E-Learning: A 32 Billion Dollar Global Market
8 July 2013
Read by 2382 persons
32 billion dollars. That’s the estimated size of the global e-learning market in 2012. According to projections by the American company Ambient, this figure will rise to 50 billion by 2015. Skillsoft is the market leader, with annual revenue of 320 million dollars (this year it bought out its two main competitors). 80% of its activity is in North America and the United Kingdom. So, is e-learning a training tool only valid for Anglo-Saxons? “That’s one of the many clichés about online training,” said Pascal Debordes, director of e-learning solutions at Cegos, on November 12th, during the annual e-learning event organized by Speexx Exchange.
Other common misconceptions: e-learning only works with young people. False. E-learning only works on tablets. Wrong: only 25% of e-learning programs are accessed from tablets or smartphones. Last cliché: e-learning only works if educational content is available for free. On this point, the debate is not closed. For Pascal Debordes, “all good pedagogy has a cost, and the most attractive and effective solutions remain paid.”
Michel Diaz, director of the Féfaur firm and editor-in-chief of the eLearning Letter, however, acknowledges that a certain economic model based on free access can work. Thus, the educational content online from Harvard and Berkeley universities is indeed free... “but the exam and certification are paid for,” he explains. “It’s very clever on the part of these universities, which generate an estimated profit of 60 million dollars per year! It is a shame that French and European organizations do not project themselves into this model.”
As for the idea that distance learning could one day overtake its face-to-face equivalent, it is challenged. In Europe, 90% of training sessions are still carried out in a classroom (88% in Spain – which became proactive on e-learning in the mid-2000s, 90% in Germany and 95% in France, which remains very conservative in its approach to face-to-face training). The South Pacific, on the other hand, is seeing a significant rise in e-learning. Outside of Japan and Korea – particularly advanced in new technologies – Hong Kong, India and Malaysia are “good students” of distance learning.
The Chinese model, on the other hand, remains attached to the classroom, since only 15% of Chinese people in training do so (all or part) via e-learning. The Asia-Pacific region, in general, is one of the major global areas where adult training (in all its forms) is experiencing significant growth. In 2011, the training market there represented a turnover of 54 billion dollars, destined to eventually catch up with the 70 billion European, or even the 73 billion North American markets. As for South America, while it may seem far behind (the annual training market is only 6 billion dollars), it does have some “pioneer” countries increasingly focusing on lifelong learning: Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Africa, on the other hand, only invests 2 billion dollars per year in training, but some countries (South Africa, Morocco or Egypt before the Jasmine Revolution) are beginning to stand out from the rest of the continent.
The question of content remains. For Pascal Debordes, “a company like Skillsoft will not be able to become the McDonald’s of e-learning by imposing the same menu everywhere in the world. Consumption habits are extremely different depending on cultural habits.” Indeed, in the eyes of the French, products must first and foremost be aesthetically pleasing. Spaniards or Mexicans tend to only trust content associated with a University. The English, for their part, want distance learning programs to be certified by experts. The future of e-learning companies, according to Michel Diaz, “International-sized organizations, but off-the-shelf content produced locally.”
By Benjamin d’Alguerre
Le Quotidien de la formation, November 15, 2012
Posted online July 8, 2013
Other common misconceptions: e-learning only works with young people. False. E-learning only works on tablets. Wrong: only 25% of e-learning programs are accessed from tablets or smartphones. Last cliché: e-learning only works if educational content is available for free. On this point, the debate is not closed. For Pascal Debordes, “all good pedagogy has a cost, and the most attractive and effective solutions remain paid.”
Michel Diaz, director of the Féfaur firm and editor-in-chief of the eLearning Letter, however, acknowledges that a certain economic model based on free access can work. Thus, the educational content online from Harvard and Berkeley universities is indeed free... “but the exam and certification are paid for,” he explains. “It’s very clever on the part of these universities, which generate an estimated profit of 60 million dollars per year! It is a shame that French and European organizations do not project themselves into this model.”
As for the idea that distance learning could one day overtake its face-to-face equivalent, it is challenged. In Europe, 90% of training sessions are still carried out in a classroom (88% in Spain – which became proactive on e-learning in the mid-2000s, 90% in Germany and 95% in France, which remains very conservative in its approach to face-to-face training). The South Pacific, on the other hand, is seeing a significant rise in e-learning. Outside of Japan and Korea – particularly advanced in new technologies – Hong Kong, India and Malaysia are “good students” of distance learning.
The Chinese model, on the other hand, remains attached to the classroom, since only 15% of Chinese people in training do so (all or part) via e-learning. The Asia-Pacific region, in general, is one of the major global areas where adult training (in all its forms) is experiencing significant growth. In 2011, the training market there represented a turnover of 54 billion dollars, destined to eventually catch up with the 70 billion European, or even the 73 billion North American markets. As for South America, while it may seem far behind (the annual training market is only 6 billion dollars), it does have some “pioneer” countries increasingly focusing on lifelong learning: Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Africa, on the other hand, only invests 2 billion dollars per year in training, but some countries (South Africa, Morocco or Egypt before the Jasmine Revolution) are beginning to stand out from the rest of the continent.
The question of content remains. For Pascal Debordes, “a company like Skillsoft will not be able to become the McDonald’s of e-learning by imposing the same menu everywhere in the world. Consumption habits are extremely different depending on cultural habits.” Indeed, in the eyes of the French, products must first and foremost be aesthetically pleasing. Spaniards or Mexicans tend to only trust content associated with a University. The English, for their part, want distance learning programs to be certified by experts. The future of e-learning companies, according to Michel Diaz, “International-sized organizations, but off-the-shelf content produced locally.”
By Benjamin d’Alguerre
Le Quotidien de la formation, November 15, 2012
Posted online July 8, 2013
