Edtech has become a pervasive element in the fields of learning, education, professional development, work or any place where there’s a need to know and learn more. In the wake of the pandemic, we learned new ways to make things happen, and the hybrid and remote models in many fields have benefitted the masses. Hybrid and remote work models are redefining conventional work environments. The dynamic nature of work today and the era of technology disruption requires effective upskilling, reskilling and training programs in place.
A classic example comes from Skill Lync, which offers advanced engineering courses relevant to engineering students and partners with industry experts to create an employable workforce. A recent post explains how Skill-Lync partnered with 50 corporates, including top shots like Nissan, TATA Elxi, Cyient, Renault-Nissan Technology Business Center India (RNTBCI) and more, to meet the increased demand for a skilled workforce and specialised staff. The company also announced that it could offer jobs to over 1000 engineering students in civil, computer science, mechanical and electronics. Partnered Companies like Cyient & RNTBCI also took upskilling programs for their existing employee base in the domains of Electric Vehicles, Autonomous Vehicles, and Embedded Systems.
Financial Express mentions Great Learning partnering with BFSI organisations for enterprises to upskill their workforce. Partnered BFSI organisations include the Reserve Bank of India, Bajaj Finance, Bank of America, and Societe Generale. The Great Learning for Business programs includes experiential-based learning methodologies such as industry case studies, virtual labs, capstone projects, role-plays, simulations, and more, delivered through blended teaching formats including classroom, online, simulations, and asynchronous videos.
Ritesh Malhotra, Head of Great Learning for Business, said, “Through Financial Services Academy, we aim to empower multiple BFSI companies by creating custom learning outcomes and journeys for their employees based on their business goals. This will enable them to adopt digital technologies into their traditional methods and yield better business outcomes.”
Other influential examples of upskilling and reskilling programs come from corporate giants Accenture and Amazon. Accenture CEO Julie Sweet mentions that the company invested nearly $1 billion in 2021 on millions of hours of training to reskill its workforce. The company’s Connected Learning Platform blends classroom and digital learning opportunities with content from internal and external subject matter experts.
“Our people learn best by connecting, collaborating, and practising for the scenarios they will encounter in their work with our clients,” says Ellyn Shook, chief leadership and human resources officer for Accenture. “From basic skills to industry-specific content, learning is available to all our people anywhere, anytime – and, in many cases, no selection or approval is involved. Simply tap the app and start learning.”
Another interesting upskilling program is Amazon’s Upskilling 2025 Initiative which includes apprenticeships. “We think it’s important to invest in our employees to help them gain new skills and create more professional options for themselves,” says Beth Galetti, senior VP of People Experience and Technology at Amazon. Among many opportunities offered through this initiative is the Mechatronics and Robotics Apprenticeship Program. It is a two-phase program where employees attend classes and receive on-the-job training. Employees are poised to earn more money and secure better career opportunities after completing the program.
TimesPro has collaborated with International Management Institute to launch several executive education programmes for working professionals to upskill and build competencies to stay up-to-date with the changing industry dynamics. The company announced its 11-month Executive Certificate Programme in Business Management to equip professionals with new-age skills and develop capabilities to address emerging challenges of the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world. Another partnership by TimesPro is with IFAN Global, a healthcare recruitment company and Jobizo, a technology-based startup, to provide new-age skill sets and placements to nurses in the United Kingdom across the National Health Service (NHS) Hospitals to utilise them on a global stage.
Pune-based Vani.coach, which helps enterprises enhance their employees’ “communication fitness”, has big names like Lupin Ltd, Larsen and Toubro, Asian Paints, Reckitt and Cipla among their client portfolio has shown immense growth through their communication coaching. Sharing the impact of communication coaching from Vani.coach, Harpreet Pannu, Director & Head, Sales & Marketing, Cipla, says, “With personalised cohort-based learning, we saw 18% enhancement in our customer face time and a 48% shift in learning scores. We moved 17% of our people from the high effort, low performance to the high effort, high performance.”
Emeritus is another popular name for providing upskilling programs. Their online employee training programs for teams guide learners through cohort-based learning pathways built in partnership with the world’s top academic institutions that help businesses navigate change from the inside out. Its training model is built on content developed with Emeritus’ university partners by providing wraparound services so that companies deliver the most impactful learning opportunities to their workforce. We recommend that you scan through the various training programs emeritus offers across various domains like leadership, digital marketing, data and analytics, coding, sales & marketing, finance and more here.
It seems that upskilling providers are helping corporates provide skilling and learning opportunities to their workforce. Partnering with edtechs seems the way to go for corporates looking to make way for upskilling opportunities for their employees. Let’s look at some benefits, key reasons and features you should consider while partnering with an edtech.
Benefits of Partnering With an Edtech
Cost & Time Effective
Partnering with edtechs can be cost and time effective for enterprises. Edtechs helps reduce costs by addressing employees’ problems and training them on the necessary skillset required for their job role. Mayank Kumar, the co-founder of upGrad, states how companies, on average, have to spend a minimum of INR 30,000 to a maximum of INR 1.5 lakh per fresher to hire and train them. By partnering with an edtech, they reduce the cost by as much as 50-60 per cent.
Advanced Innovation
Edtechs taking charge of employee training creates room for advanced innovations in enterprises. Multiple disruptions have become a continuous process. Companies are continuously evolving at a fast pace. The learning and development departments at these companies have a full platter. It seems best to partner with an edtech to address skill gaps. Krishna Kumar, CEO of Simplilearn, shares that “under these partnerships, campus recruits undergo specific skill training and complete hands-on projects as per the company technology stack”.
Opening Up Streams
Relevant training is provided to the recruits opening up streams to excel in that field. Partnerships with edtech firms help students identify and hone their skills and become relevant to the ecosystem. This leads to developing a strong talent pool in emerging technologies, all trained in their specific domains.
To successfully train your employees, partnering with an edtech looks like the best way.
Key Reasons and Features to Consider While Partnering With an Edtech
Relevant Courses
Learning is effective when it’s relevant and personalised. Employees expect that they get the required training to be the best at their jobs, and to make that happen, their learning pathways must address the required knowledge needed and train them on the necessary skills needed for the job. When their training aligns with their career goal and interest, they will become an effective assets on the job. As per Deloitte’s report on building a future-ready workforce, almost 79% of millennials are motivated to learn when their training is personalised. This is another vital aspect of learning and training that your edtech must cater to. Personalised learning is essential for any employee under training. Your preferred edtech must create an appropriate learning pathway customised to an individual’s needs and pace.
Engagement and Learning Communities
Engagement and learning communities are two crucial pillars of effective learning. Employees must experience an engaging learning trajectory where they have like-minded people, interact with their peers, and get a sense of community and belonging. Community belonging and engagement add to an individual’s learning experience and helps them in holistic development. This element will also help develop soft skills that are as necessary for an enterprise as digital or technical skills. To ensure that your employee training is engaging, your preferred edtech partner must create room for social interaction, community engagement, interactive learning, peer to peer interaction and has a community-based learning approach to their offerings.
Targeted On-Demand Content
Continuous and targeted training helps employees meet their employer’s work expectations and stay relevant, building expertise in their domain. Enterprises must ensure that their chosen edtechs deliver required on-demand content. Employees’ learning platforms must give them access to learning content as per their learning styles and whatever helps them learn best. A mix of text, video, bite-sized learning, and well-structured modules can help employees pace up their training.
User Friendly
Suppose your employee cannot navigate their LMS after the basic orientation. In that case, you need to re-think your chosen edtech partner. Employees must learn on the easy-to-use training platform, upskill, and gain job-relevant skills. Overcomplicated platforms might deviate them from their learning goal and occupy them with the struggle of navigating the training platform itself. Understand that you are training a diverse workforce. A few non-negotiable features you must look out for when picking your edtech partner is that they provide an accessible, intuitive and user-friendly training program. You’re good to go if you can explain to and ensure that a higher education student can use the same training platform.
Adaptability
Living in a dynamic world, we must rely on solutions that address the ever-changing landscape of technology, work, training and education. You must pick an adaptable edtech partner that does not re-run learning programs for years and years without making necessary changes. In the next five years, you will no longer need the tech skill you need today. Thus, your learning partner must adapt to the new market, trends and needs. Artificial intelligence can provide in-time content that meets changing training needs and gives enterprises an edge over their competitors, equipping the employee base with the necessary skills and knowledge needed at that very time.
Edtech is a growing industry and a key part of the future of work, professional learning and development. Enterprises are looking for robust edtech solutions that align with the workforce’s upskilling needs with the company’s benefit at heart. It’s time edtech solution catering to corporate learning pull up their socks and ensure they tap into partnering opportunities with enterprises.
