Data-driven. Strategic. Forward-thinking. This is how we decide what to teach at OpenClassrooms to lead our students to career success.
For any education or training program, success should be defined against whether or not students acquire the right competencies to become job ready. At OpenClassrooms, we go a step further, for us, another main marker of success is that our students go on to find work in their field of study within 6 months of graduation.
In order to achieve success, we very thoughtfully plan ahead.
It’s not simply through the diligence we put into our expertly crafted courses, our custom, project-based pedagogy, or the support provided by our mentors and career coaches that we plan accordingly. It all starts even before we draft a single lesson.
Making smart choices
At OpenClassrooms, we only choose to teach toward jobs that are currently high-in-demand and show to have growing demand in the future. But how do we do this?
When it’s time to think about what program to develop next we reach out to our international network of recruiters and HR professionals to find out what jobs have a particular talent gap. We identify which seem to be growing and which don’t.
From there, we filter and investigate our findings. By doing our own research we make sure the data backs up our insights. After extensive digging, on job boards and published studies we designate the careers and industries that fit our criteria. Every choice is data- and job-market-driven.
OpenClassrooms students can rest assured that if they are enrolled in one of our Career Paths, they are becoming high in demand, themselves.
Building results-orientated education
Once we’ve decided on what to teach, we then focus on how. To determine how to teach toward these target fields we, again, reach out to our international network as well as our mentors, teachers, alumni and beyond to find out what specific competencies and soft skills are necessary to perform on the job.
From there we reverse-engineer our Career Paths, project by project and course by course. We identify the specific competencies needed to arm our students with well-rounded, professional skills to get jobs quickly and to thrive professionally. Around these core competencies, we define a suite of projects that become the basis of each program and dictate which courses we build.
This approach is highly strategic as we create our content against the real-world job market. We know what recruiters and HR professionals are looking for. And we teach those skills to you. With OpenClassrooms, we put our students on a fast track to advance their careers and find professional fulfilment.
Committed to accessibility
One of the main tenets of OpenClassrooms Career Paths is accessibility. We want anyone from any experience level and a basic education to be able to take our programs and courses, to change their lives.
Assessment is based on project presentations not “attendance” on courses. But for those just starting out, it is advised to follow along all suggested Career Path courses.
These days, very few people are actually trained in data. Most of the education for these jobs is found in engineering schools that are expensive and take a lot of time to complete. At OpenClassrooms, we were able to build the right education and training for these jobs more accessible both monetarily and for those with less schooling.
– Jonathan Stock, OpenClassrooms VP Production
Currently, the majority of our program catalogue is development and code related. Career Paths such as Junior Web Developer, iOS Developer and Android Developer are among our most popular. These are highly technical fields that we make accessible to all.
From the beginning of OpenClassrooms, coding was our sweet spot. And since then, we have expanded into new territory with UX design as well as product and digital project management. Progressively we are expanding our catalogue into new industries such as our newest releases in data analysis and career coaching. But we won’t stop there as we continue to survey the job market and skills gaps to create the most relevant and accessible education and training for modern professionals.
What’s next – getting more strategic
Everyday we are drafting new projects and courses, and filming new videos teaching toward new careers. We are working hard to bring new opportunities and strategic programs to our growing pool of students.
As we expand our catalogue, we will increasingly help our students train for highly specialized jobs of the future. For example, we will be releasing a course in data-driven organization. This program will teach data competencies and business competencies. This cross-topic approach will target the growing demand presented by cross-top, specialized jobs.
Come see our catalogue of courses at OpenClassrooms.com, today, and see what potential careers are in your reach.
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