As professionals of various disciplines seek to broaden their knowledge notably via digital platforms, the need for a rich and enhanced interface becomes a viable option. Based on this, the Italian edtech Talent Garden with the mission to offer a good number of people the opportunity to learn and boost their professional development has reportedly acquired ‘Hyper Island’ in order to become Europe’s leading digital education provider.
Hence, it should be borne in mind that the latest development is viewed as a deal that will bridge the digital skill vacuum existing across Europe while creating programs at 20 different campuses and online for over 20,000 students coupled with professionals in every passing year.
As edtech startups continue to double down on their efforts aimed at expanding their reach, while taking advantage of the current pandemic, the Italian edtech is rather poised to take advantage of this situation. As a result, it’s also understood the global digital education market has been booming notably since the pandemic and is estimated to grow from €7.4 billion in 2020 to €29 billion by 2025, all as a result of the mismatch between the skills required by companies in addition to the current market situation.
Meanwhile, according to a source familiar with the matter, citing Talent Garden’s co-founder and CEO ‘Davide Dattoli’ response to digital education and its popularity during the period of lockdowns which saw enforced distance learning and working, pointed out:
“When the emergency is over, we will want to continue to be flexible: to connect from the sea and the mountains. And we certainly won’t miss meetings that were postponed for months to coincide with agendas or intercontinental travel for a few hours. The greater flexibility we have experienced during the lockdown is something beautiful that will stay with us”.
While the latest merger is viewed as one that has paved way for credence, the Future of Jobs 2020 has it that by 2025, about 85 million jobs will be affected by human-machine task sharing, while 97 million jobs could emerge. Based on findings, it’s believed corporations will need to manage the reskilling of 50% of their employees over the next five years.
Drifting from this backdrop of massive market potential, the edtech mergers – Talent Garden and Hyper Island are believed to have taken the bull by the horn by setting up a solid track record in the education space. A partnership is viewed as one that will offer a significant boost to a European commitment to digital education.
Talent Garden which was founded in Brescia, Italy back in 2011 is known as a renowned player in the digital coworking sector, which focuses basically on networking and skills development. However, the subject company has grown considerably in the digital education market, while offering services to students, professionals, and notable European companies.
On the other hand, Hyper Island headquartered in Sweden which already has its cross-border markets operating in Europe, Asia-Pacific, North and South America, is a business school that specializes in digital education with a range of accredited, part-time and full-time educational programs.
In view of the latest development, which is due to be finalized in December will see Italy’s edtech company acquire a controlling stake in Hyper Island, with the aim of creating a European edtech alliance that will integrate other European digital schools in the future. However, the partnership between the two edtech companies is equally viewed to establish a geographical footprint in Europe with a physical presence in 12 countries (eight already served by Talent Garden while four by Hyper Island) precisely in the regions of Nordics area (Sweden and Denmark), South Europe (Italy, Spain, and Austria), the UK and Ireland (Manchester, London, and Dublin), in addition to strategic establishments through Hyper Island in the Americas and in Asia-Pacific. Furthermore, the two companies will jointly employ a team of 250 professionals coupled with hundreds of closely collaborating speakers, trainers, and facilitators across three continents.
Talent Garden co-founder and Executive President ‘Davide Dattoli’ made clear that: “Digital Education is the great social and economic challenge of our century. From the outset, we have focused on the value of community, viewing digital training as the way of creating new talent and helping companies face digital transformation. Today, through joining forces with Hyper Island, our project is making a new leap forward. In such an important but fragmented market, we are readier as ever before to act as aggregators and game-changers”.
Nonetheless, to ensure there is a continuity of the vision of making digital education accessible to everyone, the comprehensive training offers are broken down into three main categories;
- Business-to-Consumer: training courses for the digital working world and professional learning for students and professionals;
- Business-to-Business: training programmes for the digitalization of large companies with upskilling and reskilling programmes;
- Business-to-Government: professional training courses subsidised by governments to refresh the skills of citizens and workers.
The outcome of this meant positive news for the European communities owing to the fact that this refresh collaboration will bring together the communities of two digital innovators in Europe, providing an exciting offer to the education market, while addressing the digital skills gap in the continent of Europe.
- Please leave your comment!
Be the first to comment