Wiley, a global leader in research and education, about Wiley has recently launched an innovative learning solution known as WileyNXT, designed to bridge skill-gaps by offering professional learning and education programme relevant for today’s workforce. WileyNXT, in association with institutes such as IITs, IIMs and NUS is offering niche programmes focused on industry 4.0 and 4.1 technologies to enhance employability amongst professionals. Wiley India, with its two-decade old legacy, ventured into the EdTech segment only during the pandemic. Ritesh Kumar, the Country Lead (India) at spoke to The Daily Guardian,
Q: What is the vision behind Wiley’s entry into the EdTech business with WileyNXT? From publishing to professional training, what inspired the WileyNXT initiative?
A: For over 200 years, the global brand Wiley has been at the forefront of helping people and organizations develop the skill and knowledge that they need to succeed, wherever they are in their education and professional careers. Wiley has long been known and celebrated as a venerable global publisher. Building on our long history of innovation and adaptation, we have become a worldwide leader in both career-connected education and scientific research. Today, Wiley has a portfolio of diverse businesses focused on research, education, online learning, and talent development.
At Wiley, we strive to unlock human potential by Enabling Discovery, Powering Education & Shaping Workforces. We enable discovery by giving knowledge-seekers the content, tools, and resources they need to continue their journey. We power education by making education more practical and useful for students as well as professionals. This is facilitated via our meaningful partnerships with institutions of repute which are poised to shape the education of tomorrow. We shape workforces by bridging the gap between education and employment. We help employers to not only find and develop the best talent, but also equip their employees with the skills that they need to achieve success in their careers and beyond. Wiley’s skilling and professional training platform- WileyNXT fits well under our objective of Shaping Workforces.
Long before the pandemic, Wiley had begun its journey to address the global technology skills gap crisis, with jobs on the rise and not enough qualified candidates to fill them. With the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in India, the skill gap became more conspicuous. The acceleration of technology adoption and innovation accelerated by the global pandemic resulted in a higher concentration of tech companies, global capability centers (GCCs) and international corporations in India. These tech companies, centers and corporations demanded skills of the future which many workers lacked, giving rise to a talent war, especially in technology.
Accordingly, we introduced WileyNXT, a transformative job-readiness skilling and professional learning platform which aims to create a future-ready workforce for the digital economy. WileyNXT is founded on the bedrock of global trust, credibility and legacy of Wiley. Backed by its mission of empowering students, learners and professionals with skills of the future, the platform acts as a job-to-job bridge.
Through WileyNXT, we are helping professionals advance their career and keep their skills relevant with professional courses, premium programs and credentials in partnership with India’s top institutions and foreign universities like IITs, IIMs & NUS in areas like machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, full stack engineering, and so on. The WileyNXT platform provides customized courses in varied domains such as Finance, Business, HR, Product Management, Marketing etc. The USP of these courses is that each of this course is integrated with the application of relevant industry 4.0 and 4.1 methodologies and tools.
Q: In an industry full of EdTech players, what makes you unique against your competitors?
A: WileyNXT has been developed based on deep empathy and understanding of learners and their needs. Before launching WileyNXT, we conducted extensive research on employability roadblocks and skilling requirements for the future-tech workforce. Results indicated that, in addition to needing specific “hard” skills, today’s digital professionals must also embrace lifelong learning to keep pace with the evolving technology landscape. They must also exhibit strong critical thinking skills to respond to new challenges. Armed with these insights, WileyNXT has been created with unique learning methodology that enables learners to contextualize technology skills with deep business awareness, all while honing human-centric and problem-solving skills. WileyNXT’s deep collaboration with the local technology industry makes these programs unique, relevant and effective. The top leaders and industry practitioners in digital technology and business have provided deep insights while developing WileyNXT’s industry-employable curriculum based on in-demand job skills as well as mentorship and training to students, and support in development of Wiley’s learning resources and training methodologies.
At WileyNXT, we realise that business problem-solvers today are required to look beyond what first feels like a limitation, and approach challenges with inquiry, wonder, and innovation. WileyNXT’s pedagogy integrates design thinking and leadership lessons in the courses to develop the triad of Behavioural, Functional and Technical skills in its learners to address its vision of honing well-rounded individuals.
Q: How do you intend to expand into additional areas and keep ahead of rising market competition, given the massive rise that online learning has had in the previous months?
A: At WileyNXT, our courses and curriculum are very much aligned with the market demand. We began with the core objective of bridging the talent employability gap in new and advanced technologies, and within just two years of our focused operations, we have witnessed a significant traction for our courses and programs across the APAC region. Going forward as well, we will continue to attune, customize and refresh our courses and curriculum as per the evolving needs of the industry and our respective learners.
Q: Students in metros and non-metros can opt for EdTech platform courses. What is WileyNXT doing to prepare students and professionals in both urban and rural areas for the workforce?
A: It is a well-known fact that online learning has enabled learners to acquire education, knowledge and information from any corner of the world. At WileyNXT, we are offering skill oriented online programs in collaboration with select premiere institutions. This is not only addressing the challenge of a low enrolment in higher education but is also democratizing access to education at top notch institutions and developing employable, digitally skilled talent from diverse socio-economic backgrounds across India and Asia. We are helping solve the problem of access to affordable and quality digital skill education across the spectrum for over one million job seekers in the country whose future employment has been threatened by automation and emerging technologies such as AI.
Aligned with career-connected opportunities, the WileyNXT professional learning and training solution creates an end-to-end Learner-University-Industry ecosystem that empowers learners at the bottom of the pyramid to pivot into their dream careers.
We also work dedicatedly towards promoting gender diversity and inclusiveness across our cohorts and batches. For this, we offer exclusive scholarships for women techies, students and professionals, known as #TechitLikeHer scholarships. Through this program, female candidates are offered a 50% waiver on the program fee in select courses basis an assessment test. Wiley will continue to bolster its commitment to support women learners uniformly across regions to help them advance their careers in the era of digital transformation.
Q: What new courses WileyNXT has been offering to witness the in-demand in the industry?
A: WileyNXT, along with its academic partners, offers a plethora of courses relevant across domains and industries. We provide niche programs to our learners for specialization in Design Thinking, Data Driven Product Management, Full Stack Development, Strategic Finance, Strategic HR, Customer Experience Management (CXM) and other high-demand areas. We also offer PG Certification in AI for BFSI and AI for Digital Businesses & Ecommerce. We recently launched our first-ever Post Graduate Diploma Program in Data Engineering and Cloud Computing. All these courses have been curated in close alignment with our university partners to meet the growing tech-skill set requirements and market demand.
Q: What has been the WileyNXT roadmap during the pandemic and what growth has been witnessed?
A: Within just two years of its launch, WileyNXT has certified and trained over 12,000 professionals in the APAC region. Given the rapid pace of penetration and integration of new and advanced technologies across industries, we expect to see continued demand for WileyNXT programs in the coming years.