As we welcome in 2021, it’s exciting to see how online education is evolving and the impact it will have in the future.

At LearnKey we were thrilled to see key solutions initiatives we have in place hit Guide2Research’s top 10 online education trends for 20/21. This further validates the “what and why” behind how important these initiatives are and the impact they can have for generations to come.

This first one, #4 AI provides Personalized Learning Pathways. We have been working with our Know Your Talents division leveraging the PDP Global behavioral assessment so when a student completes the assessment/survey, they receive a list of career micro-pathways, which feature LearnKey certification courses, and recommendations to those pathways that match their behavior for the best fit. Why we did this is so our students could have at their finger tips great career exploration information.

The second one, #6 Video-based learning expands to maximize the impact of mobile learning. LearnKey has been doing multimedia courseware that features video-based learning for over 30 years. We have now implemented better learning management technology to ensure our students have the best learning experience on any device.

We are off to a great start for 2021 and have also rolled out a new website, so be sure to visit www.learnkey.com and learn more about new services and offerings.

When I was growing up it was always about “do the right thing,” not only personally but professionally. With so much unemployment at a rapid pace, LearnKey, since March of this year, has been focused on doing the right thing, in the best way that we can. For us it’s about providing access to our courses. Earlier this year we had the opportunity to do that for two thousand schools by way of extending our courses to schools, students, and teachers in need.

In today’s world, that can be considered Corporate Social Responsibility. My understanding is corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a type of business self-regulation with the aim of being socially accountable. I have read there is no one “right” way companies can practice CSR; many corporate CSR initiatives strive to positively contribute to the public, the economy, or the environment.

Our newest initiative is focused both on the environment and economy, something we are very proud of, in that we are offering free online employability courses for those residents in Arizona & Utah, both states where we have headquarter locations. It is our way of helping those in need so they can gain key employability skills, and so far it has been well received.

Just last week LearnKey was in the news on Arizona News Channel 3 sharing this free offer and you can read more about it here, including how to get access to these free online courses. We want to continue to spread the news about this free offer to those in need of learning interview tips, advice on how to find jobs online, and improving their communication skills so they can stand out among the competition.

In June of this year, I shared with our employees that my goal was to focus on what I can control: Love my family & friends, be the best leader I can be for LearnKey, and make sure that we as a team respect one another each and every day. What pleases me most is to see our teams taking pride in doing what we can do to help and stay positive in these challenging times.

Last week we had a great company meeting via Zoom!

Was great to get all of us connected. We did it last month and everyone really liked it. Gave us an opportunity to share some updates, successes, and talk about what we can do to give back during these times. What I have observed over the past 90 days with regards to this team and the work we do is truly amazing.  Two weeks into the shelter our entire company went remote and it was because of our leaders: Kim, Marian, Kelly, Chad, Jason, and Sheena, that they were able to pull this off so effectively. We continue to show our “why”: Improving Employability Every Day. Other topics we covered included:

• Pre/Post Production – Is completing more courses and domains then they did last year.  Working together, being resourceful, and a big shout out to Natasha Nelson for plowing through IC3 (newest update) last week, which had to be prioritized due to a new exam release coming out in the fall. I know this one, she had short notice and Marian said she rocked it. Natasha, thank you – having people like you in production is going to enable us to shoot more courses in a year than ever before.

• Career Pathways utilizing PDP – This is going to be a game changer the Know Your Talents team (specifically Kiley Leonard) has worked with key members from LearnKey (Jason, Ben, Beth, and Jacob) to build job models representative of LearnKey career pathways. Incorporating this into the learning experience for our students and teachers will be another one of our “secret sauces” when it comes to students leveraging their talents and acquiring important employability skills.

• Leadership Development – I am thrilled with the progress our leadership team is making with identifying true metrics, or what are being termed as “rocks” for each team and leader. As I stated in the last update and newsletter our teams are focused on getting better. All LearnKey employees participated in the Organizational Effectiveness Survey (OES) and most recently quarterly reviews.  Based on your feedback,  the LearnKey leadership team, working with the Know Your Talents team, these initiatives I believe are going to make a big difference long term. One of the big things that has come out of this is developing a recognition program for all employees when we reach our goals on a monthly basis. So we can all celebrate. Additionally, I am starting to work with another wave of team members to start our own internal leadership development program. It pleases me that we are truly doing what we told you we were going to do. A lot more work- but the path to success is becoming real clear.  Our “why” will always be Improving Employability Every Day, but what are some of our Big Hair Audacious Goals, better known as “BHAG”, that can tie to a true vision? Well, those are in the works and we will begin to share next month. So stay tuned.

• LearnKey K-12 – We just shared the most incredible promotional video about LearnKey in the classroom that includes multiple interviews of teachers and business partners. This project was just completed by Kim Johnson and Seth Magers very grateful that teachers like our courses.

• How can LearnKey give back? We have kept you up to date on the free course offer for our schools and students and as of last week 1300 schools and 19K students took advantage of this great offer. Well, now we want to take it a step further to those who are unemployed in the states where we have a presence: AZ and UT. We have hired a PR firm to help us with the messaging and our plan is to roll this out sometime in July.

LearnKey in the coming months will be exploring a course for learners in the “new environment” that will focus on topics long overdue with regards to: equal justice, understanding where racism remains in 21^st century, civics, understanding govt., social media etiquette, cultural empathy, social responsibility – what is expected of citizens, finding truth and facts in media, these are just to name a few topics. We are already in collaboration with an author and will be doing our due diligence and promise to keep you posted on our progress. Again, the hope is this is our way of giving back during these changing times.

Before I ended the meeting, as a leader of this company, it would not have been right if I didn’t bring up some major uneasiness going on right now in our country. There is a tremendous amount of frustration, hurtfulness, and fear. The past 90 days has forced us to shelter, put the US in a recession, and exposed some true weaknesses in hospital, law, govt., and supply chain. Will we get through this? Yes, because we are the United States. Will there be scares, more frustration and stress? Yes, there will be. Do we need better leadership? Yes, we do.

I share that my goal is to focus on what I can control: Love my family & friends, be the best leader I can be for LearnKey, and make sure that we as a team respect one another each and every day. You see my quotes that over the last year have been primarily focused on one word: “Respect”. This is the one thing that I will demand from myself first and then to each and every one of you.  Just so you know as soon as we feel more comfortable with travel between AZ and UT Lori and I will hit the road to visit every UT office as soon as we can.

Again, I tip my hat to the entire LearnKey family for working as one team and truly Improving Employability every day.