2017 Fosway 9-GRIDS™ for Digital Learning recognises FutureLearn as a ‘Potential Challenger’
London, 3 February 2017: Fosway Group, Europe’s #1 HR and learning analyst, names FutureLearn as a potential challenger in its annual Fosway 9-Grids™ for Digital Learning, Learning Systems and Authoring Systems.
Now in its fifth year, the 2017 Fosway 9-Grid™ model aims to provide greater context to organisations investing in learning technology, particularly those based, or operating in EMEA. The analysis uniquely captures five different levels of insight into a vendor’s position in the market, showing their Performance, Potential, Market Presence, Total Cost of Ownership and expectations of their Future Trajectory.
FutureLearn was placed in the ‘Potential Challenger’ zone where vendors are described as typically have solutions with capability across the complete functional range, but have lower customer advocacy and market performance. Solutions in this space are typically newer entrants to the market with a growing but limited customer track record but a complete functional suite.
Stephen Somerville, Director of New Business at FutureLearn commented, “We’re delighted to be placed in the ‘Potential Challenger’ zone in the 2017 Fosway 9-Grid™ for Digital Learning. As a three year old start-up, it’s great to be recognised for our capabilities in this market already. We hope that the breadth of our professional portfolio, our continuing innovation and development of our corporate offer, and our increasing number of customers in the corporate space will see us thrive in this market in the very near future.”
Stephen continued, “We’re encouraged by some of the key findings of the Fosway report generally. The report suggests that there is a sustained demand for digital learning which of course is good news for the FutureLearn platform in the corporate space. Additionally, the report claims that there is a ‘continuing shift towards shorter learning bites with increased modularity’ which aligns with our own research in partnership with the Open University and Parthenon-EY which found that two thirds of those doing short online courses are doing it for professional reasons with over 75% believing there is a link between the short course and their career advancement. Meanwhile, our own research also concluded that the majority (~80%) of employers who conduct corporate training, would consider conducting more of this through MOOCs – we believe that offering these shorter learning bites around subjects that support professional development is exactly what corporates are looking for today and it’s great to see that represented in wider industry reports.”
“FutureLearn is recognised as a Potential Challenger thanks to its ongoing growth and developing corporate offering,” said David Wilson, CEO of Fosway Group. “The new focus of this particular 9-Grid™ has enabled us to broaden the type of organisations included in our analysis. FutureLearn is without doubt innovating digital learning which has marked them out as one to watch.”
Copies of the 2017 Fosway 9-Grids™ are available to download via the Fosway website.
Notes to Editors
About FutureLearn
“Pioneering the best social learning experiences for everyone anywhere”
Founded by The Open University in 2012, FutureLearn is a social learning platform, designed to support learning through conversation. It offers 5.4 million learners free online courses from world-leading UK and international universities, centres of research excellence and specialist education providers like the British Council, Creative Skillset and European Space Agency. FutureLearn is an international platform with over 75% of its users based outside of the UK.
For more information, please contact:
Niamh O’Grady, Senior Communications Manager, FutureLearn, niamh.ogrady@futurelearn.com
Rachel MacPherson, PR Executive, FutureLearn, rachel.macpherson@futurelearn.com
About the Fosway 9-GRID ™
The Fosway 9-Grid™ model is now in its fifth annual research cycle and is based on independent research and insights from Fosway’s corporate research network, as well as market profiling, briefing activities and customer feedback. Each Fosway 9-Grid™ is accompanied by an analyst report, outlining the solution trends and context in each market. To download free copies for each of the new Fosway 9-Grids™ visit the Fosway website.
