Alison CEO Mike Feerick travels for the first time to South Africa this week to meet Alison Graduates and to learn about one of the world’s fastest growing education markets. With close to 300,000 learners and many tens of thousands of graduates, South Africa is an increasingly important market for Alison – and one where Alison’s free learning model holds enormous promise to bridge the huge and steep divide between education and workplace skills.

Johannesburg - Nov 27th: Alison CEO & Founder Mike Feerick is in South Africa for the first time this week. Founded in 2007 and widely considered the world’s first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) provider, Alison’s successful free learning model is one which holds enormous promise for South Africa’s burgeoning educational need, not least among its extraordinary youthful population.

Speaking during his visit, Mr Feerick said, “visiting South Africa is something I have wanted to do for the longest time, and I am hugely excited by this visit. My excitement stems from the fact that I believe the Alison free learning model could be tremendously impactful in South Africa, where there is unprecedented demand and thirst for education and skills development. South African learners have been quick to take up online learning and our numbers are growing daily in the rainbow nation, as more and more South Africans are looking for more affordable alternatives to the old ways of teaching and training. If South Africa is serious about making available educational and skills training opportunities to all its people, then a platform like Alison must be embraced”.

While in South Africa, Mr Feerick will meet a select number of Alison Graduates, both to learn from them and to record their inspirational stories. Natasha Mee, a market researcher based in Ireland at Alison HQ but originally from South Africa added “Mike is a world traveller, and wherever he goes, he meets Alison graduates, to learn, to encourage, to publicise. When we invited our South African graduates to meet Mike, we were overwhelmed and awed by the response, as nearly 1,000 of our graduates sent in applications – and they are still rising in number! These people tell their stories about how Alison empowered them to new opportunity in life, to getting new jobs, promotions, university placements, and almost always, gaining confidence through learning achievement”.

During his visit, Mr Feerick will welcome opportunities to speak to local media who are interested in understanding more about the extent of South Africa’s educational challenge, and how Alison can answer that call.