[Written in partnership with Supernewsroom, but the editorial team had full control over the content.]
When I first found the local training platform, ReSkills, He was skeptical.
From personal experience, I felt like I was getting it marketing guru vibrations of the app, especially with courses titled “3 Secrets About Selecting Funds to Get Your Winning Funds” or “Build Your Powerful Trading Skills”. Not to mention, the miniatures represent stock images intended to evoke a sense of motivation or trainers dressed in blazers with their arms crossed.
Those who are wary of digital marketing or lifestyle gurus will probably consider them red flags for legitimacy, but, as they say, don’t judge a book by its cover. So we spoke to the team to find out more about the site.
The categories of training programs you will find here are about business entrepreneurship, career improvement and self-improvement, taught by “master coaches”. This made me wonder, who are these coaches and what experience do they have?
CEO Jin Tan explained that the 100 ReSkills coaches in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India and the Philippines have a combined minimum of ten years of practice and training experience in their respective industries.
To further justify its quality, ReSkills is a training provider registered under HRDC (Human Resource Development Corporation of Malaysia). The app was also developed to help coaches move their services online, as corporate training was one of the industries severely affected by the pandemic.
Find a different audience
When COVID-19 hit our shores, Jin noticed the panic and uncertainty faced by corporate trainers and educators who hesitated to change their online services. They kept hoping that things would return to normal soon.
Simultaneously, his involvement with young people through non-profit organizations caught his attention a worrying issue. Many young people lacked direction and did not see the potential they had in themselves.
Jin wondered if there was a way to help trainers share their experience with young people who may want to learn from it. With more than 12 years in the technology industry, Jin and his office manager Ivan Tan partnered with Jegan, who has been in the training and development scene for more than a decade to found ReSkills.
Learning is a two-way street
ReSkills works as a live learning platform where seminars are conducted in real time so students can interact with coaches whenever they have questions. Called OnLIVE, the courses are available every day and users are notified of upcoming classes two weeks in advance so they can plan ahead.
These daily live classes are probably one of the most prominent features of the platform. Although schools do this every day through Zoom calls, some edutech platforms outside of a school environment choose to host their previously recorded video classes.
Live classes hosted on these sites are usually individual classes and are not held daily, depending on your agreement with the coach or trainer.
But the advantage of previously recorded videos is that students have the ability to learn at their own pace, which Jin acknowledged, but argued that students should fill in the gaps in knowledge with their own assumptions. This can be counterproductive when it comes to effective learning.
“In fact, one thing that all our expert technicians can agree on is that learning has to be a two-way interactive process. That means they should be able to question, ask for clarification and even challenge the instructor, ”Jin added.
Of course, the videos can also be watched again via ReSkills OnTheGo, in case students need to review the lesson or have missed classes live. So far, Jin reported that ReSkills has already conducted more than 180 OnLIVE sessions.
A few Ringgit a day to improve
To earn revenue, ReSkills works with a subscription model that is charged annually:
- USD 150 / year (approximately RM 622): one year access to ReSkills OnLive;
- $ 300 / year (approximately $ 1,244): One-year access to ReSkills OnLive, ReSkills OnTheGo, and ReSkills Library, which is where you will find course learning materials.
Annual fees may seem important at first glance, however, if broken down to 365 days, users would pay RM 1.70 RM3.33 per day to access the content and talk to industry experts. For those committed to improving skills and taking advantage of daily ReSkills classes, their prices seem fair.
“Think of Netflix, we are the Netflix e-learning model focused on an interactive, high-impact live learning space. Our main motto is to make education affordable and accessible to everyone, everywhere, ”Jin said.
At the center, the platform coaches are primarily corporate trainers and ReSkill also provides packages for these training programs through ReSkills OnDemand and ReSkills for Business.
ReSkills OnDemand works as a free marketplace for coaches to set their own prices for courses and participants pay on demand. On the other hand, ReSkills For Business is charged as a massive corporate package for organizations wishing to host employee-specific training programs.
“Or, to make things easier, [employers] you can contact us directly to arrange a particular class on the topic you choose, as well as with your coach, ”Jin said.
Attract more students
While Jin didn’t share too much data about ReSkills subscribers, he told us that most of his users are individuals rather than businesses. He points to the fact that people want to perfect themselves during the pandemic, either to further their career or to enrich themselves personally.
In scale, the app has partnered with Celcom, where 50,000 subscribers will have access to ReSkills OnLIVE for 15 months. In a statement, Celcom shared that it saw a 70% increase in data traffic during the MCO, so that partnership should give ReSkills the leverage to increase.
If the edutech site can focus its marketing efforts on reaching more middle-class markets for job seekers or those who want to grow their careers, ReSkills has a chance to become your favorite site for several live classes. .
Featured Image Credit: The ReSkills Team
