4IR skills development
Changing the future of education starts with changing mindsets. The schooling and education model hasn’t evolved for centuries. Typically, it’s been linked the 3Rs – reading, writing and arithmetic and existed in a delivery model that would “push” information on or at the learner.
Making time for learning isn’t easy in our ‘always-on’ lifestyles. We are overloaded with content daily, and attention spans are shrinking, impacting cognitive load. A solution could lie in microlearning and in a model where the learner can ‘pull’ content (on demand) and tailor-make their learning journey.
“On the dawn of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, education, training and skills development delivery methods are transforming. The classroom is no longer a place, but rather a space. As part of the People Solution’s “Massive Transformative Purpose” to take skills development to the last person, in the last town in South Africa, Africa and beyond, we needed a solution that could provide the latest technology, at scale and with an exponential impact. A solution backed by data and enhanced by machine learning. We decided to partner with Digemy to incorporate their award-winning learning platform within our Future Skills digital academy” says Natasha Terlecki, general manager of emerging markets and digital transformation at leading training provider People Solutions.
“We are very excited about the change Futureskills.Africa will create in a continent that is in desperate need for accelerated skills development. When we learn, the process of understanding what we know and how often to repeat it is still very manual, stealing time from the learner to do something that can actually be done by an intelligent system. By automating this process, we are able to increase the knowledge of a learner while decreasing the time spent learning. We have seen some amazing results and received some inspiring testimonials of how it optimises the learning journey.”
“Our method is all about accountability; giving learners a measuring stick of exactly where they are, not just in terms of how much they know today, but how many times they still need to repeat what they know for it to be locked down in their long-term memory to enable them to apply it with confidence . Digemy decided to partner with People Solutions on the FutureSkills.Africa Platform, not only to develop relevant, future-fit content that addresses the identified Future Skills curriculum as set out by the World Economic Forum and Global Business Services Sector, but also to accelerate skills development by using a platform that has proven to deliver results, in a continent in dire need of skills development.” said Kobus Louw, managing director of Digemy.
“The confluence of tech and training that the two brands represent resulted in the birth of the FutureSkills.Africa platform.”
The platform continuously measures the knowledge of the learner on key concepts, and by placing each learner on a specific knowledge level for each key concept, knows what concepts to repeat to each learner at what frequency, to enable the translation of information into their long-term memory. The concept converts studying for “passery” to studying for mastery and ensures the optimal retention of information.
The platform launches with the Life-Long Learning and Financial Literacy series, followed by the demand-led pathways of Work Readiness Skills, Digital Literacy, Future Skills, Business Process Outsourcing Functional Skills, BPO Specialist skills such as Customer Service, Sales and Collections.
Phase two will incorporate our ‘Agility Skills’ with a focus on soft skills, reskilling, future skilling and upskilling the current labour force to be Future-Fit and remain relevant, followed by deeper digital skills, with an introduction to AI, Blockchain, Data Analytics and various specialised Coding pathways from development, analytics, cloud computing to cybersecurity and risk.
Accessible and affordable
The platform is accessible and affordable to all. A data-light, environment that offers an interactive user experience and is linked to a gamified rewards and recognition dashboard. The learning is on-demand, accessible at any time, on any device. Knowledge retention occurs without massive impact on productivity or cognitive load.
Digital modules and courses will be available immediately to training and development teams and will be launched to the consumer market in the near future.
For more, go to www.futureskills.africa
