#187 – Personal Learner Budgets (& Coronavirus)
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Welcome to the latest episode of our The Voctech Podcast: learning continued series, supported by the Ufi Voctech Trust and Ufi Ventures. You can follow the conversation using #voctechpodcast and #voctech.
What’s in this episode?
Lifelong learning wallets, individual learning allowances and even some forms of universal basic income are designed to allow financial wiggle room for adult learning. There are plenty of policy ideas about how to support continual learning in our citizenry. But, what about in the workplace?
In this episode, we hear about one organisation trying to embed personal learning budgets into the workplace, and draw together the best learning resources in one playlist. You’ll hear from Rajeeb Dey, Founder & CEO at Learnerbly.
This week, we also have a listener feature. The coronavirus is adjusting our working and learning experiences. Outside of the global health implications of the virus, what are the implications for online learning and remote working and will they be long lasting? Who is at risk of falling through the gaps during this time when physical learning environments close, and how are new approaches being resourced? We asked you for your thoughts on the issue so THANKS to those of you who contributed to this (listed in the people section below).
People
Sophie Bailey is the Founder and Presenter of The Edtech Podcast | Twitter: @podcastedtech
Sophie is the founder of the iTunes new and noteworthy, The Edtech Podcast. The mission of The Edtech Podcast is to improve the dialogue between ‘ed’ and ‘tech’ for better innovation, through storytelling. The podcast is downloaded 2000+ times a week, from over 145 countries with the UK, US & Aus in the top 3. Sophie is a mentor and advisor within the edtech community. If she’s not interviewing a University Lecturer, School Leader, Ex-Angry Bird, NGO, or Investor about education innovation, she’s chasing her son around the park or binge-reading Homo Deus.
Rajeeb Dey, Founder & CEO, Learnerbly | Twitter: @rajdey
Learnerbly unleash brilliance at work by managing all the professional development needs of employees, connecting them to the very best learning and development opportunities and tracking the ROI on L&D activities.
Prior to Learnerbly Rajeeb founded Enternships.com, a portal that connects students and graduates to work placements in over 7000 start-ups and SMEs, and which developed innovative corporate talent programmes for clients such as Telefonica, Santander and Havas for which he was named the “02 X Young Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2009 and the youngest recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013.
Rajeeb is also the Co-Founder of StartUp Britain, a national entrepreneurship campaign supported by the government; it was launched by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom David Cameron in March 2011. He served as a Trustee of UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs for over 10 years, and was recognised as one of the 1,000 Most Influential People in London by The Evening Standard. He graduated with First Class Honours in Economics and Management from the University of Oxford in 2008 and was appointed as the world’s youngest Young Global Leader (at 26) by the World Economic Forum in 2012.
Listener-Feature Contributors
- Michael Osborne, #UserExperience Driven Developer & Learning Technologies #ThirtyUnder30 | Twitter: @mikeozzy
- Hamish Mac, Director of Digital Strategy @RHSSuffolk & Founder of Digital Resilience UK | Twitter: @MrMacFeed
- Tim Stirrup, Director, 3v5ltd | Twitter: @timstirrup
- Allie Gao, Overseas Business Development Manager, ATA Online Education, a vocational training online services provider based out of Beijing
- Nancy Diebkilé, Customer Success Manager, @wooclap | Twitter: @nancy_wooclap
- Martin Hamilton, Writer, Futurist and Innovation Advisor, Website: MartinH.Net | Twitter: @martin_hamilton
- Neil Mosley, Digital Learning Designer, Cardiff University | Twitter: @neilmosley5
- Nic Ponsford, CEO & Co-Founder @GenderCollect | Twitter: @nicoleponsford
- Graham Brown-Martin, Learning Reimagined | Twitter: @GrahamBM
- Tom Hooper, Founder & CEO, Third Space Learning | Twitter: @thirdspacetweet
- Veejay Lingiah, CEO, Flashacademy | Twitter: @FlashAcademy_HQ
- Dr. Edward Tse, VP Strategy & Content and Co-Owner, Nuiteq | Twitter: @DoctorET
- Mark Anderson, Digital Strategist, Consultant, Educator | Twitter: @ICTEvangelist
Quotes from this episode
References from this week’s episode
- Rajeeb Dey – Twitter
- Rajeeb Dey – LinkedIn
- Learnerbly – Twitter
- Learnerbly – Website
- Coronavirus – WHO explanation
- Listener Feature Contributors
- Enternships.com – website
- SMEs – explanation
- StartUp Britain – Twitter
- UnLtd – Twitter
- University of Oxford – Twitter
- World Economic Forum – Twitter
- Student Voice – Twitter
- Oxford Entrepreneurs – Twitter
- Alan Sugar – Twitter
- Dragon’s Den -Twitter
- Boston Consulting Group – Twitter
- Bank of England – Twitter
- Lehman Brothers Collapse – article
- Entrepreneur First – Twitter
- New Entrepreneurs Foundation – Twitter
- Strava – Twitter
- Stephan Thoma – LinkedIn
- EY – Twitter
- Gallup – Twitter
- National College for Nuclear – Twitter
- Udacity – Twitter
- Frontline Ventures – Twitter
- True North by Bill George – Book recommendation: Waterstones link
- An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization by Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey – Book recommendation: Waterstones link
- Next Jump – Twitter
- UFI Trust – VocTech Essentials – Website link
- UK-based eLearning company (FlashAcademy) supports teaching in Shanghai during Coronavirus epidemic – article
- Learning in Quarantine – article by Independent Thinking
- To contain COVID-19, Japan urges companies to let employees work from home – article by Fortune
Thank you to the Ufi Voctech Trust & Ufi Ventures
The Voctech Podcast Series is produced by The Edtech Podcast and supported by Ufi Voctech Trust and Ufi Ventures.
Our aim is to help improve vocational skills in the UK’s workforce by funding digital solutions for vocational learning. We only fund activity that is ‘scalable’ through technology, ie projects that use digital methods to widen access to vocational learning. While digital learning solutions are potentially open to all, we are especially keen to assist digital projects which involve post-school age vocational learners that have failed to be engaged by the education system. Contact: kate.atha@ufi.co.uk, Head of Communications, Ufi Voctech Trust.
Ufi Ventures offers early-stage ventures finance and support that draws on the depth of Ufi’s experience in developing digital technologies for skills needed for work. We can invest from £150,000 up to £1m as equity or debt into early-stage companies who share our mission and meet our investment criteria. We are keen to collaborate and co-invest with other value-aligned investors interested in the opportunity presented by the changing nature of work and skills. Contact: richard.male@ufi.co.uk
Tell us where you are listening in from
We’d love to hear about innovative technology or approaches you are developing or using in adult education. Leave your stories in the comments below. Alternately, record a quick free voicemail via speakpipe for inclusion in the next episode. Finally, you can post your thoughts or follow-on links via twitter @podcastedtech or via The Edtech Podcast Facebook page.
