The word “innovation” gets overused these days. It’s an all-purpose word that leaders use to describe how they’re thinking about business in a forward-looking way to keep customers happy and the organization at the top of its game. There’s also no denying that building a culture of innovation is at the top of most corporate agendas.
The problem is one key group of stakeholders often gets left out when we talk about innovation.
The Surge in Enterprise Growth Underscores Business Demand for Long-term Workforce Digital Transformation Solutions
Udacity’s Enterprise business saw annual bookings triple, annual billings more than double, and net dollar billings retention finish at 159%. Seller productivity continued to rise even as the sales team more than doubled, highlighting Udacity’s ability to hire top talent and provide its staff with strong enablement and training.
We’re all individuals.
All of us have individual career aspirations, goals, and visions for the future. And we have different skills and learning preferences to achieve them. Today, every organization is seeking to give its employees the best possible training to help both them and the company stay current on rapidly evolving technology trends. Employee upskilling programs are no longer a nice perk – they are a must to stay competitive. Organizations must ensure their top talent is up-to-date on trends, new industry developments, and has access to the best technology. That means companies are looking to incorporate the latest and greatest learning tools on the market to make that happen, especially when it comes to developing their next crop of managers.
But unfortunately, new doesn’t necessarily mean better.
This article on EdTech Evolution first appeared in BusinessWorld here.
There is no doubt that education is the key to transform lives. But now that we are living in the age of digital technologies, we are quickly getting accustomed to seeing education itself being transformed by leaps and bounds. The coming up of new-age players in the online education space has innovated both the nature and quality of education, and it is just the beginning of EdTech evolution.
It is no secret that digital transformation has been driving industry-wide disruptions for the past two decades, enabling businesses across sectors to achieve massive scale and growth. However, much of the economic potential still remains untouched by industries. As per MGI predictions, digitization holds the key to unlocking this potential, which will enable the global GDP to gain USD 13 trillion by 2030.
In fact, various industry leaders believe that technology education — forms the foundation of digital transformation — can help double the world’s GDP. Riding on the back of AI, Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Data Science, SaaS, IoT – the next wave of transformation is certainly going to require ample upskilling and reskilling.
It is said that a rising tide raises all boats. To begin with, the transformation journey would be led by some sectors and the effects would then trickle down to other wheels of the economy. Here are some sectors which leading digital transformation:
Since we launched Udacity’s Enterprise business in 2017, a growing number of companies have enrolled their employees in Udacity’s Nanodegree programs, indicating that leading organizations are increasingly investing in Udacity’s Nanodegree programs to upskill their own employees while helping to close the talent gap in the labor market. We’re proud to have partnered with Fortune 500 companies to help them transform their workforces. Today, we’re thrilled to announce our latest partnership with the worldwide consulting leader Accenture.
Learning with Udacity supports Accenture’s mission to help solve their clients’ toughest challenges. Through this pilot program, selected Accenture employees will have the opportunity to enroll in one of five Udacity Nanodegree programs in pioneering technology subjects such as Self-Driving Cars, Deep Learning, Deep Reinforcement Learning, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision.
When I met with Udacity graduates at Accenture last month, we spoke about the changing nature of industries worldwide. Transportation, for instance, is undergoing multiple parallel changes with the advent of electric and self-driving cars, as well as new ridesharing models. Lifelong learning is a crucial tool that enables students to catch up to the latest in these fields. By becoming expert learners in subjects such as self-driving cars and machine learning, students will be able to move in tandem with these innovations, remaining on the pulse, and transition into new capabilities as experts in their fields.
Andrew Smith, Managing Director and Head of Industry X.0 at Accenture, completed Udacity’s Deep Learning Nanodegree program earlier this year. “Continuous learning is important in every job. But in consulting it is vital to stay ahead, especially as the speed of technological advancement accelerates every day,” he said. “Udacity’s programs teach the exact tech skills we need at Accenture. They offer a great learning experience that can be flexibly integrated into your schedule regardless of location and course hours.”
By launching this pilot program with Accenture, Udacity is taking another step towards our mission to power careers through tech education. A warm welcome to all the new learners at Accenture. We look forward to watching your continued progress and seeing what you will build. Thank you for learning with Udacity!
The most successful, fastest-growing companies are differentiated by one thing: they’ve transformed how their people learn and lead. This high-performing, maturing organizations encourage experimentation, iteration, and transparency to ensure new ideas are tested and outcomes are shared. According to a LinkedIn 2018 survey, employees are hungry for personal development opportunities at work: 94 percent of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career but the number one reason employees feel they aren’t learning and upskilling is because they don’t have the time.