ALISON is an Irish online education platform for teaching workplace skills. It was founded on 21 April 2007 in

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a City status in Ireland, city in the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lo ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

, by Irish

social entrepreneur Social entrepreneurship is an approach by individuals, groups, start-up companies or entrepreneurs, in which they develop, fund and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. This concept may be applied to a wide range of ...

Mike Feerick. As of July 2022, Alison offers over 4,000 courses in a variety of subjects to over 25 million learners worldwide, and has over 4.5 million graduates.

History

Mike Feerick designed and developed the platform in 2006. On 21 April 2007, Alison was launched with its first free customer and six courses. The platform allows registered users to access digitally-based education and skills training for free. On 5 July 2016, President

Pranab Mukherjee Dr. Pranab Mukherjee (11 December 193531 August 2020) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the 13th president of India from 2012 until 2017. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indi ...

of India announced the partnership between Alison and the

National Skill Development Corporation National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a not-for-profit public limited company incorporated on July 31, 2008, under section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956 (corresponding to section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013). NSDC was set up by Min ...

. In April 2017, the company made a technical overhaul of the platform and launched its mobile application. In March 2021, Alison announced the acquisition of Dash Beyond, an India-based edutech company that specializes in

career development Career Development or Career Development Planning refers to the process an individual may undergo to evolve their occupational status. It is the process of making decisions for long term learning, to align personal needs of physical or psychologica ...

and skills training. In May 2021, Alison announced an agreement with

Co-operation Ireland Co-operation Ireland is a non-political and non-denominational charity dedicated to peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Much of Co-operation Ireland's work focuses on bringing the two main communities in Nor ...

for the West of Ireland. 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. In March 2022, the entire platform was rebranded, resulting in a more streamlined and user-friendly navigation experience.

Products and services

Business model

Alison's income is generated from advertising and sales of certificates. According to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'', the company seeks to drive education through advertising in the manner of television and radio. The platform uses a online pay per click advertising revenue model. It aims to make learning accessible to blue collar or learners experiencing financial difficulties.

Courses

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. Alison's ABC IT course, a fifteen to twenty-hour training suite, was cited by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as "covering similar ground" to the

International Computer Driving License International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL), formerly known as European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL), is a computer literacy certification program provided by ECDL Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation. The ICDL / ECDL certification is a ...

without the cost of certification. In 2020, Alison published a course on the

coronavirus Coronaviruses are a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the co ...

and translated it into more than 50 languages. 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 A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. Alison, in partnership with EcoEd4All, also offers a range of environmental education courses to educate students about

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

. Alison's courses are accredited by CPD UK, the

continuing professional development Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive ...

institution in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The company also provides various professional services and programmes: * Alison Career Guide, a service that uses

machine learning algorithms The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to machine learning. Machine learning is a subfield of soft computing within computer science that evolved from the study of pattern recognition and computational learning ...

to help identify the most suitable courses that learners need for their professional career. * Workplace Personality Assessment, a free psychometric test that determines the learner's

personality type In psychology, personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tende ...

, strengths and weaknesses, and based on the results, suggests suitable courses and professions to study, as well as gives personalized self-development tips. The test assesses people skills, personal commitment, work styles, and learning styles. The test takes approximately 18 minutes to complete. It consists of 110 questions divided into 16 sections. * Workplace Wellbeing Survey, conducting a Welliba Workplace Wellbeing Survey in partnership with the healthcare provider Welliba. * Alternative Sentencing, a program that offers the use of Alison's free online courses as an

alternative sentencing Community sentence or alternative sentencing or non-custodial sentence is a collective name in criminal justice for all the different ways in which courts can punish a defendant who has been convicted of committing an offence, other than through a ...

for offenders. Alison founder Mike Feerick has pioneered free learning as an innovative

option within the US court system where the judge does not wish to impose a

custodial sentence A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence, imposing a punishment consisting of mandatory custody of the convict, either in prison or in some other closed therapeutic or educational institution, such as a reformatory, (maximum security) psychi ...

. His view is that

incarceration Imprisonment is the restraint of a person's liberty, for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is " false imprisonment". Imprisonment does not necessar ...

should be avoided if at all possible, especially for minor offences, and that free mandatory education should be a part of every court sentence worldwide * Alison Affiliate Programme, a program that allows you to earn money by sharing Alison's free resources with other people.

Reception

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 The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) is an international initiative aimed at transforming education through innovation. WISE was established by Qatar Foundation in 2009 under the patronage of its chairperson, Sheikha Mozah bint Nass ...

held in

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. David Bornstein of ''

'' noted that "practical skills training is usually expensive." Initially some observers also predicted the ineffectiveness of the

MOOC A massive open online course (MOOC ) or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, m ...

model in delivering real educational impact, highlighting the lack of personal interaction with educators and the high drop-out rate of users with no incentive to commit without any material investment of their own. In February 2021, Alison was awarded the Civil Solidarity Prize by the

European Economic and Social Committee The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body of the European Union (EU) established in 1958. It is an advisory assembly composed of "social partners", namely: employers ( employers' organisations), employees (trade ...

(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.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://alison.com/ Irish educational websites Education companies established in 2007 Organizations established in 2007 Education companies of Ireland Distance education institutions based in the Republic of Ireland