siliconindia | | October 20168IN MY OPINIONHeadquartered in Ireland, ALISON is the e-Learning platform proffering free online learning through interactive multimedia techniques for basic education and workplace skill training.FREE ONLINE LEARNING A SCALABLE SOLUTION TO INDIA'S SKILLS SHORTAGEBy Mike Feerick, Founder & CEO, ALISONhe Government of India's stated aim of creating a 500 million strong skilled workforce by 2022 is both ambitious and an economic necessity. The only way to up-skill so many people in a meaningful way in such a short space of time is to embrace and develop the growing opportunity of free online learning.India and the world must face this unique challenge together. It is estimated that by 2022, 17 percent of the world's workforce will reside in India making the up-skilling imperative not just an Indian but an international one. According to a 2014 Economic report by the National Skills Development Authority, only two percent of India's workforce is adequately skilled for the modern workplace. Free workplace learning solutions pioneered since 2005 are changing the up-skilling landscape of the world of work at a very rapid pace. Free learning ecologies have the capacity not just to change and empower individual lives, but to change and empower whole economies. Freemium models hold the greatest potential. The view of `Free' services as somehow inferior is being left well behind, as people fully accept and engage with other no cost services such as Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, being fully aware that a flexible business model allows these companies to be both free and hugely profitable at the same time.Free learning ecologies mean that the cost of providing education and skills training is not born by the student directly, but by advertising and the sale of optional parchment and other learner premium (paid) management solutions. All learners can access the learning for free once they can gain access to the internet, currently estimated at 35 percent of the population of 1.36 billion people.For India, the free online learning revolution matters most in regard to practical workplace skills training, helping people to up-skill to secure better-paid employment. India needs modern workplace skills, from accounting to project management, from digital literacy skills to human resource management, from sales and marketing to coding skills. In a Manpower group Survey 67 percent of Indian employers reported they struggle to find employees with the necessary skillset.Up-skilling a nation is more than providing free courses. Now, free online solutions involve tapping the entire knowledge resource of a nation, creating free publishing, learner management and testing solutions, essentially driving all education and learning costs to zero through the harnessing of a massive online learning platform. Basic educational and skills training content offers the advantage that it changes T
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