Online educational specialist New Skills Academy has opened new offices in SA (Johannesburg) and US (Chicago) as part of its international expansion strategy.
Headquartered in UK, Hertfordshire, the online educational platform says the recent opening of the new offices comes as the company celebrates signing up 100 000 students, and as it rolls out a range of new courses for 2018.
The company, established by brothers Chris and Dan Morgan in 2013, offers over 200 online courses ranging from finance, business, hospitality and tourism, sales and marketing, computing and more, each verified by industry experts, and many that provide accreditation.
"2017 was an incredible year for us, expanding the business and winning some great awards - and 2018 looks set to be even better," says CEO Chris Morgan.
"The opening of the Chicago and Johannesburg offices are significant for us; those markets offer huge potential in the online learning space and we're delighted to bring our 200+ courses to US and South African businesses and consumers."
The two new offices, according to the company, join existing operations in Nepal, Tanzania and the headquarters in Ware, Hertfordshire. The firm says it is now on a fierce expansion curve on the back of picking up a flurry of awards in 2017, including the Natwest Great British Entrepreneur Award for Family Business.
The following are new courses for 2018: cognitive behavioural therapy, educational psychology, life coaching; nutrition; web applications. The institution says more courses will be rolled out throughout the year.
According to a recent report by Ambient Insights, the African e-learning market is witnessing massive growth, spurred by public-private partnerships.
It points out Africa's e-learning market has doubled from 2011 to 2016, reaching $513 million. SA is Africa's largest e-learning market, followed by Angola, Nigeria and Tunisia.
Moira de Roche, independent learning specialist and director of the Institute of IT Professionals SA, says e-learning is the great leveller.
"Quality e-learning is accessible to anyone, anywhere, if they have connectivity. Learning can be completed at any time, at a learner's own pace. Transference of skills to the job are proven to be better than with classroom training, especially for training on digital skills - probably because you can try out what you learn immediately," she says.
However, she notes a general lack of understanding of e-learning is hindering the widespread adoption in Africa.
"Putting presentations, videos and documents online might be online learning, but e-learning is a rich, engaging, interactive learning experience. The instructional design strategy is different than for instructor-led, classroom-based training. There is not enough appreciation of the many benefits of investing in good e-learning. I think that the lobby for traditional methods is strong, because teachers and lecturers are threatened by the idea. They shouldn't be - they just have to change the way they do things."
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