Talent Development

Overview

Purpose

Why we exist: GitLab Talent Development (commonly referred to as “Learning & Development”) exists to enhance team member performance, expand capabilities, and further develop skills that make GitLab team members the top talent in the industry. We strive to foster a culture of continous growth so that GitLab remains a great place to work. Positive impact on team member experience leads to a positive impact on results, which leads to a positive impact on GitLab customers.

Vision

Where are we going: GitLab seeks to be recognized as a top organization for remote learning & development. We aim for a future where everyone contributes to a culture of curiosity.

Mission

What we do: We empower individual contributors and equip leaders through self-service learning. We accomplish a culture of development by:

• Focusing on skill-based learning
• Providing resources to improve career mobility
• Developing learning journeys for teams throughout the organization

Principles

1. Meaningful and relevant content. We deliver learning solutions that help you reach your professional goals.
2. Values aligned. Our learning solutions reinforce GitLab’s values and foster continuous learning and curiosity.
3. Diverse approaches to learning. We apply a blended learning model to find solutions to various individual needs.
4. Community. L&D offerings available to the public so that everyone can contribute.

Learning & Development Team

We are a small team, but we’ve got a big role to play at GitLab!

• Learning and Development Director: Tre Ely
• Senior Learning and Development Program Manager: Jamie Allen
• Senior Learning and Development Program Manager: Lauren Cairns
• Senior Learning and Development Program Manager: MQ Gillespie
• Senior Manager, Talent Management: Sylvia Mahlebjian

Team Member Resources

The Learning & Development team has a number of resources to help team members learn new skills. Click the button(s) below to learn more about each one:

Contact Us

1. Slack: #learninganddevelopment
2. Email Us: learning@gitlab.com

Work With Us

Available Learning and Development Support

The Learning and Development team is available to support GitLab teams in the following capacities. Requests will be evaluated as they come in based on team’s capacity for support, business impact, correlation to company OKRs, and number of impacted users.

We review and classify requests based on the scalability and possible organizational impact. Learning solutions that can be applied and used company-wide take priority. Our process includes:

• Evaluate the strategic impact of the learning session
• Determine the level of work associated with the learning requirement
• Assess the impacted audience groups of the session
• Identify measures of success
• Assess dates of delivery with the course schedule and forecast a future date

We’re formalizing a more structured process to engage with the team going forward, but for now please get started by opening an issue the lxp-contributions project and tagging a member of the L&D team to review. If you have any questions, you can always reach out to us in Slack via #learninganddevelopment.

How we work

GitLab Product Training

For in depth GitLab product training, check out the Get Started with GitLab resources on GitLab University, and take a look at the various certifications available, which are freely accessibly for GitLab Team Members. The Talent Development team do not create learning content for product training. If you have any queries or requests for product training, please get in touch with the digital success team in the #digital-success Slack channel

Tools

The L&D team frequently uses the following tools for creating and communicating learning opportunities at GitLab.

Rise 360

Rise 360 is an excellent tool for creating engaging, interactive elearning content that integrates seamlessly with our new LevelUp learning system. While LevelUp offers many great features, its interactive content authoring options can be somewhat limited, making Rise 360 a valuable complement for developing more dynamic and visually appealing courses. We maintain a small number of Rise 360 licenses that can be easily redistributed to team members based on project needs. If you’re interested in creating a Rise course and would like access to our licenses, please reach out in #learninganddevelopment where our team can support your course development needs and help you get started.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.

Developing Learning Content

If you’re looking to develop your own e-learning content, there are a number of things to think about in order to maximize it’s effectiveness.

Learning Content Accessibility Guidelines

In July 2024, GitLab published the first iteration of our Learning Content Accessibility Guidelines.

We ask that team members who create both internal and external learning content:

• Familiarize themselves with these guidelines
• Apply these guidelines when creating learning content for internal and external use, when applicable
• Revisit existing learning content you have created, to consider whether any updates are appropriate

Training Content Development Principles

1. Know Your Audience - Analyze and assess the course audience. Ensure that all audience needs are accounted for at every level in the organization you are delivering the training too.
2. Define Learning Objectives - Highlight the learner outcome. Consider developing two to three broad overall statements of what the audience will achieve.
3. Break Down Complex Information - Consider breaking down complex information into easy to digest visuals or text. Reference the handbook but do not be afraid to create a visual representation or use storytelling for the audience.
4. Engage the Learner - Adults learn through practice and involvement. Consider using tools to engage learners in a virtual setting like Mentimeter or Kahoot to stimulate interactivity.
5. Implement Blended Learning Course Content - Give the learners pre-course work to read and review before the learning session. Use off-the-shelf resources and ensure the content is applicable to what will be covered in the session. Follow up to gauge how they’ve applied what they’ve learned on the job through surveys and questionnaires.

Application of Adult Learning Theory

Adults learn differently in the workplace than in traditional learning environments or how they learned growing up. If you are developing training, consider applying principles related to Adult Learning Theories, those include:

1. Transformative learning: Learning should change the individual through transformative learning approaches. Start with learning experiences that appeal to your specific audience, and then move to activities that challenge assumptions and points of view.
2. Self-directed learning: Emphasize informal learning experiences. Infuse applications of pre-reads and post-course follow up. Have the participants bring up examples of self-directed learning that they have taken that is related to the training course.
3. Experiential learning: Adults learn through experiences and by doing. When designing a learning experience, apply activities to stimulate learning by doing through role-playing, simulations, virtual labs, case studies, etc.
4. Andragogy: Design learning experiences with the assumption that your participants will come to the table with their own set of life experiences and motivations. Adults tend to direct their own learning, learn better by doing, and want to quickly apply their learning to concrete situations.

Learning Delivery Methods - Definitions

Leveraging Content Partner Resources

GitLab provides access to premium content from leading industry partners to support diverse learning objectives across all teams.

Through Masterclass, team members can access world-class instruction from renowned experts across business, leadership, creative, and technical disciplines.

For technical teams, Google Cloud Skills Boost offers hands-on labs and courses to build cloud computing expertise and earn Google Cloud certifications.

O’Reilly provides an extensive library of technical books, videos, and interactive learning resources covering programming, data science, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies.

Additionally, LevelUp houses an extensive, searchable library of content from various providers, making it easy to find relevant courses, tutorials, and resources tailored to specific skills and professional development goals. When planning your learning path, explore these curated content options first—they’re already vetted, high-quality, and immediately accessible to support your growth objectives.

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