Thought Leaders in Online Education: Niall McKinney, President of Avado (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: On the language learning front, I have been learning two languages in parallel. I did personal tutors. Then I did online learning. I’ve watched a ton of films. I’m learning French and Spanish. I’ve done apps.

I watch a tremendous number of French films. I’m married to a French-speaking man. It’s all very helpful. My housekeeper is Spanish-speaking, so I get to speak Spanish with her. All that is great.

In the One Million by One Million program, I had an entrepreneur who pointed me to an app called Michel Thomas. Have you heard of Michel Thomas?

Niall McKinney: No.

Sramana Mitra: Michel Thomas came out with a very interesting methodology for language teaching. I’ve done the French program. It was very helpful. I’m in the middle of the Spanish one. It’s a very interesting way of rapidly getting some basics together.

My Spanish is more advanced than what Michel Thomas is going to do, but I just want to see what he does with Spanish. I’m interested in how languages can be learned fast in a structured way. The immersion always helps.

I have yet to see something that can really personalize based on where I am. If there was an app or technology that could take my particular situation and personalize it, that would be really helpful. Duolingo is a good app. I’ve used it for French. It’s a good app but is not personalized.

Niall McKinney: I agree. That’s where, in theory, machine learning should be able to make breakthroughs. I haven’t seen anyone deploy it in a commercial app yet. 

Sramana Mitra: Would you like to add anything else?

Niall McKinney: There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned. One really interesting thing that we’re working on is reskilling and also changing the way people develop vocational skills. In the UK, we’re the leading supplier of apprenticeship.

When we talk about apprenticeship, these are 12 to 18 month long programs. In some cases, it’s taken as an alternative to college. In many cases, apprenticeship is also being used to reskill people. You might be a bank. You’ve 5,000 people working in service centers that are doing basic tasks.

Most of those tasks are being carried out online and you don’t need as many people working those service centers anymore. At the same time, that bank might have a need for 200 people a year who are proficient in data analysis. Apprenticeship programs allow companies to say, “We’re going to reskill our staff to bridge the skill gap that we have.” These are really sophisticated learning programs.

This year, we’ve 4,000 apprentices starting. That’s a transformational way to solve the digital skill gap and to solve the problem of how digital and automation is impacting big companies and how we can help build big companies reduce the social impact that they’re going to have. Instead of firing people, they can reskill them.

President Trump is a big fan. The Democrats are a big fan. We are one of the leading businesses in the world who solve the problem of how to make those programs work.

Sramana Mitra: Excellent. How big is your company?

Niall McKinney: We’re 500 people and getting on $100 million.

Sramana Mitra: Where are you based?

Niall McKinney: The main office is London, New York, Singapore, Mumbai, and Germany.

Sramana Mitra: You are still private?

Niall McKinney: We’re privately-owned by a venture-building company called Blenheim Chalcot.

Sramana Mitra: Are you thinking of going public anytime soon?

Niall McKinney: Yes, but as you’ve seen with stories like Pluralsight, the IPO route is a potentially exciting one.

Sramana Mitra: We’ve been covering Pluralsight since they were a small company. All the best. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Online Education: Niall McKinney, President of Avado
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