Why we exist
L&D is here to guide team members on their career journey by maintaining a culture of learning and development so that GitLab is a great place to work. We ensure team members can do their jobs so that GitLab can achieve results that make our customers and people happy.
Where are we going
A future where GitLab is best in class organization for remote learning & development, recognized by industry leaders. A future where everyone contributes to a culture of curiosity driven by team members.
What we do
We equip & empower individual contributors and people leaders to access self-service learning that role models a culture of development. We do this by:
Performance indicators
Meaningful and relevant content. We deliver learning solutions that drive team member's development and growth to reach professional goals.
Values aligned. Our learning solutions reinforce GitLab’s values, and foster continuous learning and curiosity.
Diverse approaches to learning. We apply a blended learning model for learning solutions that adapt to various learning needs.
Community. We make our L&D offerings available to the public, aligned to our mission that everyone can contribute.
Learn more about our FY22 Roadmap and curriculum.
All material in the handbook is considered training. The Learning & Development team pulls content from the handbook to build handbook first learning content. One of L&D's primary responsibilities is to ensure that content lives in the appropriate section in the handbook. In the below video, Sid, explains how the content of courses is not separated from the handbook to the L&D team.
We are a small team, but we've got a big role to play at GitLab!
Slack: #learninganddevelopment
Email Us: learning@gitlab.com
Request support/Collaborate on new learning content
Please take 5 minutes for a survey to tell us how do you prefer to learn!
You can view the Learning & Development calendar, as well as other people group team calendars on the People Group Page.
The L&D team hosts and organizes learning initiatives to engage the GitLab team in opportunities to learn. The team is consistently iterating on and adding to these resources!
Team members can take advantage of up to $10,000 USD per calendar year for Growth & Development opportunities. This amount can be used for professional development, certifications, workshops, coaching, language courses, and much more!
Everyone's career development is different, but we have outlined what it can look like at GitLab. Career development also includes our GitLab coaching framework to support managers in holding coaching discussions with their team.
GitLab has a growing resource to enable all team members transitioning to a manager role. It contains a link to a checklist, readings, and a form to help learning and development customize your development as a manager.
The Manager Challenge is one of the first steps to building out a comprehensive manager enablement curriculum for People Leaders. We use daily challenges and the GitLab tool to facilitate async learning in a remote environment. We encourage new and tenured managers to sign up for an upcoming program to develop their ability to lead remote teams while learning from others in a collaborative setting.
Take advantage of LinkedIn Learning, an online educational platform that team members have access too to help develop skills through expert-led course videos.
We are currently in the process of implementing GitLab Learn, our EdCast Learning Experience Platform (LXP). The LXP launched internally for GitLab team members on 2021-01-11 This system is more than just a Learning Management System, it is a platform to help deliver engaging learning tailored to you and your role. It can direct to handbook pages, make recommendations for learning based on previous consumption, and serve interactive learning content.
We are also in the process of launching LinkedIn Learning internally for all team members. Stay tuned for more details and the content will be supplemental to GitLab customized content and apply a Handbook-first approach to interactive learning.
Mentor relationships are an opportunity for individuals to learn from someone's personal experience, background, and perpsective.
GitLab has several compliance courses and resources. Explore the Compliance Courses page to learn more.
We are always working to create more learning content for our team members. If you have a learning request that you would like the Learning & Development team to develop in partnership with your team, please fill out a learning-and-development-request issue template in our issue tracker. Our team will review and set the priority for your request based on the scale and impact across the organization. Learning items that will be applied and used across the company will take priority.
If you have developed the learning content and would like the Learning & Development team to review, fill out a learning-and-development-review issue template in our issue tracker.
Our team will review and set the priority for your content request or review based on the scale and impact across the organization. Learning items that will be applied and used across the company will take priority.
To request support from the L&D, please see the process for how to work with us
The L&D team uses GitLab issue boards to track priorities, organize collaboration, and set due dates based on three-week sprints.
open list is a queue for issues that need to be addressed, but have not yet been assigned to a sprint, backlog, or priority.ld-backlog or ld-fyxx-q1-priority list. This will determine if the issue is a priority for the current quarter, or a backlog issue to be addresses as time allows.L&D Sprint # (Date Range)ld-backlog or ld-fyxx-q1-priority list to the correct sprint when they are ready to be assigned/addressed.L&D Requests list should be used to organize requests for L&D support or courses coming from other teams.manager-challenge list holds issues related to each Manager Challenge and can be hidden on the sprint board.advanced-software-engineering-course list houses issues related to external software engineer courses can can be hidden on the sprint board.Additional planning and notes around the sprint board can be found in this issue.
/estimate command to set an estimate for the project to be complete. After each working session, use the/spend command to track actual time spent.new-initiative issue template when planning a new learning initiative, engagement program, or program ideacontent-scoping issue template when proposing a new pathway, creating a new course, or building any new learning experienceIf you are developing content to meet your learning needs or partnering with the L&D team, here are five key principles to consider when formulating a learning session:
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.
Define Learning Objectives - Highlight the learner outcome. Consider developing two to three broad overall statements of what the audience will achieve.
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.
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. Ask the L&D team for more insight on learning engagement tools. There is a lot you can leverage!
Implement Blended Learning Course Content - Give the audience some 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 with the audience following the session to gauge how they've applied what they've learned on the job through surveys and questionnaires.
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:
Transformative learning: The learning experience should aim to 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.
Self-directed learning: Most of the learning that adults do is outside the context of formal training, so there should be an emphasis on augmenting those 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.
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.
Andragogy: Recognize that adults learn differently than children. 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, tend to learn better by doing, and will want to apply their learning to concrete situations as soon as possible.
If you are developing training, add learning objectives to the beginning of the content to state a clear training outcome. A clear learning objective describes what the learner will do upon completion of a learning/training activity. Good learning objectives are what you want team members to learn or achieve.
Steps to creating learning objectives:
Sample learning objectives:
The L&D team uses a formula to describe the optimal sources of learning at GitLab. It shows that team members obtain 70 percent of the knowledge from job-related experiences, 20 percent from interactions with others, and 10 percent from formal learning events. The model is intended to show that hands-on experience (70 percent) can be one of the most beneficial for team members because it enables them to discover and refine their job-related skills. Team members learn from others (20 percent) through a variety of activities we offer every week. Lastly, the formula holds that only 10 percent of professional development comes from traditional live learning and eLearning events.
The Learning & Development, Field Enablement, and Professional Services team hosted an Instructional Design 101 session on 2020-10-28 to better understand concepts of adult learning theory and instructional design. Check out the video to learn how to apply instructional design to learning content.
### Learning Components - Definitions
| Term | Definition | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Training | The action of teaching a team member a particular skill or behavior | Varies |
| Bite-sized learning | A short course to learn a skill. Bite-sized can be a compentent of training or a separate learning element (i.e. a video, a PDF cheat-sheet, an infographic) | Max 15 minutes, 5 to 10 minute average |
| Self-paced course | Learner has the control over the amount of material they want to consume and the duration of time needed to learn the new information. | Pre-defined by the designer (i.e. hours, days, etc.) |
| Curriculum | A series of learning paths that comprise a course of study on a skill-based topic | Varies |
| Certification | See definition on the certification page | Varies |
| Learning Path | A chosen route taken by a learner through a range of learning activities to build knowledge progressivley | Varies |
This terminology is distinct from our Learning Experience Platform, GitLab Learn, which has it's own glossary of terms.
| Term | Definition | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Instructor-Led Training (ILT) | Practice of training and learning material between an instructor and learners. Face-to-face training (classroom training) | Varies |
| Virtual Instructor-Led Training (VILT) | Training that is delivered in a virtual enviornment (i.e. training in Zoom) | 1 to 3 hours |
| E-Learning | Learning based on traditional learning theories which takes place electronically, often via the Internet. | Varies |
| Blended Learning | Training that uses multiple methods to teach the new information to learners. It can includ ILTs, self-paced materials, VILT sessions, etc. | Varies |
| Webinar | A seminar conducted virtually to a large audience | 3+ hours |
| Workshop | Hands-on or virtual demos, problem solving, tutorials where team members engage in discussion and activity on a particular subject | Varies |