In 2010 we set out to make online creative education accessible to the world – at a time when it wasn’t part of the cultural norm. Now 9 years to the week (today’s our birthday 🎉) and millions of students later we’re announcing a milestone partnership with The Oxford Foundry! When a 1,000 year old college prioritizes creativity for all students, it’s a signal for all of us. The future of creativity is here! We are honored to launch this historic partnership and look forward to the future thoughts leaders who emerge from this learning opportunity.
GETTING CREATIVE WITH THEIR FUTURES – Oxford students broaden their skills and their horizons through access to practical learning videos
- Published on April 2, 2019
The Oxford Foundry, the University of Oxford’s entrepreneurship centre, is now providing all 24,000 Oxford students with access to hundreds of experiential learning classes that will build their talent, enhance their skills and encourage them to actively explore new opportunities through a content licensing partnership with CreativeLive For Business.
As of today, anyone with an Oxford Single Sign-on (SSO) will be able to view and experience hand-picked classes covering themes such as entrepreneurship, communication, design thinking and emotional intelligence. CreativeLive is recognised as a global leader in creative learning, and the classes are led by individuals who are not only experts in their field, but who are excellent teachers too, including bestselling author Tim Ferriss, award-winning business woman and author Arianna Huffington, and LinkedIn co-Founder Reid Hoffman.
The Oxford Foundry supports Oxford students in taking an entrepreneurial approach to their futures, enabling them to bridge the future employment skills gap. It focuses on building technology skills and providing practical learning around entrepreneurship, as well as on the creation and support of new ventures. In this way, the Foundry contributes to entrepreneurial and economic growth in the UK and Europe, while widening access to network, resources and opportunities beyond the University of Oxford.
The move to provide Oxford students with this rich pool of high-quality content from CreativeLive is aligned with the Foundry’s guiding belief that entrepreneurship is a mindset that can – and must – be cultivated by anyone preparing to enter the changing world of work today. Further, the synergy between The Foundry’s belief and CreativeLive’s mission – to champion every creator’s right to live their dreams in work and life – made for a natural and thoroughly aligned partnership.
“Oxford students excel academically, but they need to build their ‘hustling’ skills too: the things that will make them strong, adaptable, and creative leaders.”
As Ana Bakshi, Director of the Oxford Foundry explains:
“Oxford students excel academically, but they need to build their ‘hustling’ skills too: the things that will set them apart, make them strong, adaptable, and creative leaders. Regardless of what they’re studying, or what they intend to do professionally, they need to be able to collaborate, communicate and innovate. At the Foundry, we’re committed to empowering young people to explore alternative career pathways, and to encouraging venture creation. By giving Oxford students access to CreativeLive’s online learning catalogue, we’re supporting them to unlock skills and abilities which will be a real and lasting possession far into the future, whatever they intend to do or become.”
“Creativity is radically transforming our world, and the future favours people and organisations that can create, innovate, and design the best products, services and experiences,” says Chase Jarvis, Founder and CEO of CreativeLive. “We’re honoured to partner with one of the most highly regarded educational institutions in the world to offer their students access to online learning that boosts professional and personal development through creativity and innovation.”
Soft skills are becoming increasingly important for employment: studies show* that 75% of long-term job success depends on soft skills, while only 25% is dependent on technical knowledge.
Only 1 in 4 people currently feel they’re living up to their creative potential at work.
Additionally, only 1 in 4 people currently feel they’re living up to their creative potential at work[1], and that’s no surprise given many online learning resources focus on technical skills such as programming, project management, and data analytics.
The positive effects of creative learning are starting to be recognised by employers too, particularly with regard to performance and staff retention: studies show that employees who are engaged and have high levels of wellbeing are 27% more likely to report excellent performance on their own, and be rated as ‘excellent’ by their employer. They’re also 59% less likely to seek work elsewhere in the next year.[2] Additionally, among employees who believe their employer encourages creativity and innovation, 78% of them say they are committed to that employer.[3]
*(Ref: Klaus, P., 2008 – The Hard Truth About Soft Skills...)
[1] (Ref: 2012, State of Create Study, Adobe Systems)
[2] Ref: 2015, Well-Being Enhances Benefits of Employee Engagement, Gallup News
[3] Ref: 2017, Office Perks: Millennial Expectations Change What Employers Offer, ReportLinker Insight
