By Thandisizwe Mgudlwa
CAPE TOWN; South Africa- PHANDULWAZI is promoting a culture of continuous learning.
Phandulwazi Educational & Development Centre is an NGO from South Africa with 35 years to its name.
The organization has partnered with Alison to provide a list of courses in different topics and categories relevant to student’s focus.
ALISON, which stands for: Advance Learning Interactive Systems Online, is an Irish online education platform for higher education.
This globally renowned group has made itself a household name in the educational sphere for teaching workplace skills and exploring new interests that provides certificate courses and accredited diploma courses.
Founded on April 21, 2007 in Galway, Ireland, by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick, As of July 2022, Alison offers over 4,000 courses in a variety of subjects to over 25 million learners worldwide. To date Alison has over 4.5 million graduates across the planet.
Commenting on Business and Management, Alison executives shared: “These free online business administration courses will teach you everything you need to know about supervising and overseeing business operations. Business administration is a broad field which involves the application of a number of professional and interpersonal skills, as well as a range of knowledge on topics like accounting, finance, project management, and marketing.”
And on Administration the group says, “These free online administration courses will teach you everything you need to know about supervising and overseeing business operations. Business administration is a broad field which involves the application of a number of professional and interpersonal skills, as well as a range of knowledge on topics like accounting, finance, project management, and marketing.
“I loved that the test helped me discover my weak points and suggested courses for improvement”, said Project Manager, Ashley Smith.
According to records, Mike Feerick designed and developed the platform in 2006. Then on April 21, 2007, Alison was launched with its first free customer and six courses.
Moreover, according to the group, the platform allows registered users to access digitally-based education and skills training for free.
Furthermore, on July 5 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee of India announced the partnership between Alison and the National Skill Development Corporation.
And in April 2017, the company launched its mobile application.
Then in March 2021, Alison announced the acquisition of Dash Beyond, an India-based edutech company that specializes in career development and skills training.
In addition, in May 2021, Alison announced an agreement with Co-operation Ireland for the West of Ireland.
It is said that the three-year sponsorship will seed the development of a Support Chapter for the North/South peace charity in the West of Ireland, and the development of an All-Ireland Online Schools Programme.
Recently, in December 2022, Alison partnered with the Phandulwazi Educational & Development Centre based in Cape Town, South Africa to provide a list of courses in different topics and categories relevant to student’s focus.
The partnership seeks to present Africa with an opportunity to allow Africans to “Empower Themselves” with modern and on-demand skills and expertise as people venture in to their careers and fulfilling their dreams & goals.
Alison’s income is generated from advertising and sales of certificates, as reported.
According to The Economist, the company seeks to drive education through advertising in the manner of television and radio. The platform uses an online pay per click advertising revenue model.
Also revealed is that as of 2022, Alison has courses and learning verticals across nine core subject categories, at both certificate and diploma levels.
There is no time limit for completing a course.
While Alison’s ABC IT course, a fifteen to twenty-hour training suite, was cited by The New York Times as “covering similar ground” to the International Computer Driving License without the cost of certification.
In 2020, it was reported that Alison published a course on the coronavirus and translated it into more than 50 languages.
Further, in partnership with mEducation Alliance, Alison is developing 2 courses on digital literacy in 2022 to strengthen community development and self-reliance efforts in lower resource, developing countries.
Alison, in partnership with EcoEd4All, also offers a range of environmental education courses to educate students about climate change.
Alison’s courses are accredited by CPD UK, the continuing professional development institution in the United Kingdom.
The company also conducts Workplace Wellbeing Survey, a Welliba workplace wellbeing Survey in partnership with the healthcare provider Welliba.
Alison was among the four winners of the 2010 UNESCO King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Prize, a Prize for innovation in ICT for Education.
In October 2013, Alison won an award at the World Innovation Summit for Education held in Qatar.
And more notably, in February 2021, Alison was awarded the Civil Solidarity Prize by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) for its free course “Coronavirus – What you need to know”, which was published in February 2020 to inform people about the spread of the virus, its effects and how to protect themselves.