In today’s job market, training is an important focus for companies to obtain the skills they are looking for. Swiss Connect Academy accompanies them on this subject. Its founder, Thierry Hostetler, and CEO, Sebastien Gounod, told us about these issues.
What are the different areas of expertise of the Swiss Connect Academy?
Sebastien Junod: We are developing LXP e-learning platform, which companies and organizations can use as an internal learning management tool. And we are developing Training concepts Tailored and certified training in leadership, management, finance and accounting. Finally, we are developing artificial intelligence to make the learning experience more efficient and personalized.
Why is it important to include training in a business strategy?
SJ: The difficulty of hiring qualified workers, the increasingly rapid obsolescence of skills and the imminent retirement of the baby boomers generation will be a great challenge. Recruitment and turnover are very expensive for companies. Currently, training in most companies is a response to a problem. A proactive approach at the strategic level would make it possible to better anticipate costs and thus reduce costs.
Thierry Hostetler: In the “Future of Jobs Report” issued in May 2023, the WEF Specialists I calculated that in the next five years, two out of three jobs will see their skills improve, or even change dramatically. The skills platform that should develop stronger in the next five years are: digital connectivity, lifelong learning, and finally willingness to change/adaptability.
Isn’t blended learning well implemented yet?
SJ: I think educated people, especially since Covid, no longer want to make the trip to go and see the PowerPoint they could have watched at home. They expect another added value from face to face.
During our recent CLO survey, we were surprised to see that less than half of our courses were offered in blended learning. Face to face is financially costly and in terms of flexibility and productivity. Much of this training could be digitized.
Swiss Connect Academy expanding internationally?
y: Over the next five years, 83 million jobs are expected to disappear and 69 million jobs are expected to be created. These jobs are mainly located outside of Switzerland. For language questions, we naturally turn to the markets of neighboring countries that have enough similarities with Switzerland.
SJ: Spanish is the second native language in the world, so we also looked at Latin America, which represents markets with high growth potential.
What do your partnerships bring you?
SJ: We are a young company with strong growth. The formation of alliances, with universities in particular, allows us to strengthen our brand and our reputation, but also to diversify our market patterns, since we focus more on B2B than B2C.
y: I should also mention that these partnerships give us access to expanded expertise and resources.
