Accenture recently announced plans to bring learning capabilities in-house by acquiring Udacity. This move is interesting; it further showcases the growing need for employers to implement continuous learning mechanisms to address the growing skills gap that faces a number of industries, including technology. That said, it may not be feasible for all companies, especially small and mid-size ones, to approach this in the same way as Accenture. Many companies will rely on partnerships with edtech providers to meet the growing need for upskilling and continuous learning. This is what we are focused on enabling through our Cengage Work business – providing individuals and employers ways to re-skill and upskill to fill talent gaps and foster lifetime employability. I recently had the opportunity to speak with EdTech Digest on this acquisition, as well as other trends in the education and workforce space, including GenAI. Read the full article below. #employability #skills #tech
Creating a GenAI workforce development Program that enabled an Enterprise to accomplish its mission required technical workforce development, skills building and knowledge management needs in a format that was tailored to the organizational role and personal aspirations of the employee has the potential to solve a huge problem for our country. Sal Khan has something like this for K-12 education with his Khanmigo product but I have not seen anything like that for high tech domains or government use (particularly DoD). Providing your product with the GenAI capability to also act as a design assistant or Bayesian based idea generation provider, and then making its use available to the majority of the technical workforce rather than just a select few can leverage an organization's entire technical workforce. Excellent! The generation that could help train any GenAI tool to take advantage of domain and organizational design wisdom might not be the generation that can exploit software part of the learning and using the tool. Perhaps features that allowed GenAI software to capture trans-generational passing of domain specific technical wisdom would help. Suggest hiring seasoned domain experts as part of the execution plan.
Thanks so much for leading the way for industry! Love to find creative way to connect continously learning up for users in ways that braid workbased learning, on the job training, and more to provide clear on and off ramps with equity, quality and consistency. Invite you and other industry stakeholders to join us a journey to forge #NewPathways https://www.gettingsmart.com/2023/04/12/why-are-new-pathways-essential/
Love this, Michael Hansen. Upskilling is only becoming more important within organizations due to AI. AI cannot be left to the IT dept or data analysts to worry about or figure out. Every department needs to learn how to start to play with and leverage AI to drive efficiencies and new value. Your role here will be transformative.
I was working at Arthur Andersen LLP taking care of their computers back during the ERON Collapse, and saw the creation of Accenture first hand while we deleted more files than anyone ever had in history...
Great article. At Alkemy we work with Accenture in different countries of LATAM in upskilling, cohort-based and live lessons. Excited to what’s ahead!
Global Digital Education Thought Leader / Board member / Strategic Advisor / Investor / Consultant / Venture Builder / Mentor / Ibero american Edtech Association Pedagogy + technology + capital = impact
4moCompany culture is a primary driver of business success Employers are recognizing the strategic imperative of continuous education for their success. Focusing on ’employability’ rather than just ‘upskilling’ is crucial for edtech providers The future of learning and business depends on how we build connectivity between our education system and labor market. Michael Hansen