South China Morning Post
Harnessing technology:  the key to future-ready employees and sustainable talent development
The widespread use of generative AI by businesses globally has significantly boosted the growth of the digital knowledge economy. However, employers are facing challenges in reskilling and upskilling their workforce and bridging the gap between the skills of graduates and industry requirements. Paid Post:Esperanza
[The content of this article has been produced by our advertising partner.] Many companies have accelerated the adoption of technology in employee development, as they increasingly shift towards a globally distributed workforce. Technology has provided employees with greater flexibility and convenience, enabling them to learn anytime, anywhere, and with anyone. However, the use of technology should not be merely a matter of expediency. Research has shown that advanced technologies such as AI and XR can make learning more engaging, personalised, scalable, and cost-effective, when used appropriately. Technology can also be used to equip the workforce with not only digital skills but also essential human skills such as creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. Generative AI is expected to transform the nature of jobs worldwide. According to the key findings in the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs 2023” report, the nature of jobs will undergo a drastic transformation. The report highlights that technology adoption, particularly in the areas of big data, cloud computing, and AI, will remain a key driver of business transformation over the next five years. Before 2027, six out of ten workers will require upskilling. However, only half of the workforce is expected to have access to adequate training opportunities. Employers must address the challenges in workforce development and develop their abilities to leverage AI and big data to optimise productivity. Technology can help optimise talent development. Technologies also have an impact on the employability of recent graduates. With AI taking over many of the tasks often allocated to entry-level workers, adequate industry experience will become an even more important differentiator for students entering the workforce. With the introduction of ESG (Environment, Social, and Governance) compliance by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, an increasing number of businesses are recognising their employees as valuable assets. Staff development has become a key ESG indicator for many companies. Management and human resources executives are realising that the implementation of technologies, such as data analytics and AI, is essential to make talent development more effective and scalable. The Top 10 workplace skills. Source: World Economic Forum. Leveraging tech to develop critical soft skills
Cognitive skills top the list of in demand skills in the WEF Future of Jobs Report 2023. Technology is not just relevant to the learning of digital skills. According to Salah Khalil, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Macat, critical thinking is one of the most essential skills in the era of Chat GPT. It’s part of the 4 Cs: critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration with machines. “These skills will help workers augment intelligence and leverage the hybrid intelligence models of human and artificial intelligence. Critical thinking provides a foundation by which all the other 3Cs become more effective.”
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Macat’s solution for critical thinking has been built on a definition that is academically robust, created in collaboration with the University of Cambridge. This definition identifies critical thinking as comprising the component skills of problem-solving, analysis, creative thinking, interpretation, evaluation, and reasoning, collectively known as PACIER, notes Khalil. “Macat further developed the critical thinking process, through tests, teaching and tracking, and finally the critical thinking products. It is an assessment, a library and masterclasses. Taken together, Macat’s solution helps employers better manage talent by recruiting the best talent, promoting the right people, improving data driven decision making and effectively dealing with employee turnover.”

Macat has been selected as one of the 10 enterprises for the 2023 Edventures Global Business Acceleration Fellowships. These fellows will share their insights at EdTech Month 2023, which is set to take place in Hong Kong in mid-October and is organised by Esperanza, a non-profit organisation. Enabling personalised learning
In an ideal scenario, employers would be able to create custom learning paths for each employee, promoting growth and proficiency in a manner that is easy, efficient, and cost-effective. ODILO has developed “Unlimited Learning Ecosystems” to respond to the specific needs of each client, not only to enhance formal and compulsory training, but also to provide users with access to the world's largest educational catalogue of over 4 million multi-format resources. “What makes this work is not only the ecosystems, but the team of ODILO professionals who ensure constant monitoring throughout the learning cycle,” says Fátima Bigeriego, ODILO’s Global Director of Strategic Alliances. “ODILO's “Personalized Intelligent Ecosystem” offers users predefined training by their institutions and corporations and the freedom to direct their own learning, always with the support and guidance of our “Unlimited Learning Coaches”,” Bigeriego continues. “The younger generation look for personalised experiences that ‘find' them. Thanks to AI and advanced algorithms, ODILO presents learning tailored to the individual user's interests, positions, educational background, and previous consumption.”
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Workera uses cutting-edge generative AI, data science, software, machine learning, and cloud technology to propel enterprise transformation. The company offers swift and accurate skills assessment and dynamic upskilling solutions on a personalised basis. Workera is led by Kian Katanforoosh who co-taught with AI pioneer Andrew Ng, and now serves as the company’s Chairman. Generative AI helps catalyse personalised learning and productivity and produce custom-tailored content. It pushes companies to monitor productivity trends and make skill development a moving target. As transformations become a continuous business imperative, enterprises are required to constantly track changes in productivity across their job architectures and offer opportunities for their people to gain skills and move seamlessly from job to job, says CEO & Co-founder, Kian Katanforoosh. “Workera leverages generative AI across its product suite, enhancing skills assessment and customising learning paths. Our platform boasts the most detailed skills dataset globally, where each skill is mapped to a measurable cognition. Combined with AI, this enables high-confidence skills prediction. For instance, we can assess someone on, say, 20 skills and provide in-depth feedback on over 100 using predictive analysis.”

Workera is an objective skill measurement platform, independent from learning materials. Skills are measured not in the context of a specific course or learning material, but directly tied to job tasks defined by managers, Katanforoosh adds. Motivating learning
Very often companies struggle to engage and motivate staff learning. To maximise the advantages of training, employers strive to enhance learner engagement and encourage active participation.ClassIn’s flagship Virtual Classroom maximises interactivity in the classroom through innovative tools such as class polling, flexible online seating, randomisers, and dice. ClassIn’s latest addition of a full-scale LMS (learning management system) provides tools to help educators track student progress – from discussion boards, video analytics, attendance tracking, quiz banks, to assessment management. It enables instructors to identify areas where students are struggling and adjust their teaching methods, according to Ted Mo Chen, Vice President, Globalization, ClassIn. Enhancing Student Employability
Graduate employability presents a challenge for all stakeholders involved. Virtual Internships addresses this issue by providing project-based, international work experience to learners from diverse backgrounds, locations, and fields of study. This ensures that learners are equipped with the necessary skills and experience to succeed in their chosen careers. “We guarantee internship placements for all students regardless of their location or background,” says CEO of the company, Daniel Nivern. “We can do this through our proprietary platform that matches learners with a network of over 13,000 host companies worldwide based on their area of career interest. We have been incorporating AI to make the matching process ever more efficient, more precise, and more tailored to the needs of both the employer and student. The advantage is faster and more relevant placements to help learners gain valuable career experience in their chosen fields.”

Belong Education has developed comprehensive platforms that aim to bridge the gap between education and employment through experiential learning, real-world industry projects, and internship opportunities. The company is working towards creating an equal opportunity marketplace where learners worldwide can build careers relevant to their skills through a bias-free process, says Co-founder and CEO of Belong Education, Apoorv Bamba. Belong Education’s “Industry Experience Platform” offers “Industry Capstone Projects,” which enable learners to tackle real company challenges while building a skills portfolio as proof-of-work. These capstones are collaboratively designed with industry partners to meet their specific hiring needs, ensuring practical market relevance, Bamba adds. The EdTech Month 2023 in October is packed with activities for those interested in exploring the new technological frontiers of learning and talent development. EdTech Month 2023
Singapore is leading the way as an EdTech hub in southeast Asia. This is due to government policy and support to both education institutes and businesses, and Temasek investing in EdTech ventures in the region. South Korea is home to over 400 EdTech startups, while venture capital investments in India’s EdTech sector have grown to US$16.1 billion in 2022. Indonesia’s EdTech ecosystem is also expanding while promising startups are emerging in Thailand and Vietnam. In the pursuit of becoming a competitive digital knowledge economy, Hong Kong companies must accelerate their adoption of technologies to enhance the future-readiness of their workforce and attract overseas talent to fill any gaps. Hong Kong has the potential to establish itself as an EdTech hub in East Asia. EdTech Month 2023 will serve as a platform for those interested in exploring the new frontiers of learning and talent development. The cohort of ten 2023 Edventures GBA Fellows, including Virtual Internships, ODILO, ClassIn, Macat, Belong Education, and Workera, as well as other thought leaders, will share their insights during this month-long programme of activities. Attendees will have hands-on learning experience with these award winning EdTech solutions. The programmes are designed for educators, business executives, HR practitioners, EdTech startups, investors as well as students and parents. It also provides an opportunity for local businesses to explore collaboration opportunities with the Edventures GBA fellows, whether you are publishers or in the telecommunication, broadcasting or other content industries. Admission to most activities is free. On-site attendees can join a networking luncheon and engage with summit speakers for a fee of HK$350 per person. Advertisement

Harnessing technology:  the key to future-ready employees and sustainable talent development

Friday, November 06, 2015 5:47:00 AM PDT | VentureDeal
   London, UK  --  Education technology company Macat has received $30 million in growth stage venture capital financing. Macat provides a multimedia learning platform to help explain social sciences and humanities subjects to teenagers and adults. The company was founded in 2012 and is led by CEO Hassan Abdou. Investors in the financing were not disclosed. Macat said it will use the funding to expand the reach of its content and globally scale its digital learning platform. Print Page
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Macat Closes $30 Million Growth Funding

The 11 biggest mistakes people make when they run a startup for the first time
Education startup Macat wants to use the power of Cambridge to make you a better critical thinker, and it has raised $30 million to help boost its online learning platform out of the beta testing phase. There are plenty of startups that have promised to disrupt education using technology, and an almost equal number that have crashed and burned, unable to either get users to finish their courses or provide them any tangible value. In particular, MOOCs, “massively open online courses” that bring university classes online, have seen a sharp drop from the hype of saving our college system to the reality of completion rates in the single digits. But Macat CEO Hassan Abdou tells Business Insider his platform is different, and lives in a sweet spot between the academic rigor of online courses by universities like MIT and Harvard, and the easier-to-digest lessons of places like Khan Academy . Here is what Macat does. The company takes some of history’s most famous books and thinkers, and has a stable of 600 young professors and PhD candidates "translate" them into engaging lessons. These modules are designed not only to impart knowledge, but to improve critical thinking. They aren't simply lectures. Macat currently has 75 texts completed and plans to have 200 by the middle of 2016, according to Abdou. Macat
This emphasis on critical thinking is, Abdou says, a pillar of Macat — and it seems to be what will make or break the platform. The big promise of Macat is that its Cambridge-approved teaching method can actually make you a better thinker. And one of the ways Abdou has convinced a set of angel investors to place $30 million into his venture is because, in a preliminary way, the system has already been proven to work. Cambridge did a small study last year on Macat’s teaching modules, and found that using them caused improvement in both discipline-specific and general critical thinking skills in just 8 hours. For Abdou, this is a start, but Macat is now launching the next phase, which he describes as the “largest ever international critical thinking study. " It starts in January. The study will encompass 2,000 universities, and its goal is to map out how good we all are at thinking critically, and understand where the gap is between that and what employers are looking for. Macat
This is a place where Abdou wants to build concrete value into Macat. He says the US is graduating students, even from prestigious universities, whose skills are misaligned with those employers want. Sure, some of that has to do with a lack of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, but Macat’s focus is on what we lack in critical thinking. If Abdou can go to a student and say, “These are the specific critical thinking areas you need to improve to get a job in the field you want,” and then use Macat to make up the gap in schooling, this is when the money could start to flow in. Macat’s pricing model, which right now is a freemium model with main functionality costing $120 a year (or $30 if you choose monthly), seems reasonable. But to be able to say that, Abdou will have to prove Macat works beyond a narrow trial at Cambridge. And this requires a heavy investment in content, he says. Abdou explains that some education technology companies, particularly those involved in STEM, can lean on the “technology” facets of their company. It is easier to distill this type of knowledge into a teachable formula. But the humanities is harder to automate, he says, and if you simply throw dry material up on the web, you’ll see the same abysmal completion rates MOOCs have. “There really is no shortcut to this,” Abdou says, at least, not that anyone seems to have found.

This Cambridge-approved startup says it can make you smarter in just 8 hours âÂ and it’s now raised $24 million

By FinSMEs
Macat , Washington, DC-based online learning platform, library, and critical thinking tool, raised $30m in financing. In this round, which has three closings, Macat is adding $10m in equity to a previously raised, undisclosed round of $20m from a group of angel investors. The company intends to use the funds to expand the reach of its content and scale its digital platform globally. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Hassan Abdou, Macat operates a cloud-based html-5, multimedia learning platform, library, and critical thinking tool dedicated to explaining the world’s greatest ideas in the social sciences and humanities and improving problem-solving skills for teenagers and adults of all ages. Since 2012, the company has been researching, developing and market testing its content and pedagogy with learning institutions in the USA and UK. The library currently consists of academic analyses of key, seminal works written by active scholars from top universities around the globe. Over 75 analyses and 1,200 original books are currently included in the multimedia platform, which is part library and part educational database. FinSMEs

Macat Raises $30M in Funding

Macat is a company that focuses on critical thinking solutions within the education and professional development sectors. They provide a range of tools for learning and assessment aimed at enhancing critical thinking skills. Macat serves the education and corporate sectors, offering resources that support the development of important skills. It is based in London, England.

Date	11/4/2015
Round	Growth Equity
Amount	$30M
Investors	Undisclosed Investors
Valuation	$XXM
Revenue	0 FY undefined
Sources	3

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