it seems to get the job done especially for those on the user end. As mentioned, if you want to upload custom content it can be a task that requires more time and effort than it should.
One positive impact is it has kept our employees engaged in the material they work with every day. Instead of becoming stagnant and complacent, they are actively searching out ways to develop skills and do more with the tools available to them.
It saves money when it comes to offering training and development opportunities company-wide. It would be much more costly to invest in specialized training for that number of employees.
One potential negative is the amount of company time spent on coursework over work responsibilities. A balance must be struck and individuals should be encouraged to explore the training on their own time.
I cannot speak to the cost of the platform as I wasn't involved in the process, but it seems to be a good investment. Most features are logical and easy to use unless you're on the backend.
The negative impact is most felt by leaders that want custom content to be created or uploaded. This is not a quick turnaround and can cause delays or issues.
The positive impact is it allows people to complete it at their own pace and can be reached by all employees. Especially in the virtual environment, it is really useful.
