Latest news with #upskilling
Entrepreneur
2 days ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Imarticus Learning Acquires MyCaptain in INR 50 Cr Deal
With this, Imarticus Learning has marked its fourth acquisition in the last four years, further accelerating its growth journey and strengthening its leadership in the education sector. You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Professional education leader Imarticus Learning has acquired edtech startup MyCaptain for INR 50 crore (approx. USD 6 million), marking its fourth acquisition in the past four years and further cementing its leadership in India's upskilling landscape. This strategic acquisition significantly expands Imarticus Learning's workforce to over 850 employees and brings in a dynamic team of ex-founders from MyCaptain, boosting the company's senior leadership with fresh entrepreneurial talent. The move aligns with Imarticus Learning's broader vision of reaching 5 million learners over the next three years, with a strong focus on deepening its presence in Tier II and Tier III cities. Nikhil Barshikar, Founder and CEO of Imarticus Learning, highlighted, "Our collaboration with MyCaptain marks a pivotal step in strengthening Imarticus' vision to be the lifelong career partner for learners across their journey. What Zeeshan, Ruhan, and Sameer have built with MyCaptain is a company rooted in strong values, vision, and real-world impact. We're thrilled to welcome them into the Imarticus family as we shape the next phase of growth together." Barshikar further added, "While previous acquisitions have helped us diversify our portfolio and address evolving learner needs, with MyCaptain, we aim to deepen accessibility in non-tech career domains and significantly expand our reach in Tier II+ cities." Founded in 2012, Imarticus Learning is a Mumbai-headquartered professional education company that has impacted over 1 million learners. It offers industry-relevant programs in finance, technology, data science, marketing, and management. The company is India's first and only approved training partner for five global finance certifications including CFA, CMA, CPA, ACCA, and FRM. With a network of over 3,500 hiring partners and collaborations with premier institutions like IIMs, ISB, and London Business School, Imarticus has placed more than 75,000 learners in top MNCs. MyCaptain, founded with the mission of unlocking unconventional career paths for youth, has over 5 lakh learners and generated INR 27 crore in revenue last year while achieving EBITDA breakeven. The platform is known for its strong grassroots presence across 1,500+ campuses and boasts a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 70, one of the highest in India's edtech sector. "MyCaptain began as a movement to challenge the status quo and open up alternate career paths for students across the country," said Mohammed Zeeshan, Co-founder and CEO of MyCaptain. "With Imarticus' scale and Nikhil and Sonya's shared belief in our mission, we now have the chance to take everything we've built and scale it even further, making new-age careers more accessible and achievable for more than 1 million students across India." Imarticus plans to scale MyCaptain's operations fivefold over the next three years, further advancing its mission to be the career partner of choice for learners from college to leadership.
Khaleej Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
UAE: Embrace AI or be replaced, experts warn employees
Are you worried that your job might become automated one day and you might be asked to leave the company? Employees need to train themselves on technical skills before they become redundant at their companies, industry executives warned on Wednesday. "Junior level employees need to start training themselves in technical skills. Instead of your senior coming and telling you that this process can be automated, if you are not thinking ahead of time, you will be replaced by the year. We need to train and upskill our juniors on technical skills," said Ashok Mehngi, group financial controller, NMC Healthcare. "Mid-level staff need to work not only on technical skills but also on how to collaborate with other departments. Finance can no more be a single department which will work in silos, but work collaboratively with other departments, and middle-level managers need to learn it," he added while speaking during a panel discussion at the New Age Finance and Accounting Summit organized by Khaleej Times on Wednesday. Senior employees need both technical and people management skills With regard to senior level employees, he added that strategic thinking alone is not going to serve the purpose without them also being enabled with AI. "We're increasingly focusing on improvement. The audit closing is no more a monthly thing, it might become a bi-monthly exercise because we don't want wait for month-end to see the results and then take action. The finance team needs to support everybody in such a way that, going forward, this bi-monthly reporting will happen, and people start making the decision at a faster pace," he said. He stressed on learning both technical and people management skills. "We need both of them even at the senior level. They need to learn technical skills, because, when my juniors or mid-level team members provide me with some reports, if I do not understand how these reports are made, I will not be able to make those decisions. So technical skills are required not only at a junior level but also at a senior level. It's high time firms started investing in technology and people, because going forward, nobody will accept it. It's important to have people and technical skills, both,' he said during the panel discussion, which was moderated by Anand Soni, group CFO and strategic finance and business transformation leader and corporate trainer. Sireesha Venkata, Group CFO of BPG Group, and Ramkumar Balasubramaniam, CFO of Barclays, also took part in the panel discussion. Quit worrying about your job, embrace AI Anshu Sharma Raja, banking CIO and global technology leader, said finance professionals should embrace new technologies instead of worrying about artificial intelligence (AI) taking away their jobs. "We are in the new wave of AI revolution. Digital transformation is one thing, but this AI wave is a whole new thing and that is truly happening. I can't imagine anybody not using ChatGPT and so on. People like me have stopped using Google and now go to ChatGPT and other platforms. It has democratized that technology and it is in the hands of every single one of us, from CEOs to the junior-most guy. It is not about how I can save my job, but how I can leverage that technology so that I can do my job in a more efficient, effortless way to minimize errors," said Raja. She noted that be it small or big companies, they are integrating ChatGPT and other AI capabilities into their platform. "None of our jobs will be secure in the current avatar when you have driverless cars and so on. Those things are a reality, not some sci-fi thing that's going to happen in 50 years' time. People are questioning the value of education and degrees," she said during the panel discussion, adding that a lot of times finance teams and the CFOs keep themselves at arm's length from technology and think of themselves as users of a technology platform that a tech team is providing. "I would encourage everybody to change that narrative. Get in the conversation, start driving requirements upfront and start co-creating based on what's available today. Ask your CIOs how to embrace this technology rather than getting worried about the jobs being taken away," she added.
CNA
23-05-2025
- Business
- CNA
Major mindset shift needed to strengthen lifelong learning: PM Wong
Raising AI proficiency across the workforce and getting more employers to invest in upskilling - these are among key priorities for Skillsfuture Singapore as it enters its next chapter, launched by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. He added that more can be done to maximise the programme's impact and called for a major mindset shift. Tan Kok Yam, Chief Executive of SkillsFuture Singapore, talks about how his office will ensure the courses are industry-relevant and sector-specific. He also discusses some challenges that companies may face when taking a skills-first approach and how to bridge this gap.
Entrepreneur
21-05-2025
- Business
- Entrepreneur
Upskilling and Training is the key to unlocking UK business growth
The UK is facing a significant change across the economy. Whether this be the adoption of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, or more rudimentary changes such as the major shift we have seen towards remote work since the pandemic. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. You're reading Entrepreneur United Kingdom, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Throughout modern history, the UK has experienced seismic workplace shifts and with that comes a change in the skills requirements and needs of businesses and individuals across the country. As far back as the industrial revolution and as recently as the invention of the internet, the skills of the workforce have had to adapt in order to fulfil economic and business needs. On an individual level, upskilling, reskilling and skills training has been vital in ensuring that the workforce has the adequate level of technical knowledge to ensure roles can be filled and in the present day, with new technologies emerging and being integrated at pace, this is more important than ever. Addressing the skills gap and economic inactivity crisis The importance of skills and upskilling is vital in today's economic landscape. This is not just as a consequence of emerging technologies but also the skill levels and qualifications we are currently lacking across the economy. Many businesses across sectors with significant importance to the UK economy, such as technology and finance, are currently struggling to fill vacancies owing to a lack of skills in the workforce. Indeed, a recent report from the British Chambers of Commerce highlighted that 62% of organisations are facing skills shortages with 64% of organisations not confident about applying new technologies such as artificial intelligence or green technologies. This has a major impact on organisational efficiency and innovation owing to not just the inability to recruit new members of staff but also placing an additional burden on the existing workforce. The same report highlighted that 68% of organisations say that skills shortages have increased the workload on existing staff and in turn removed the ability to work creatively and productively, which in the long run will stifle innovation. The need for workers with new skillsets and demand for upskilling of existing staff is clear. This has been reflected in the Labour Government publishing its AI Opportunities Action Plan which will aim to train "tens of thousands" of AI professionals by 2030. While this is a positive development, it is crucial that businesses across the economy take immediate action in order to address the gaps they currently experience, rather than waiting for policy to shift the landscape for them. SBOs (skills-based organisations) Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the UK economy. The entrepreneurs that lead them and the employees that work for them are the dominant business population, representing over 99% of businesses in the UK and are a significant driver of economic activity. These are the organisations that are currently in desperate need of additional and new skillsets in order to thrive and innovate in whatever sector they operate in. We are seeing a key gradual transition towards businesses adapting to become Skills-Based Organisations (SBOs), in a bid to be agile and fulfil the requirements of their operations. An SBO goes beyond the traditional viewpoint of a business that advertises using traditional job descriptions and fits employees into siloed workstreams where they are expected to fulfil a single role. Instead, the requirement for new skills is seeing many businesses adapt and embrace employees with diverse skillsets, moving beyond rigid job descriptions and allowing them to respond faster to market and technological changes. The businesses that embrace a skills-based future will thrive in an ever-changing economy as they enhance internal mobility and allow them to become nimble and adaptable. Although in theory, SMEs may find it easier to become skills-based as they have fewer employees with a relatively flexible set of roles and responsibilities, along with a greater control over how skills requirements can be matched with each role. However, larger business will be more likely to drive a skills-based workforce due to the need to improve internal employee mobility, as there are not enough people in the job market to fill in the skills gaps at the larger scale needed. Larger businesses also tend to have the budgets and bandwidth to shift the way they plan their workforce compared to smaller businesses. SMEs can then gradually follow suit as it becomes more and more mainstream. How skills can turbocharge innovation Fundamentally, for SMEs to thrive in a modern landscape and in the context of economic and industrial changes, it is vital that skills are put at the heart of all business activities. The requirements for businesses are clear, that they are in need of the skills that fit into the modern day, and they require them quickly. Upskilling and training will play a crucial role in fulfilling these requirements. As roles become redundant, change and are enhanced by the emergence of new technologies and working practices, businesses need to embrace being skills-based organisations and adopt routes such as apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are a key solution to address skills needs, as they provide the opportunity for businesses to acquire new talent and transform the capabilities of their current workforce. Skills are a key tenet in ensuring that businesses of all sizes are able to innovate and for UK organisations to be world-leading in terms of productivity and delivery. In order to achieve this, embracing the concept of being a skills-based organisation will be essential and utilising apprenticeships that have the ability to train new staff and upskill existing staff is crucial. The UK's policy landscape demonstrates that this is something the Government is keen on developing. By establishing Skills England, the Labour Government have highlighted that skills and training will be a key facet in the UK's economic armoury in years ahead. Similarly, the proposed devolution of skills to the regions also shows the awareness that businesses across the UK have individual geographic needs. The national skills framework therefore also needs to be addressed with a regional lens. In order to be a successful and innovative economic powerhouse, businesses need to adapt to the change and engage with its existing and prospective workforce to train and upskill them to fit business needs. The requirements of businesses across different industries and regions are not and will never be homogenous, and a tailored approach to addressing individual skills needs will ensure that as an economy we can be world-leading.
Arabian Business
20-05-2025
- Business
- Arabian Business
Dubai Science Park
With such a solid foundation already, there are two areas in which we must continue to focus: upskilling talent and innovation
