 Welcome everybody. I know this is going to be a lively discussion. I think for those who have joined us for the last two days, the summit has certainly posed some really big challenges and opportunities ahead of us. And today is all about delivering some concrete answers. And I think the issue that we've got to talk about today, valuing online learning, is really at the heart of how we can make some real and impactful difference. So we'll be talking a lot about how to value online learning and to make that shift towards skills-based talent strategies. And we have a great panel today who's actively doing this and will be sharing their wisdom and ideas to put some tangible ideas into practice. Before we get going, I just wanted to share a little bit of context to where our appetites before we move into the Q&A. You know, what we've been hearing from the last two days and what we've read in the future of job reports is that we're facing double disruption on the one hand brought about by the impact of COVID-19 on industries and economies. And on the other hand, many organisations are wanting to speed up their automation plans. Together, this is already changing the size, shape and skill set that we need within our organisations to fuel growth. And as we look forward to the challenges of job displacement and job creation, it forces us to think about how are we going to reskill and how are we going to reskill at the right speed and pace. During the pandemic, we all saw a huge surge of interest in online learning, both from individuals and also from institutions. I think, you know, whether it was platforms like Coursera or Udacity, they saw exponential growth in the amount of users engaging on that platform. And this is wonderful news, wonderful news for a number of reasons. On the one hand, it really democratised learning, given free access for many people. It also supported something we've been talking about for the last few years around supporting lifelong learning. And it also demonstrated how we can have greater flexibility in how we deliver learning to those that are hungry and eager for it. It's no surprise now that 42% of companies expect to use online learning to deliver not only these benefits, but also to reduce the costs of their learning spend. Powerful drivers in the current climate. But here's the rub. Many of our current hiring and promotion practices are grounded in the traditional world. Many of our practices look towards traditional qualification to see whether people are suitable for a job or suitable for a promotion. And if we keep looking at traditional qualifications as proxies for skills, we sell ourselves short on the full power that online learning can be delivering for our people. Because the challenges without online learning really being seen as an acceptable pathway to employment is going to be tough to ensure that those on that platform keep engaging in lifelong learning because they see the benefits. And it's going to be impossible to get the level of work and ability needed to fuel our economies and close that skills gap we've been talking about. Interestingly, one of the things that struck me in the future job report was people also were not moving into traditional skills adjacencies or jobs that are similar to what they've done before. Again, I think questioning the current paradigm about how we evaluate people's suitability for a role. Online learning platforms and new approaches to interviewing hiring are definitely the way forward. They're unlocking new employment opportunities for those that maybe are non-traditional learners. They're promoting, as we mentioned, that culture of lifelong learning. And they're helping to expand the potential of talent, not just for our own organization, but for those in the broader economy. But we need to couple these new innovations with a new way of looking at talent and talent management. And with most organizations saying that they want to redeploy at least half of their talent into the roles of the future, this becomes a huge imperative. We've got phenomenal opportunity in front of us. Let's start hearing from our panelists about how best to unlock it. Today, I'm joined by four companies who are doing just that at the current time. And as we start to do our introductions, I'd love to hear from you your quick response to this one question that we've heard throughout all the sessions today. What do you see as the biggest barrier to delivering the benefits of online learning that we've all been looking for? Ravi Kumar, president, emphasis. Can I start with you? I'd love to hear your response. Thank you, Kate. Thank you for that question. I'm going to make this really quick and elaborate later. I would say three things. First, we suffer from something called degree inflation. What I mean by that is we are going back to what you said. We depend on pedigree and degrees as a proxy to skills. We need to switch to skills. Second, online training and online learning by itself is not enough. You need to apply a value chain starting from assessing pathways, assessing capabilities, online training and then apprenticeship. Third, I would say adaptive collisions between online platforms and employers and those adaptive platforms, those adaptive collisions will drive how well we can absorb them into our jobs. These are the three important things which are constraining online training, online learning to be mainstream. Well, Ravi, I look forward to unpacking some of that later. I know under your skill and restart, you've done a lot of those adaptive coalitions. So I would love to hear some of your learnings from that. Gabrielle Duport, CEO from Audacity. I'd love to hear your response to that question. What do you see as the biggest barrier? Great. Thank you for the question. I think the biggest barrier is an outcomes based standard in certification. And the real question is how do we know that when someone graduates from an online program, they actually have the skills? And how do you know that one machine learning certification is equivalent to another? So really, what is that standard we measure ourselves by so employers can have confidence in what they're getting? That comment around skills qualification and how we can have confidence is going to be really important. So thank you for those opening remarks. Gabrielle, looking forward to coming back to you. Amy Regan Moorhouse, Senior Vice President at Trailhead, would love to hear what you think is the biggest barrier. Yeah, I mean, I think we've talked about it this week. It is very clear that COVID-19 has fundamentally changed our job market with hundreds of millions out of work. And those that do still have jobs, they see them change rapidly overnight. So this makes ongoing online learning even more important. But 70% of people we just did a study are saying that their jobs have changed and 60% of those are saying, I need my skills to be up to date. They're not up to par right now. So that's sort of a foundational challenge. But I think for employers, businesses are struggling and they're really not investing in their employees as much as they could be right now. And that coupled with the fact that they may not have systems in place to really generate engaging online learning, that'll be a barrier to adoption. Thank you for those opening words, Amy. I think that combination of concern around job security and also your own marketability means that we're tackling this topic in a particular climate that we need to acknowledge. Thank you. Theresa Carson, Vice President of Amazon Web Services, would love to hear from you on your insights here. Hi, Kate. I think the answer, one of the answers, what everybody else said was great, but access. I mean, the biggest barrier is access for all, making sure that we have broadband access, especially if you think about the underrepresented, for sure we don't have that, two other kind of areas we see. It's not the biggest barrier probably, but just the right skills being taught properly. And working back from what the employer actually needs for that individual student or employer to do, making sure that we're teaching those fundamental skills that allows them to get that job and create economic development. So that for me, that's kind of the things I'm thinking about, but access for sure is what we see a lot of lack of. And Theresa, you put it so simply. It's very clear the things we need to tackle. Actually, putting that in practice is always a bit harder. So I love your comments there about access, but also identifying the right skills. There was a poll a couple of hours ago, and I think one in four people said identifying the right skills was the biggest barrier. So I think you're with the audience on that one there. Absolutely. Lastly, let me come to Daphne Kiss, CEO of WorldQuant University, would love to bring in a different perspective here on what you see as the barriers. Daphne, you're on mute at the moment. Sorry about that. Thank you for having me. I've been part of the Skills Consortium and I have to say it addresses a lot some of what's been raised here, the idea of having shared standards of what employers are looking for and what are the skills of the future. I'll let go of course what everyone else has said. I mean, our program, we have 6000 students on our platform at any given time in the data sciences, and we are trying, there's an extraordinary amount of talent on the platform. And I think one of the great challenges, as others have said, is the ability to compare these new delivery models to what we're traditionally accustomed to while providing the academic and training rigor and curriculum that's expected by the workplace. And so when you ask what the biggest challenge is, again, I think it's employers acknowledging that these skills are there, and that they're willing to work with us as a pipeline partner. Because again, education is great, training is great. But at the end of the day, what we're all echoing is that we're looking for employment opportunities. And so for an organization like ours, really being that pipeline partner to employment opportunities is, I would say, the greatest challenge. The end game there is about employability. And I think we have to keep that in our sights. But I also like the language you used around the amount of talent we have on the platform, not the amount of learning. Because I think that's an upend, a whole thinking about how you go about hiring and recognizing skills in a new climate. So great opening comments, I think, to warm us up for today. Actually, Gabrielle, actually, Daphne, why don't we stay with you? I think one of the topics that has got a lot of airtime over the last few years has been this one around universal taxonomies. And I'd be curious to hear from you as to why you think having a common skills language is so important. What are the benefits for both learners and workers? Yes, so I would say that it's certainly a challenge. For one, we're talking about a moving target. As we all know, the skills of today are not necessarily the skills of tomorrow, 90% of jobs that exist today will not exist tomorrow. So I'm a big fan of both the quantitative, qualitative skills that are necessary across these various academic and career proficiencies. And I think that that's something that we need to pay considerably more attention to as we look to the future opportunities. So we use the term, of course, often lifelong learners. And that is a big issue. How do you turn people into lifelong learners? How do you make that exciting? And in a way, it's not so different than the kind of culture you try to create in a corporate environment where people, if there's an environment of trust and an environment of collaboration, where rather than focusing on skills gaps, we focus on skills strengths and support peer to peer learning. I think this is something that all online learning environments need to really focus on and do a considerably better job than we have done. I think it's part of, of course, what's contributed to all those falloff rates that we all talk about in the history of all of this. And I think we're sort of on the 2.0 or perhaps 3.0 version of this, but that we need to start thinking about the environments that we're creating for that learning. Yeah, that sounds great. While I have you, we have got some questions that's coming in from the audience around digital badges and credentials and qualifications for that. Of course, a universal language gives us a starting infrastructure. I wonder if you want to say a few words on the connection there between the two. Sure. So one of our programs, very specifically, is a data science 16 week module that really focuses on Python and data analytics and visualization, et cetera. And people, how do you measure that? How to the point that was made, you know, certainly at Udacity and coming standards that we all agree on. So one of the things we've done is partner with Credly, which is one of the recognized credentialing outlets and probably the most widely recognized. And I think there it's, it's, it's really almost again on trust, which is to say that we can verify that what we say we are teaching, we are teaching. How that it's been up to you to compare the quality, you know, the level of rigor, whatever the product that's expected, but to have just as a starting point, the idea that we can in fact validate that the skillset we are promising you after two units, you know, 16 week program is what you expect. And in some way, you know, we know that's what traditional education, right? That's what accreditation has been as a property for delivering what you promise you're delivering. So some of it's unique to being online and some of it maps well to some of the traditions, educational traditions we all come from. Yeah, some of those mental models are there, but I think new players and new acceptance is what is a bit of the barrier today. Gabrielle, on that point, I would love to come across to you next if you don't mind. You know, Gabrielle, the shift towards skills based talent systems, whether it's, you know, hiring, facilitating talent moves, even pay for skills, again, is something that's trending a lot at the moment. How can elevating online learning as an acceptable pathway to employment really help to drive that agenda? Gabrielle, if you wanted to say a few words on that. Yeah, absolutely. And look, the major challenge to elevating online learning to accept the pathway is really proving that online training leads to hard, measurable skills and actual business outcomes. How do you prove to an employer that a program manager can become proficient in data analytics or field engineer with obsolete skills can start coding in Python or Kotlin? And the truth is the early wave of online education had really uneven results. Engagement rates were very low and graduation rates were even lower. That has changed and has changed very materially. And I think a case study is helpful to see this. We work with Shell, which operates in 70 countries worldwide. And they had a challenge, which is they had 160 central data scientists that were not capable of serving 70 countries. And they had conversely thousands of geological, civil, mechanical, electrical engineers globally that really didn't know anything about data science. And so we created a citizen data science mandatory program with them to re-skill their field engineers worldwide on foundational machine learning skills. And you talk about what are the outcomes. Our graduates then went on and pulled a machine learning model that took streaming field data from every rig across the globe and were able to predict rig failures two weeks in advance and each avoided rig failure save them $2 million and immediately save them over $100 million. And the key learning here is that businesses have a huge untapped asset, which is their employees. They're talented, they're capable, they're excited. Online learning is the catalyst. And enterprises have an opportunity to unleash their employees. And it is a, yes. No, I was just going to say, I mean, that being able to actually quantify and give those, those figures, I think, does make it a lot more impactful. And I'm also keen to hear from some of the other panelists as we go through, we'll certainly come back to you on other ways in which we can deliver that. And Amy, I'd love to chat to you about online learning and hiring systems. I think a lot of people have talked about the end game here is getting that skills based labor market. How can you see that working in practice? Any insights you can give us? Like, I think it's interesting is that, you know, we talk about what, what are businesses going to do? But really, businesses need to partner with governments and NGOs on this, because no group can do it alone. And I think, you know, both Daphne and Gabriel are really talking about how do we work together on number one, a system of credentialing of certification for online learning that says, this person can do this job, they have this skill. And whether that's validation between from a certification or a microcredential, a badge, or on the job, hands-on skills validation, I think that's going to be really important well beyond the traditional degree that we look at most employers look at today. I think, again, that common skills taxonomy, so we can look at what are the skills that we need? What are the skills that we're going to need in the future? And how do we know that these skills, you know, are leading to these jobs and build the online learning pathway to provide people the opportunity to learn those skills? I do think that employers need to kind of lift their heads up from what they're working on right now, and focus on the future. What are the jobs that they're going to need in the future? What are the skills they're going to need in the future? Who has those skills? And how do we provide online training to offer opportunities to fill those gaps? I think from an industry perspective, you know, I think we've discussed here at the forum, a billion jobs, which is like a third of all global jobs, are going to be disrupted by technology in the next 10 years. So that just think about it, that's a billion people, we need to reskill to get ready for these jobs. So it is absolutely necessary that we do this work now. From an employer impact, you know, we're all in this all digital work from anywhere, my house here, your house is there, world. And that means that we need to have online learning that is flexible and available to everyone within an organization. So the impact there is certainly massive, but it also gives a unique opportunity that maybe we haven't had before, which is truly to hire for potential. If you have a great online learning initiative within your organization, you can hire for potential, and then help skill up the employees as needed. And that really opens new pathways to everyone on Team Trailhead. It's always been our mission to empower anyone to learn the tech skills, regardless of their background. We actually can do that now. So I think that's really important. I think also that we need to be focused on the systems that we are deploying for online learning to make sure they're easily digestible, you know, micro learning, you know, snackable bite sized chunks that I can do in between my sometimes distracted world. Mobile is is a huge component of learning these days. We actually saw in COVID on Trailhead Live, our our video streaming, we saw an increase of 400% because we need to offer the types of modalities that make sense for our learners now. So I think that's hugely important. Yeah, and a huge difference from pre COVID to now. You know, I think the apathy we've heard before has certainly moved away. And I think there are a lot of organizations looking at how do we build those skills for the future. It's interesting here, you know, Daphne, you talked about, we don't just need the learning systems, we need a separate way of credentialing. Gabrielle, you said it absolutely needs to deliver the ROI. You know, and Amy, you started off by saying we can't do it alone. If we need to hit those targets, it's got to be in collaboration. And so I'd love to now turn to Ravi, because I think you've done some exceptional things through a coalition type model. I know you've been in the press with your reskill and restart program. And that's actually delivered real outcomes for individuals when we start to think about employability. Do you want to share a few words on that and some learners? Sure. Thanks, Kate. I think what Amy mentioned is spot on. This is an opportunity for rescaling a billion people. It is a lot of heavy lifting. We're not talking about upskilling from your current jobs and your current work streams. We're talking about moving people between industries, moving people between work streams. In fact, a lot of industries have got decimated, a lot of work streams have got decimated. Digital technologies were otherwise being disruptive and COVID has kind of created an inflection point. So we built a consortium which kind of covers a value chain, if I may. And this value chain starts from assessing for potential. You know, almost two thirds of the workforce in the United States actually doesn't have an undergrad degree. So they're working on low-skilled jobs, but they potentially have an opportunity to play on new pathways. So low-skill, high-potential workers, how do you move them to high-skill, high-potential jobs? So assess skills at the start of the value chain. Identify the right pathways. Identify the online platforms which can provide you those right pathways. Then back it up with the apprentice program on the job marketplace where employers and job seekers can come together. We've built an entire consortium and Ravi, I don't know if it's just me, but I'm losing you a little on the audio there. Local state governments in the United States. Ravi, I think I missed some of that, but I think he was saying, you know, it's not just about the online learning, it's actually seeing that to the apprentice program and thinking about employers and job seekers coming together, which I think is particularly unique. You put together an ecosystem of really interesting different partners, and I know assessment's being quite a big part of that. Teresa, I wouldn't mind coming in and hearing from your perspective because I know that you do see skills assessment as a big part of signaling that online learning is a pathway through to employment. Can you share a bit more about the part that assessment is playing and it's linked to employability? That's to Teresa. Online, I mean, the assessment part is, I mean, it's critical. You've got to be able to assess do they have the skills they need to get the job done. And in fact, it's really interesting for us, we have thousands of job openings at Amazon in cloud computing, distributed computing, and we do a lot of our own. In fact, one of the things we've created was our own artificial intelligence university because we couldn't find groups that taught AI in the early days and still struggle with that. So one of the things that we've created for online kind of assessments, we talked about this a little bit earlier is badging and credentialing, but we've created under our AWS Educate and Academy program. And we also work with community colleges and universities on actual cloud computing certifications. And we've taken it from again working backwards from what we need. So we've actually helped them create the skills that we've told them we want to be assessed. And I'll give you a really good example with their educate. I'm a big advocate. We are teaching along the way so that they can work students need to work. We got to create economic development here. So we want them to work so badging and credentialing in areas that they could actually then go work and get a job and continue their education. So one we have as an example an Alexa badge. So we teach them how to code and develop skills in Alexa, which is machine learning AI. We worked on something with the American Heart Association around data lakes so that they're actually learning how to use real world things. And so, you know, if you work kind of backwards from what they need to learn, we're working right now on a museum badge. And it's all online. So, you know, virtual reality. So if you work again from real skills, and we're also an advocate of taking a problem and let them solve a problem through the technology. So they're learning and they're solving at the same time. So that goes a long way. But I will share within my org, all of my org have about 7,000 people take an AWS certified cloud practitioner exam. So from our executive assistants, all the way through every skill, because it's so important to us, we believe technology is like everybody's got to learn. Every job is going to have some coding or technology involved. To a lot of the panelists point, we need to make sure that we're continually teaching these skills. They can't be one and done. We have to have kind of the ongoing skills update and assessment cave. And Theresa, you bring a great point there about it's got to be demand driven. If it's going to actually be solving those employment challenges. And I love those examples there of how you're using VR and problem solving. So people are actually learning to learn in new ways through the new opportunities these platforms can offer. It really starts upending everything from not just talent management, but how we learn to learn, which I think is very exciting.