Data visualization

Before 2018, the main emphasis of the Centre used to be on individual-level capacity development with focus on face-to-face training. The 2018-21 strategy framework set the stage for the diversification of the service portfolio to better harness digital learning and collaboration technology and applications, in response to the ILO’s renewed focus on institutional capacity development.

During the 2018-19 biennium, the Centre expanded its distance-learning outreach and developed a suite of advisory services to complement its training activities. The Centre also invested heavily in learning innovation, introduced digital credentials relying on block chain technology, piloted Augmented and Virtual Reality (AVR) applications and launched new training products on future foresight techniques, big data mining, and artificial intelligence.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pace of transformation of the Centre’s service portfolio accelerated in 2020, characterized by a shift in emphasis from face-to-face training to online learning, a stronger focus on institutional-level and system-level capacity development services and the rollout of AVR technologies. 

The 2020-21 outreach figures show that with the new portfolio structure, the Centre can reach more than 50,000 learners per year with training – twice the number achieved before the 2020 crisis.

Digital technology facilitates the delivery of online learning activities in partnership with national and regional training institutions, combining global and local expertise and making it accessible at low cost to participants.

By way of blending online learning and face-to-face training, the Centre empowers participants to embark on multi-step learning journeys better synchronized with their own work schedules, easily spread across calendar years and with stackable credentials that might lead to executive education certificates.

In 2022, the outreach of the Centre has not been limited to participants in learning activities but also expanded to other groups of beneficiaries from the ILO constituency.

In the first nine months of the 2022-23 biennium, the Centre has continued diversifying its portfolio of capacity development activities, blending face-to-face training and online learning, and complementing it with non–training services for organizations representing the ILO core constituency constituents.

As of 20th September, the Centre was well on track to achieve or over-achieve its outreach targets for training participants and beneficiaries of related non-training capacity development services. Notably, the Centre has rebuilt its face-to-face training activities as per P&B targets while continuing to expand fast its universe of online learners on the back of digital technology.