Learning With SAP: What’s New and What’s to Come

At SAP, we believe that learning is essential to the foundation of thriving digital transformations. Companies are not only better positioned to becoming intelligent enterprises when supported by a well trained workforce, but users are motivated to excel and innovate when they are up to date on the latest technologies.

[Link]We sat down with Max Wessel, executive vice president and chief learning officer of SAP, to discuss how the company helps users across its entire ecosystem learn, grow, and succeed through new, affordable learning offerings.

Q: Can you tell us about the momentum we've made so far this year in terms of new SAP offerings that focus on learning?

A: Our focus this year has been on lowering the barrier of access to learning. We want every individual user to find and benefit from the most relevant, up-to-date training across the SAP portfolio. You can see the immense progress through two examples. First, we made it easier than ever before for students to access SAP Learning. And second, we optimized our offerings to support SAP PartnerEdge program partners with tailored learning. Both new offerings feature a wide variety of learning content, hands-on practice on live SAP learning systems, and social and collaborative learning environments to help ensure that every learner can stay current on SAP skills and the latest innovations.

SAP's commitment to drive knowledge throughout the ecosystem can be seen in the numbers. Together with our learners, we celebrated 5 million course enrollments on openSAP, our free learning platform. I'm also incredibly proud that we expanded our job skills-building program, People to Work by SAP, to equip first-time job seekers as well as those in career transitions with the skills and certification they need to reenter the job market. And this is just the beginning.

Why is now the right time for SAP's commitment to lowering the barrier of access for every learner?

According to the World Economic Forum, by 2030, more than 1 billion people will require reskilling and by 2022, 42% of skills are expected to change. The research also highlights that 'millions of people are already being left behind.' All of this highlights a critical need for reskilling and upskilling. That's real human cost. People struggling to take care of themselves and their families.

With a cloud business growing at rapid pace, we can make a difference here. That's why it's the right time for SAP to step up - because we know SAP skills can make all of those struggling to find work more resilient. Consider our People to Work program, which trains unemployed job seekers for a new future. Whether one is switching from years of being a warehouse worker or rejoining the workforce after raising a family, we can help people reach a better life.

In my role as chief learning officer, I'm committed to our mission to make each person's learning experience with SAP easier and truly put the learner at the center of all that we do. Through more engaging content and multi-faceted experiences, we can meet learners where and how they learn best to ultimately enable more people and accelerate transformation.

What can learners expect next from SAP?

As part of our effort to lower the barrier and create a simplified and engaging experience, we're piloting a new experience for SAP Learning. For the new experience, we've designed the content and experience to be efficient, enjoyable, and relevant. It puts the individual learner at the center and their goals at the forefront-whether they're looking to obtain a new skill or update their knowledge on the latest SAP solutions. This new offering will provide learning content covering the SAP Business Technology Platform and, as new technology evolves, more SAP Learning Journey guides, content, and functions will be added to the SAP Learning site.

Our evolving suite of learning offerings aims to provide opportunity for all. A dynamic and upskilled workforce is crucial for success in tomorrow's economy, and I'm incredibly excited for what's ahead as we work to accelerate learning and the digital skills of the future.

For more information about SAP's learning offerings, visit learning.sap.com.

Tags: Digital Skills, Learning for Life, SAP Certification, SAP Training and Adoption, training