Our first GCC Learning & Development experience was when we delivered open training days in Dubai in 2011.  These training events were in soft skills to public and private sector organisations, specialising in attitude and mindset.  If we are honest, we were no different to any other training company in the region and this drove us to develop something new.  We wanted to be recognised for making a difference.

We knew that, for real impact to be made, we needed to refine our learning & development model.  The merger between Spark Global Business in the UK and Spark Najah in Lebanon was the perfect opportunity for us to review our working practices and to build new solutions for a growing client base.

We prepared for the launch of Eskil Middle East Learning & Development in 2016 by speaking with clients, associates and partners as well as carrying out competitive analysis.

What was missing from GCC Learning & Development?

When we took a look at the market, it felt as is there were areas for improvement with training in GCC.

First is training itself.  Many participants and suppliers considered a workshop to be the end-result – that the workshop itself was the ultimate goal.  In 2014, we surveyed 3,600 people who had attended different workshops and short courses around the world, and 36% of the people who replied said that they had attended workshops as they had been told to go by bosses but the workshop had no relevance to their job.

In fact, of this 36%, more than half of them felt that training was a punishment rather than an investment.

Within the survey, over 60% of the people responding were either in the boardroom (CEO, Director) or Senior Management.

Of these c. 2,000 people, 73% of them wanted to attend courses where only other board-level people were attending too.

In addition to this, 48% of the boardroom respondents admitted that they would agree to attend a workshop and then, at the last minute, send a subordinate (in most cases, the subordinate found very little value in the course as it was not entirely relevant to their position).

In 2016, we ran a similar survey but, this time, we had one dedicated to the GCC region.  Through our LinkedIn networks, as well as social media streams of Twitter, Facebook and Google, we issued a survey to 3,958 business professionals.

2016 Survey Statistics

• 44% of the respondents were in the boardroom
• 23% of the respondents classed themselves as ‘senior management’
• 83% of the respondents had worked mainly in the private sector in 2015 / 16
• 79% of the respondents who had attended workshops or courses in 2015 / 16 rated the experience from ‘very poor’ to ‘fair’ with the majority (61%) of them stating that they used very little of the knowledge from the sessions
• When asked the question, “do you feel that this is the right time to introduce a different type of learning & development experience to GCC?”, over 90% of respondents stated either ‘yes’ or ‘absolutely’ whilst 10% stated ‘not sure’ (no respondent stated ‘no’ or ‘definitely not’)
• Specific to people in the boardroom or senior management, we asked, “would you be more likely to attend short courses where only board members or senior managers attended?”.  92% said yes.

So what can you expect from us, that you wouldn’t get from other organisations?

Our GCC Learning & Development programmes include:

• Local & International Facilitators
• Bi-lingual delivery (Arabic, English, French, German, Spanish)
• Serious Play, Serious Games, Business Games
• Scalable Learning from 1:1 through to Academies
• Building training that suits the capability of your people and the strategy of your organisation
• Use of psychology, communications, and behavioural learning modules

Your GCC Learning & Development

The six principles of an Eskil workshop

Eskil Middle East Learning & Development bases all of its workshops around a set of guiding principles as set out by the International Association of Facilitators.