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Tuesday, 27 December 2022

HR Learning: 23 Dec, 2022

1.

Pearson to acquire workforce assessment provider PDRI for $190 million

Acquisition to significantly expand Pearson's services to US federal government. London-based education publisher Pearson has entered into an agreement with SHL Group to acquire workforce assessment services provider Personnel Decisions Research Institutes, LLC (PDRI).

PDRI has significant expertise in providing assessment solutions to the US federal government, one of the largest employers in the US with more than 4 million employees. 

The consideration for PDRI represents an enterprise value of $190 million, which will be funded from Pearson's existing cash and available liquidity. 

Completion of the acquisition is expected to occur during H1 2023 subject to regular closing conditions, including any required regulatory filings or approvals. 

This acquisition further expands Pearson's portfolio, accelerating the company's strategy to capture new market opportunities and grow its presence with large employers.  

PDRI will join Pearson's assessment & qualifications division. Within this division, Pearson and PDRI already have an established, strong working relationship, partnering to deliver high quality assessments to federal jobseekers at Pearson VUE test centers. 

2.

An organisation's ability to swiftly adapt to newer technologies depends on how well-oiled its L&D machinery is

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted our everyday life and how we conduct business, collaborate and make decisions. It has also significantly impacted the learning paradigm that has thoroughly evolved - Live Online and Virtual Classes have become the norm instead of limiting learning to classroom sessions. This shift is not just practical and scalable but cost-efficient too. As per LinkedIn Research, Workforce Upskilling can be accelerated by up to 240% by leveraging Live Online Training (VILT). Just like everything else, along with its advantages, this shift has its share of cons, such as challenges in learner engagement, management and administration, and provisioning of labs, to name a few. To augment their upskilling capabilities, organisations big and small are increasingly engaging workforce upskilling companies for all their learning needs - training, certifications, new hire onboarding, assignments, assessments, infrastructure, etc. 

Curating state-of-art impactful Upskilling programs is an art. It also took a lot of thought and time to keep these factors aligned while designing courses at edForce. As a result, our Upskilling programs revolve around the core aspect of an immersive learning experience. This ensures quantifiable outcome-based learning, which includes NPS scores and beyond. Every learning program that edForce provides is crafted to enable companies to kickstart their skilling journey right from the beginning to every stage in an Upskilling lifecycle. Every client coming to us has a different approach and requirements. From Cost, turnaround time, and NPS score to Learner engagement, all have been blended perfectly in all our programs.  

edForce is investing and working on an Upskilling Platform designed bottom-up for the future of learning. To enhance the learner experience, it will have an AI-based learning and engagement engine that will customise the learning path per the learner's skills and abilities. Additionally, the platform will provide advanced features, like enterprise-Reporting, Analytics, and Business Intelligence, to provide critical insights to the stakeholders and decision-makers. Additionally, the AI syndication engine will collate relevant content from various sources to provide a rich learning experience to the learners.

3.

BetterManager raises $16 million in series A funding

The San Francisco-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate its efforts to scale its virtual leadership development solution. Leadership development platform BetterManager has announced the completion of a $16 million series A funding round led by Education Growth Partners. BetterManager’s seed funder, Polar Capital Group, also contributed to the round.

The San Francisco-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to accelerate its efforts to scale its virtual leadership development solution.

Founding in 2017, BetterManager has supported the growth and development of people leaders–from new managers to senior executives–at over 200 organisations around the world through a combination of 1:1 executive-level coaching, collaborative group learning models (such as group coaching and training), practical e-learning tools, and actionable assessments.

“BetterManager highly integrated model has demonstrated consistently that it can enhance the quality of leadership across all levels of an organisation, all as it improves retention of managers and their direct reports. This investment is more than a transaction to us; it’s a partnership. BetterManager is a mission-driven company that was founded on and operates with social impact at its core,” said Stefan Szanto, Education Growth Partners. 

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