Brand New Solution For NZ Companies “lagging Behind” In Upskilling Their People

Creators of MBIE’s ‘Digital Boost’ program have launched a solution for NZ companies “lagging behind” in upskilling their people. Called ‘Partners Lounge’ (by ‘academyEX’), the solution enables businesses to benefit from a decade of postgraduate education for 7,500 learners from many of New Zealand’s largest organisations; and a further 80,000 learners online. Partners Lounge provides New Zealand corporates, organisations and governments with a turn-key learning solution - including access to the academy’s white-labeled learning management systems (LMS) and engaging learning content to upskill people and to provide essential professional development.

academyEX developed the LMS platform so that companies, institutes and corporations could simply white-label or license the learning platform as a SaaS product, thereby reducing cost, time to market and complexity.

“The pace of business disruption is increasing and businesses are required to respond to changing context faster and at a cadence. It’s no secret that New Zealand companies are lagging behind in upskilling their employees; yet to compete at a global level, they need their level of knowledge to match or exceed that of their competitors,” believes Frances Valintine, Tech Futurist and Founder of academyEX.

Valintine’s academyEX is the company behind one of New Zealand’s most game-changing, large-scale learning programs. MBIE’s ‘Digital Boost’ is a free online learning program, funded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) designed to help small business owners to digitally transform their operating models. This online learning community was ‘made in New Zealand’ for New Zealanders. The project launched in January 2021 with100 learning videos and associated content just eight weeks after the contract was signed. Two years later, it showcases over 1,000 learning resources and a membership of close to 58,000.

“Building learning management systems from the ground up; and producing and updating cutting-edge content that takes into consideration ‘adjacencies’ such as industry issues and macro-influences is a tall order for even the most well-resourced or largest of companies. By the time most learning content is produced and launched, it’s usually out of date or its producers have no way of promoting and tracking uptake or completion. Partners Lounge solves all of this and removes the risk of investing in bespoke learning platforms and learning content without a predictable pathway to success,” explains Valintine.

Complete flexibility and control

The LMS is a multi-tenancy system which allows organisations to create a completely personalised and branded experience by adding in their commentary, imagery and bespoke content if applicable. In addition, complex features such as baked-in security and privacy compliance (usually huge stumbling blocks for inhouse teams) as well as API integrations allow teams to ensure their LMS talks to applications such as CRM systems. All individual learning data is stored on the cloud using best-practice, enterprise grade security. In addition, unlike learning platforms such as Coursera, the organisation ‘owns’ the learning they create and the data they produce. Organisations have control over who accesses the platform or specific content. In addition, the ability to plug into external content but ‘ringfence’ study group chats to only those within the organisation is a feature that isn’t offered by platforms such as LinkedIn learning. All content has also been ‘localised’ to New Zealand’s unique context.

Besides ‘backbone’ tech, Partners Lounge also offers organisations access to a ready-formed team of industry experts to ensure implementation runs smoothly, including developers, project leads, data experts and UI/UX specialists as well as a dedicated instructional design and content development team.

“"With a unique blend of deep education and tech expertise in one place, there is no need to deal with lengthy development lead-times, implementation partners or the revolver door of key project IP leaving mid-delivery. We've totally de-risked implementation and can move fast to deliver your goals. We’ve totally de-risked implementation,” says Ana Ivanovic-Tongue - Head of Delivery, academyEX - Partners Lounge.

Why not stick to in-house?

“Having instructional designers who also understand tech and online engagement when developing learning content is invaluable. For anyone tasked with making strategic decisions on behalf of a business, access to the latest and most current knowledge is critical. Anything less and you’re trading on yesterday’s insights which is a dangerous place to be in. We’ve seen time and again that what worked yesterday; won’t necessarily work today and societal shifts are difficult to spot when you’re simply too close to the sun. In-house teams often ‘don't know what they don’t know’. Partners Lounge helps them bring a peripheral lens to their content; the ability to integrate societal shifts and ‘associated knowledge’ into their organisation’s strategic thinking,” believes Frances.

She adds that organisations work best when they focus on developing their people’s understanding, knowledge and competitiveness. “An industry edge is gained through continual access to new knowledge and thinking. It has never been more important to normalise learning and upskilling ourselves for a few hours every week; and allowing ourselves the time to collaborate with others who are determined to do the same.”

Companies who ‘wait’ are at risk
“Although most companies see learning excellence as an organisational imperative (for issues such as compliance); it’s fast becoming an individual imperative that influences factors such as staff attraction and retention. Simply put, if you’re not investing in upskilling and growing your people, they’ll go elsewhere,” adds Ana.

“academyEX is on a mission to redefine learning and higher education in New Zealand, and better prepare Kiwis for the challenges and opportunities of the future, such as climate change and the emergence of new technologies. I want to see more people continue to learn throughout their careers - and through Partners Lounge, we’re making that learning more easily accessible. Helping the companies responsible for developing people by providing quality ongoing learning opportunities was an obvious next step in our evolution and one we’re excited to roll-out to even more companies globally because really…none of us should ever stop learning,” concludes Frances.

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