ALISON Reaches 1 Million Learners in India

    GALWAY, IRELAND, June 05, 2016 /24-7PressRelease/ -- During his 10-day visit, Mr Feerick met with officials from the Ministry of Skills and the National Skills Development Council and also announced a new initiative with one of India's largest training organisation AISECT.

"My trip to India was an inspiring experience and I was delighted by the warm welcome I received in both New Delhi and Mumbai. We are excited by the vast opportunities and potential we see for free online learning in India. Indian learners are exceptionally motivated, hardworking and with a real drive to succeed," commented Mr Feerick.

In addition, Mr Feerick met with several ALISON graduates. "Of the six graduates we met in New Delhi, four had flown in from locations throughout India, and one gentleman, a teacher from Ahmadabad on the West Coast travelled 16 hours by bus. He said he had to come to thank ALISON, which has been central to the operation of his private school for many years, and also to encourage us to become involved in Prime Minister Modi's 'Skill India' programme."

ALISON graduates had varying stories to tell. One was an engineering student who was excelling in college as he was complimenting his classroom study with free study on ALISON; another was a cyber-security expert who took a free Diploma in Project Management which gained him a promotion. There was was also a student of manufacturing and supply management who used his ALISON learning in his family's manufacturing business in the North of India.
"Meeting ALISON graduates in India was a humbling experience," commented Mr Feerick, "with learners giving credit to the team at ALISON HQ who are driving free learning opportunity for so many worldwide."

With the milestone of one million learners in India now reached, Mr Feerick said that the opportunities opened in India this May will be quickly followed up on - a second visit in July for India's National Skills Day is already being planned. "Prime Minister Modi wants to upskill 500 million youths by 2020. We believe this can be achieved embracing the highly scalable learning solutions such as ALISON is providing."

ALISON is the global leader in free online certified skills training for the workplace with 7 million registered learners, 800,000 graduates worldwide and a further 250,000 signing up each month to learn for free on the platform. Pioneering the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courseware) movement in 2007, ALISON provides 750+ free online courses at diploma and certificate level. ALISON is changing how the world learns through its free learning ecology. The company has received a number of awards for its pioneering work, including a UNESCO Award for Innovation in ICT for Education in 2011 and the World Innovation Summit for Education Award (WISE) in 2013.

ALISON is the first free online learning platform that has been able to develop a scalable sustainable self-funding model. The ALISON free learning ecology is supported by a combination of advertising revenue and income from parchment sales and innovative learning products such as ALISON Study Groups - a free learning management system developed by ALISON.

Headquartered in Galway, Ireland, ALISON is a for-profit social enterprise founded by Mike Feerick.

The majority of our learners in India are aged between 18-34 years with the highest concentration in the larger urban and internet connected population centres including New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Other areas such as Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Utter Pradesh are also reporting strong growth.

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