CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING,CORPORATE LEARNING SYSTEMS
Schneider Electric | July 13, 2022
Schneider Electric™, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, has announced a series of updates to its vendor-agnostic and CPD-accredited digital education platform, Schneider Electric University. Available in 14 languages and accessible globally for free online, the dedicated professional development platform directly addresses the data center sector skills gap, helping industry stakeholders to upskill and stay up to date with the latest technology, sustainability, and energy efficiency initiatives affecting the sector.To-date, Schneider Electric University has delivered more than one million courses to over 650,000 data center users, with +180 countries represented by its global user-base.
The new updates to the Schneider Electric University Data Center Certified Associate (DCCA) qualification include fundamentals of power, cooling, racks, and physical security, and guidance on how to optimize data center designs to drive resilience, energy efficiency and sustainability. It’s newest courses, for example, include Optimizing Cooling Layouts for the Data Center; Fundamental Cabling Strategies in the Data Center; Examining Fire Protection Methods in the Data Center; and Fundamentals of Cooling II – Humidity in the Data Center.
Furthermore, its curriculum addresses key focal points for the industry such as Data Center Site Selection and Planning, which offers guidance on how to select brown and greenfield sites for access to renewable energy; Alternative Power Generation Technologies, which helps drive the implementation of renewable energy strategies, on-site power generation and use of technologies such as microgrids; and Battery Technology for Data Centers, which evaluates the sustainability impact of different types of UPS batteries, the benefits of Lithium-Ion technology, and offers an analysis of the associated lifecycle costs.
Addressing the industry skills gap
Research in the Uptime Institute Annual Data Center Survey 2021 estimates staff requirements will grow globally to nearly 2.3 million in 2025. Further, 32% of respondents reported difficulty in retaining staff, with 47% having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open jobs. Attracting and retaining talent within the industry, which is the heart of the digital economy, is now reaching a critical mass.
By encouraging individuals to upskill and continue their professional development for free, the Schneider Electric University is directly addressing the data center industry skills gap and talent shortage, helping businesses to attract, retrain both new and existing talent, and providing access to specialized technical education, everywhere.
“In the last few years data center capacity demands have grown exponentially, reaching record new highs as digitization and cloud adoption accelerates. The sector skills shortage, however, remains a significant challenge and has potential implications for other connected industries, By providing guidance on the latest technology and sustainability initiatives, we believe the Schneider Electric University offers an invaluable resource to help bridge the skills gap by empowering business ecosystems, reskilling the workforce, and training the next generation of professionals to build the data centers of the future.”
-Pankaj Sharma, EVP Secure Power Division
Long-term commitment to education
Prior to its acquisition by Schneider Electric in 2006, members of the Data Center Science Center at APC™, Schneider Electric’s flagship brand of battery back-up power, surge protection, and IT physical infrastructure for data centers and edge computing environments, created the ‘Data Center University’ as a free resource to help train and upskill the next generation of industry professionals. Their vision was to create a CPD-accredited training curriculum that would support the professional development of industry stakeholders and prepare them to build the data centers of the future.
As ‘Schneider Electric University’, the platform has grown to offer more than 200 data center, energy efficiency and sustainability courses via two dedicated colleges, the Professional Energy Manager (PEM), and the DCCA qualification. All courses are available as self-paced, one-hour modules, in 14 different languages, offering free access to energy education, everywhere. Further, the university is recognized by 25 different industry CPD bodies including BICSI, the Electrical Contractors Association (ECA), Engineers Ireland, and the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP).
As one of the industry’s-first dedicated professional development platforms for data centers and energy management, Schneider Electric University has remained completely impartial with all courses maintaining 100% vendor-neutrality. To-date it has delivered over 1,000,000 courses to more than 650,000+ users globally and offers a crucial lifeline for industry professionals seeking to advance their skillsets.
About Schneider Electric
Schneider’s purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency. We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, end-point to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries. We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values.
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CORPORATE EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Axonify | September 07, 2022
Norwegian grocer Coop is working with leading training solution provider Axonify to deliver personalised learning to 28,000 employees across 1,250 stores as part of their mission to prioritise employee performance and align learning outcomes to business goals. With disruption continuing to impact the grocery market, Coop sees a modern approach to employee development as a key competitive differentiator, contributor to top-line revenue, and essential for developing and retaining employees. "If people think our store staff are amazing, they'll come back," says Margrete Martin, Head of HR Development. "We want to provide the best experience for our customers and our employees, right across the business. We believe the best people will want to work for Coop because they know we create opportunities for them. We love Axonify's approach of creating short, engaging learning paths that are personalised to each individual's training needs. It's the perfect platform to bring our learning vision to life." Coop's internal training programme is designed to align learning to the objectives of the business, and not to be a box-ticking exercise. They want it to be accessible to everyone, personalised to each individual, and engaging enough to keep employees logging in. Axonify's frontline-focused platform will help Coop deliver on their vision, enabling them to align the right learning content to their roles and - critically - making it accessible in the flow of work through mobile and store devices.
Measuring the impact of training is particularly important to Coop, and Axonify excels at closing the loop on learning measurement. Reporting gives the business a complete view of where employees are most knowledgeable and confident so they can target their training and coaching efforts accordingly. Dashboards also provide detailed insights on how training is influencing specific business targets.
"The team at Coop are taking a fresh approach to learning."They are focusing on the outcome of the training and how to get results that contribute to the performance of the business - not just on the content itself. They want to bring together digital and face-to-face learning and ensure that the whole experience is truly engaging their employees. We're incredibly excited to go on this journey with them."
Liam O'Meara, VP Europe, Axonify
About Coop
Coop is the second largest retail company in Norway and operates approximately 1160 grocery stores in six chain concepts: Obs, Extra, Coop Prix, Coop Mega, Coop Market and Matkroken. In addition, Coop operates 110 DIY stores through the chains Obs BYGG and Coop Byggmix. Coop is owned by its customers through their membership in one of 62 co-operatives in Norway. Coop currently has 2 million members and an annual turnover of 59,9 billion.
About Axonify
Axonify gets frontline employees ready for anything with a training and communications solution that delivers. Why does it work so well? Because the experience is fun, fast, personalized and designed to make critical information stick. And employees love it—83% of users log in 2-3 times a week, which translates into meaningful behavior change that drives business results. More than 200 customers in 155+ countries around the world, including Walmart, Kroger, Levi's and Merck, trust Axonify to fuel their people's performance to keep pace with their business. Founded in 2011, Axonify is headquartered in Waterloo, ON Canada
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ONLINE EDUCATION
Anthology | August 26, 2022
Anthology, a leading provider of education solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, today announced that its Blackboard Learn Ultra solution was named the winner of a Gold Stevie® Award in the Postsecondary Learning Management Solution category in the 19th Annual International Business Awards® (IBA). The 2022 IBAs received more than 3,700 nominations from organizations in 67 nations and territories.
"We're continuing to accelerate the development of new features for Learn Ultra with the goal of delivering the premier teaching and learning experience, and we're honored to see that work reflected in this recognition,. "The LMS is at the center of learners' educational journey and our team is focused on delivering innovation that fuels their success while also meeting the needs of faculty and institutions."
JD White, Chief Product Officer at Anthology
Blackboard Learn is Anthology's flagship learning management system, designed to support the student experience while enabling pedagogical best practices for faculty. Blackboard Learn Ultra delivers a simpler, more powerful teaching and learning experience that fosters student self-expression, offers a leading test-taking experience, and delivers the ability to surface actionable data insights that help learners, instructors and institutions meet their goals. With a modern, intuitive, fully responsive interface, Learn Ultra better engages students, removes barriers for instructors and clears the path to success. Last month, Anthology announced a 46 percent increase in the number of courses using Blackboard Learn Ultra, and a 30 percent increase in the number of institutions deploying Learn Ultra courses, year-over-year. Following the merger with Blackboard, Anthology tripled Learn Ultra development resources and increased opportunities for client feedback in the development process. The expanded resources powered the largest Learn Ultra release to date, delivered in July. "Statistics show that the stress and mental health experienced by students over the past couple of years has increased significantly. Products like Blackboard Learn Ultra are an essential tool to 'normalizing' the experience of students and helping them to reduce the mental health load. Congratulations to Anthology for creating a product that is making a significant impact in the lives of generations to come," commented one Stevie Award judge. The International Business Awards are the world's premier business awards program. All individuals and organizations worldwide – public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small - are eligible to submit nominations. "We're thrilled that we're able to return to celebrating Stevie winners in person this year," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Miller. "This year's class of honorees are as innovative, adventuresome, persistent and successful as we've ever had. We look forward to celebrating their achievements with them during our October 15th awards banquet in London.www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.
About Anthology
Anthology offers the largest EdTech ecosystem on a global scale for education, supporting more than 150 million users in 80 countries. With a mission to provide dynamic, data-informed experiences to the global education community through Anthology Intelligent Experiences™, we help learners, leaders and educators achieve their goals by offering over 60 SaaS products and services designed to advance learning.
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