In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the need for continuous learning and upskilling has never been more critical. However, many employees in Malaysia face significant challenges in accessing the training they need to stay competitive. To shed light on this issue, we sat down with Celine Ting, Co-founder and Managing Director of OpenAcademy. With her extensive background in communication, media studies, and digital strategy, Celine is at the forefront of transforming how learning is delivered and consumed. In this interview, she shares her insights on how OpenAcademy is bridging the upskilling gap, the benefits of microlearning, and what’s next for the platform in 2024.
With a significant portion of Malaysian employees highlighting a stark gap between the need for upskilling and the availability of training opportunities, how does OpenAcademy plan to bridge this divide? Can you share insights into your strategies for reaching employees who currently lack access to necessary training?
At OpenAcademy, we believe in making learning as accessible as possible. With the OpenAcademy app, all of our content is structured to be mobile first, which means that anyone with a mobile device will be able to access all of the learning content. Our content is also structured to be in bite sizes, which means that it’s not just easy but also fast to consume, making learning something that is easy to jump into without the pressure of time commitment and challenges with access to technology.
Considering the challenges individuals face in their upskilling efforts, such as time constraints and a lack of structured learning paths, how does OpenAcademy tailor its learning experiences to accommodate these issues?
At OpenAcademy, our content curation team curates learning content together with the industry practitioners to ensure that all of the content on the platform is structured that allows for continuous learning. The bite sized element of the content also ensures that the content curated needs to be easy to understand and straight to the point, this ensures a more straightforward kind of learning, which allows users to get the information they desire as quickly as possible, thus saving time.
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OpenAcademy’s mobile app leverages microlearning to make upskilling more accessible and convenient. Could you elaborate on how this approach fits into the busy lives of professionals and the advantages it offers over traditional training methods?
It’s not just busy lives but people’s attention span has also become shorter as the amount of content available on different platforms is at an all time high. With this in mind, many individuals not only do not have time to spend on upskilling and learning content, they just don’t have the capacity to be mentally able to consume learning content. With microlearning, content is broken down into smaller chunks, so individuals only need a short amount of time to consume the content. Again, shorter content just means that content needs to be more direct to the point, so individuals will be able to get the information that they need quicker and more effectively, which allows them to remember the main points of learning content better.
As an EdTech company, OpenAcademy plays a crucial role in narrowing the skills gap and empowering the workforce. Can you discuss the impact of your platform on the Malaysian job market and how it contributes to the country’s digital economy?
Currently we are in the midst of working with tertiary education institutions as well as job portals to continue closing the skills gap and also empowering the workforce with the necessary learning content to upskill. With the addition of our platform, digital learning has now become even more accessible to everyone across all walks of life, that means they will have equal access to learning content from practitioners across different countries, which I think greatly contributes to the country’s digital economy.
What is on the horizon for OpenAcademy in 2024? Are there any new initiatives, courses, or partnerships that you are excited about, which could further support the upskilling needs of Malaysia’s workforce?
OpenAcademy is in the process of entering into the Singapore market, working with different partners to branch into resources and tap into the expertise and industry practitioners in other countries to better equip our local workforce. Besides that, there are several initiatives with job portals coming out soon to better equip talents and candidates looking for job opportunities. These are some of the exciting things coming up in 2024.
How does OpenAcademy measure the success and impact of its programs on users’ career progression and skill development?
With the collaboration with job portals, we are hoping and slowly working towards having our learning content directly impact talents and their job opportunities, ensuring that the skills and learning content consumed directly enables them to have the skills for the job.
Can you share any metrics or feedback that highlight the effectiveness of your microlearning modules?
We have had individuals that have gone through our learning content and have launched successful side hustles in digital marketing inspired by industry practitioners on the platform. Because of the bite sized and mobile first content nature, this individual was able to easily consume the learning content on the go and quickly while they were traveling in the car. This enabled them to learn on the go, and benefited from microlearning.
As Celine Ting continues to lead OpenAcademy towards new horizons, her vision for a more accessible and efficient learning platform is making a tangible impact on the Malaysian job market and beyond. By prioritizing mobile-first, bite-sized content, OpenAcademy is not only addressing the immediate needs of today’s workforce but also setting a new standard for digital learning. With exciting initiatives and partnerships on the horizon, OpenAcademy is well-positioned to further support the upskilling needs of Malaysia’s workforce, driving the country’s digital economy forward.
