edX was recently named a Core Challenger in the Fosway 9-Grid™ for digital learning by the Fosway Group, Europe’s leading HR industry analyst. The Core Challenger designation signals a robust core suite, a strong reputation for customer advocacy, and strong regional performance. Reinette McLean, Senior Director of Strategy and Product Marketing for edX Enterprise, spoke with us about what this distinction means for the company, the value of cohort-based learning, and more.  

Can you explain the importance of edX being identified as a ‘Core Challenger’ in Fosway Group’s latest 9-Grid™ report?

Being recognized as a Core Challenger by Fosway reflects our robust position in the digital learning landscape, particularly due to our diverse catalog of credential-granting programs. 

This recognition really highlights the strength of our offerings — specifically, our ability to deliver both cohort-based and self-paced learning experiences that resonate with the needs of today’s workforce. Being named a Core Challenger not only validates our current strategy but also positions us well for future growth.

The modern workplace is evolving rapidly. How does edX help companies and employees adapt to these changes?

In a world of constant change, organizations are only as adaptable as their people — and the skills they bring. Today, nearly half of learning and talent development professionals report a skills crisis, with 49% saying, “My executives are concerned that employees do not have the right skills to execute our business strategy.”

Employees feel this gap too. But what motivates them to learn isn’t just skill-building — it’s career progress. When employees don’t see a path forward, they disengage or leave, taking their skills elsewhere.

That’s where edX comes in. We bridge the gap between the skills businesses need to stay competitive and the skills employees need to grow in their careers. Millions of working professionals around the world use our platform to advance their careers through our credentialed, career-relevant programs — from technical skills to leadership training — all designed to align personal growth with business needs.

This powerful link between learning and career development is what drives adaptability and ensures that when employees see progress, companies see results. 

How does edX’s approach to credentialed learning programs balance the needs of both businesses and their employees?

The first rule of L&D: align with business strategy and needs! So the skills needed by the business are going to guide the organization’s learning and content strategy. The challenge, though, is that it’s equally important that initiatives support employees’ aspirations and needs. edX aims to serve both the business and the learner by providing deeper, more intentional learning that awards learners with certificates validating their newly gained skills from some of the most notable institutions. Plenty of other generic, short-form content libraries provide materials that might check the boxes. But the question is: do employees actually gain skills and confidence in their new knowledge after they’ve gone through those courses and collected badges?  

We believe we’ve struck the right balance here: We’re helping businesses meet their needs with the right content and, at the same time, providing learners with deeper, more intentional learning experiences. Those experiences give learners the chance to validate their new skills by earning credentials from some of the most notable institutions on the planet. It’s a win-win scenario for employers and employees alike.

Can you share an example that illustrates how edX’s solutions have made a positive impact within a company?

A great example is our collaboration with Infineon Technologies and the Technical University of Munich. By aligning our learning solutions with Infineon’s critical business needs — specifically, in high-stakes manufacturing environments — we’ve been able to provide targeted education that supports both operational excellence and employee career growth. The Lean Six Sigma certification, for example, not only maintains high-quality standards but also equips employees with credentials that have long-term career value. 

Can you talk about why cohort-based learning is so important to both learners and companies?

Cohort-based learning is more than just delivering content; it’s about creating rich, interactive learning experiences that drive real engagement. They’re learning from subject matter experts and faculty, alongside other professionals in their field. Students aren’t just watching videos; they’re actively engaging in class discussions, participating in Q&As during live sessions, and getting personalized feedback from instructors. That way, we’re not just facilitating information transfer; we’re facilitating actual growth. And this makes for a better experience for everyone involved. 

Our person-centered approach is especially vital in the age of AI. While AI-driven content creation has its place, going from knowledge to capabilities happens when we engage with experts, collaborate with professionals from diverse industries, and apply knowledge to real-world business contexts. It’s in these human interactions—discussions that connect theory to practice, mentorship that shapes future leaders, and perspectives that challenge our thinking—that the most valuable insights and learning occur. That’s why we believe meaningful, people-centered learning isn’t just relevant—it’s more valuable than ever.

Is there an example that comes to mind when you think about how edX is facilitating  growth?

A great example is Hydro’s use of edX’s Oxford Leading Sustainable Corporations Programme. This initiative was specifically designed to align with the busy work schedules of employees by extending it from 6 to 12 weeks, to ensure deep immersion and skill acquisition, and to align with Hydro’s strategic sustainability goals.

The program curriculum is designed to take an executive-level perspective on business sustainability. Students learned how to integrate environmental, social, and corporate governance factors into their business practices. 

Not only was the student cohort enthusiastic about the initiative, but this program also tied into multiple pillars and goals the company had set toward sustainability and access to quality education. All of this goes to show that when classes are designed with both learners and company objectives in mind, everyone wins. 

How can companies integrate edX’s solutions into their learning strategies?

We love having these conversations with companies who are looking to adapt their learning strategies. We specialize in learning solutions that help clients develop their leaders, drive org-wide transformation initiatives at scale, and stay competitive in their industries. By integrating our credentialed courses into their L&D strategies, organizations can address their specific business challenges and support employee development at the same time. This dual benefit is what makes our offerings so unique and so impactful. 

To learn how edX can enhance your learning strategies through accredited courses, reach out to our team.

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edX surveyed 1,600 executives and professionals about their expectations for learning and development on the job

The arrival of advanced generative AI, and now ChatGPT, has sent a clear message to workers in nearly every sector: The AI revolution is here. Employers are turning to automation to deliver on their business goals, with C-suite executives openly embracing AI as a tool that can enhance productivity and efficiency. But effectively leveraging the power of AI requires a workforce that is skilled in using these tools.

edX’s recently released whitepaper, Navigating the Workplace in the Age of AI, shares insights from a survey of 800 executives and 800 working professionals. The survey finds that, rather than turning to post-secondary institutions to upskill, professionals are expecting their employers to deliver the training they need to meet the future demands of the workplace. 

With this shift in expectations, Learning and Development (L&D) teams will face new challenges and opportunities as they work to bridge the skills gaps that exist for professional learners. How will they achieve this considerable task? This blog reviews findings from the survey, which can offer guidance to organizations managing the learning needs of their employees. 

Who is responsible for learning and development?

The need to upskill is high; C-suite executives surveyed estimated that about half of the skills that exist in the workforce today won’t be relevant in just a few years. Faced with a skills gap, many workers have previously sought out education and training from institutions of higher education. However, the edX survey revealed that this mindset has shifted recently, with more than 80% of employees stating that they now see companies as the new post-secondary colleges. 

C-suite executives overwhelmingly agree (93%), and are tasking L&D teams with ensuring that employees have the training they need to perform in their current roles and to excel in the next two to five years. But are they succeeding?

That answer depends on who you ask. While about half of executives believe there is a strong culture of learning in their organizations and that employees are given the time to learn, only one in five employees strongly agree. If companies want to position individual contributors for success, business leaders and L&D teams need to work together to provide more opportunities for professional learners.

L&D teams are expected to address a number of critical business needs, including performance, recruitment, and retention

According to the survey, executives believe that L&D programs should be focused on upskilling at scale (53%) and driving employee performance (50%), but about half also see it as an important strategy to keep employees engaged.

And they are right to prioritize L&D for employee engagement. Nearly 60% of employees reported that they are primarily motivated to learn at work because they enjoy challenging themselves. Other popular reasons include improving job performance (55%) and working toward a promotion or raise (46%). 

Employers shouldn’t be fearful that better trained workers might leave for green pastures. Only one in 10 respondents reported upskilling in order to get a job somewhere else, and almost 80% said they were more likely to stay with their company long term if it offered better training and development.

Learning options that are popular with employees include libraries of self-paced content, online cohort learning, and face-to-face sessions. The survey found that employees in the Tech, Advertising, and Engineering sectors particularly value high-quality online learning. 

Offering a range of L&D options can also be an important recruitment strategy. The best and brightest are looking to join employers that are as invested in their continuous learning and development as they are. Results of the survey indicated that Gen Z places a particular importance on professional development when selecting employers, gravitating more toward coaching and apprenticeships. Millennials, meanwhile, prefer online learning, underscoring the need for a variety of scalable learning solutions. 

The challenge of providing high-quality learning at scale

As noted, there is a discrepancy between how employers and employees view the culture of learning at their organizations. Unsurprisingly, the survey found that there is a similar discrepancy regarding the perception of employee satisfaction with L&D offerings. While the C-suite believes that a significant majority (65%) of employees are “very satisfied”, in reality only one in three employees agree. Employees are more likely to be only somewhat satisfied (48%) and one in six are actively dissatisfied.

To boost satisfaction rates, companies need to look closely at their offerings to determine whether they can meet the needs of employers in better ways. The survey revealed that the most commonly offered L&D benefit today is still in-person sessions; half of the business leaders said that they offer this type of training. However, self-paced courses and cohort-based online learning are becoming increasingly popular. Online learning options are more commonly offered in the fields of consulting, finance and tech, while a number of sectors, such as advertising and engineering, remain underserved when it comes to online learning. 

Is online cohort learning the scaling solution for L&D?

To answer this question, it’s important to consider what drives employee satisfaction with learning options. According to the survey, the top three requirements that employees have for L&D trainings are:

1. The ability to put knowledge to use via practice exercises (27%).
2. Access to new or regularly updated content (19%).
3. A variety of teaching methods, with videos, readings, and more (17%).

If employees are expected to invest their time into learning, it needs to be practically relevant and as up to date as possible. These top needs can be met by quality online learning. In fact, satisfaction rates are already highest for online cohort-based courses, with 43% of the respondents saying they are “very satisfied” with this option.

With the array of online learning options available to employers, how can they find the right high-quality offering for their organizations? They must prioritize the needs of their workforces. When helping companies select the best L&D options for them, edX For Business breaks down the aims of L&D into three broad categories:

• Supporting performance: On-demand microlearning can help with more tactical and task-related upskilling.
• Building a skill: Longer-form learning that balances practical and theoretical experiences can help employees develop individual skills.
• Building a capability: Learning from academic experts and industry leaders alongside a network of fellow professionals can offer a richer educational experience that builds the capabilities needed to achieve the most critical business goals.

Employees prioritize learning over saving and, sometimes, job security

It’s undeniable that individuals are very personally motivated to learn. About 70% of employees reported actively learning between 0.5-3 hours a week.

However, the survey also found that more than 60% are using content external to their company’s L&D program to learn. Moreover, in the last 12 months, the majority of employees (57%) and executives (89%) paid for external learning content out of pocket. In fact, executives who overwhelmingly believe their L&D programs are positively impacting employee performance would also rather pay for their own L&D than use their company’s resources.

Workers at every level are acutely aware of the fact that they need to upskill themselves, and that the cost of not doing so is higher than the price tag associated with education and training. About half of employees reported that they are willing to make some kind of sacrifice to access better L&D opportunities, whether it be taking a more stressful job or a job with less time off. It’s clear that employees are personally invested and prepared to go the extra mile. The question remains: Are companies willing to match their efforts and enthusiasm, and empower L&D leaders to make a difference? 

L&D programs might be meeting needs now, but are struggling with future-proofing

There is room for improvement, but employees are generally positive that they are learning from their L&D programs. Approximately 80% of respondents say that they have more or less what they need to succeed in their current roles (although only about a quarter strongly agree). However, only a third of employees are “very confident” they’ll be able to improve their skillsets and advance their career using only their employer’s L&D programs. About the same number feel they lack the skills needed to perform their roles in the future when looking just one or two years ahead. 

A significant portion of the workforce also needs direction. The survey found that about a quarter of employees “don’t know where to get started” when it comes to learning new skills. This is a particularly significant problem when it comes to AI skills. Employees are feeling pressure to adapt to these new tools, but are notably more apprehensive than leadership about embracing them. L&D teams should view this as an opportunity to step in and provide the much-needed clarity on where to start and what skills to prioritize. Leveraging the AI Academy at edX For Business can help teams familiarize themselves with the tools they need and the skills that will be required to transition into new phases of work. 

Bringing it all together: What are the opportunities ahead?

The findings from the survey paint a helpful picture for business and L&D leaders as they consider how to tackle the upskilling challenge. As they plan ahead, leaders must consider:

1. Executives and employees see L&D as critical to business success, with many invested in lifelong learning.
2. While employees are personally motivated to learn, they do expect employers to provide all the necessary training to build the skills needed for current and future roles.
3. The quality of the professional development offered not only impacts performance, but can significantly influence retention, employee engagement, and recruitment efforts.
4. There is a sizeable gap in perception between leaders and employees as to how well the current L&D programs are working.
5. Leveraging high-quality online learning can address a number of today’s upskilling challenges, with online cohort learning yielding particularly high engagement and satisfaction rates.

L&D teams are under immense pressure to deliver results. It’s no longer sufficient for L&D to support only employees’ current performance. Professionals are apprehensive whether they have the skills needed for tomorrow’s workforce, so L&D must help them plan for the future and remain relevant in a fast-changing working world. 

Although this presents a considerable challenge, it is also a huge opportunity. Businesses that recognize the importance of L&D for their organizations and invest appropriately in the right types of learning will be better positioned to navigate the obstacles of tomorrow and seize the moment with a workforce that has the right skills to do so.

Research findings are based on a survey conducted by edX and Workplace Intelligence between July 10 and July 24, 2023. In total, 1,600 full-time, U.S.-based employees completed the survey, including 800 C-suite executives and 800 knowledge workers. Respondents were invited to take part in the survey via email and were provided with a small monetary incentive for doing so.

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The most critical social imperative for any business today is diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Just ask any recruiter: 49% of those recently surveyed said that jobs seekers do inquire about DEI initiatives. What is more, 44% of all surveyed recruiters reported that some of the candidates they had been in contact with had either turned down an interview offer or a job offer — all of this because of a lack of diversity within the organization.¹

The key to enhancing DEI starts with improved hiring initiatives — it does, however, go beyond that, too. To embed DEI into your company’s culture, you need to weave DEI into the very organizational fabric of your business. Meaning, you need to get everyone on board, from new hires to the C-suite executives; staff at all levels must be able to recognize the importance of the DEI initiatives and to understand what strategies and initiatives are being developed.

This is where learning and development (L&D) comes in — from offering more obvious interventions, like running DEI training programs, to putting in place less apparent actions, such as considering a range of voices, ideas, and needs when designing training programs. L&D plays a key role in starting and maintaining a culture that promotes diversity, equity, and inclusion.

DEI in the workplace

Before discussing how your organization can promote DEI, and so that your company can go beyond treating these concepts simply as boxes to be ticked, let’s first define each one of them.

Diversity

Look around your workspace, be it a shared office space or a virtual one: Does every single one of your colleagues come from the same ethnic background? Do you all share the same gender identity? Do you all eat the same meal for lunch? Most probably not. And that’s a good thing, because the more different your life experiences, even the smallest ones, the more effective your team may be at collaborating and coming up with innovative ideas. And, perhaps even more importantly, the more understanding your business will be of the diverse realities and needs of your customers and clients.

Diversity as a concept is based on the understanding that each individual, because of how different they are from all other individuals, is uniquely valuable and has the means, and the required background, to bring a fresh and different perspective to the table. Diversity can be one of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and other ideologies.²

Promoting diversity within the workplace is more than just tolerating each other’s differences — it requires us to challenge each other and to view everyone’s individual differences as enriching. It also offers everyone the chance to explore these differences in a safe, positive, and nurturing way.

Equity

It’s tempting to think that in order to be fair, we should offer everyone exactly the same opportunities in terms of hiring, training, and promotions. But is it really equitable to offer the exact same opportunities for development, for example, to an employee from a privileged background — educational, social, financial — and who may have had an easier start in life, than to someone from a historically disadvantaged and underrepresented one, who may, for instance, have struggled to pay for their studies, or who may not have had the same support system growing up?

While equity is often referred to when discussing pay, it goes beyond compensation. It’s about ensuring fair treatment of all by providing each employee with proportional access to opportunities.³

Rather than asking leaders to treat everyone the same, organizations that promote equity and an equitable workplace should encourage and expect leaders to identify everyone’s specific professional needs and take these into account when making decisions.⁴

Inclusion

It’s one thing to have a diverse workforce, and another to give everyone a voice at the table and offer them a safe and accessible space to contribute ideas and raise concerns. And so, inclusion, in a way, is diversity in action.

When successfully applied, a culture of inclusion removes all barriers, discrimination, and intolerance, and promotes an environment in which everyone is made to feel included, heard, and supported.⁵ In the workplace, inclusion is often the result of efforts that encourage and respect the participation and contribution of all employees. Within an inclusive work environment, we don’t pretend that everyone is the same — rather, we celebrate our differences and allow them to enrich our work by giving everyone the opportunity to voice their ideas.⁶

10 ways L&D managers can boost DEI

It is one thing to understand what DEI is and to grasp its importance; it’s another to actually put those insights into action, because it means having to turn DEI into a business function.

Below is a list of 10 actions L&D professionals and their teams can take to help their organization make that transition.

1. Emphasize the business case for diversity and inclusion
   When workplace teams reflect the social makeup of their target customers, they’re more than twice as likely to innovate effectively for their consumers.⁷ For this very reason, L&D managers must first and foremost emphasize this very business case to leadership, and later collaborate with other departments to develop cohesive plans that link DEI with metrics that matter to business outcomes. Once everyone is on board with these plans, L&D will then help set up appropriate initiatives and programs to follow through.⁸
   
2. Work with a chief diversity officer
   In recent years, many organizations have hired chief diversity officers (CDOs) — in other words, DEI specialists — to oversee DEI initiatives, and to support L&D teams in their efforts. Alternatively, CDOs are also well equipped in helping L&D managers ensure that their DEI goals, strategies, and practical interventions are aligned.Alternatively, some organizations prefer to hire DEI consultants instead. DEI consultants can assist L&D teams in identifying DEI issues at a micro and macro level, and help create training content that addresses these.⁹
   
3. Ensure support across the organization
   To create a sustainable DEI culture, everyone within an organization must be on board. The process starts with the leadership team, who will need to model goals and outcomes — and align them with business goals — and demonstrate active support for them.¹⁰The L&D team can then align their training goals to those of the leadership team’s. This will allow L&D to identify learning gaps in DEI for both the leadership team and the company employees.
   
4. Provide inclusive leadership and bias training
   Bias occurs in the workplace either consciously or subconsciously through choices or assumptions made when hiring staff, delegating tasks, or comparing employees in other ways.¹¹ In order to embed DEI across the organization, executives need adequate DEI training to better understand what inclusive and unbiased leadership looks like. At the same time, HR leaders and their teams should also undergo training so that they too can become aware of any potential bias when working with job applicants and employees, at both onboarding and reviewing stages.¹²
   
5. Conduct DEI training across the company
   Once the L&D team has aligned their DEI needs and goals with the company goals and the CDO or DEI consultant, they’re finally ready to conduct focused and relevant training programs that work toward achieving their unique DEI goals.For DEI training to be most effective, it shouldn’t be sporadic or responsive — rather, it should be proactive and embedded in all learning content and experiences, even when not specifically discussing DEI topics.¹³Bear in mind that learning about diversity, while sitting with a group of homogeneous colleagues, is understandably less effective than interacting with people from diverse backgrounds. For this reason, it’s important to create diverse training groups across the board, promoting inclusivity regardless of the learning topic.¹⁴
   
6. Rethink your learning formats and make learning accessible
   It’s not just the content of your training programs that fosters inclusion; format has a role to play here, too. Traditional in-person or virtual classroom settings can be very useful, but make sure to consider also whether peer exchanges, roundtables, collaboration hubs, or fireside chats might suit the subject matter better and create more effective learning opportunities.¹⁵Moreover, bear in mind the specific circumstances of your employees and how training formats, and the environment in which they take place, can ensure that all individuals and their accessibility needs are included. It means ensuring that venues are accessible to all, but also, and not exclusively, offering the flexibility of online training to remote or hybrid staff.
   
7. Diversify your candidate training pool
   Diverse training groups require a diverse workforce, which first and foremost starts with having access to a diverse pool of hiring candidates. In other words, your organization will need to improve their hiring initiatives, and to do so they will need to take steps to remove unconscious bias when hiring new employees and nurturing existing ones.¹⁶It may be that candidates in your industry tend to be from one particular group. If that’s the case, your best option could be to set up a train-to-hire program. Such programs have proved to be very useful in imparting vital, job-ready skills to people from different fields and backgrounds, and in helping organizations attract and hire a more diverse workforce. Note that an effective train-to-hire program considers candidates’ experience, learning preferences, mentorship, and the need for constant improvement moving forward.¹⁷
   
8. Use tech to remove unconscious bias from the hiring process
   Business leaders are increasingly using new technologies to create safe, open, and inclusive workspaces. For example, artificial intelligence (AI) could help your organization to eliminate bias during the hiring process by removing subjective judgment from the initial application-review process. For example, an AI program could be asked to extract from application documents job-relevant data only, thus avoiding human bias based on background or gender identity.¹⁸
   
9. Train and collaborate with mentors
   All professionals can benefit from a mentorship program. This is especially true of those individuals who come from historically underrepresented and underserved communities, and who may not have had the same social and professional support their colleagues may have received. Mentors must, therefore, give more than advice; they should also advocate for their mentees’ advocacy from the mentor.¹⁹ Similarly, L&D’s work can go beyond merely matching mentors to staff, and instead can also consist of providing guidance to both the employee and the mentor around accountability and growth.
   
10. Track impact and report results
    Progress in DEI will bring positive impact and necessary transformation to organizations, but constant advocacy and accountability will be vital to the initiatives maintaining momentum. L&D managers can boost support and investment for these initiatives by drawing up KPIs, monitoring progress, and reporting on the positive results to leaders – making sure that DEI is more than a box-ticking exercise.

Ready to start your organization on the DEI journey?

Learn how edX For Business can help you turn DEI dialogue into action through innovative L&D solutions.

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