Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - QDOOZ (An innovative digital crowdsourced platform to foster soft skills development to boost Europe’s productivity and economic growth.)

Teaser

With rapid advances in technology, it is estimated that 50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025 with new jobs requiring higher levels of soft skills such as creativity and emotional intelligence. However, businesses, educators and governments across the world...

Summary

With rapid advances in technology, it is estimated that 50% of occupations today will no longer exist in 2025 with new jobs requiring higher levels of soft skills such as creativity and emotional intelligence. However, businesses, educators and governments across the world acknowledge a large ‘soft-skills gap’ in the workforce. According to European Commission data, more than 70 million Europeans lack adequate soft skills such as communication, leadership and team work, and even more have poor interpersonal skills. Elsewhere in the world, Deloitte reported that that up to 63% of Millennials say their “soft skills are not being fully developed” and a recent LinkedIn survey of senior managers revealed that 59% of them believe that soft skills are difficult to find.

A lack of soft skills in the workforce generates detrimental impacts to society. In Europe, soft skills deficits are potentially costing €112 billion in losses to the economy per year. Research by Development Economics estimates the loss of productivity to the UK economy to be £8.4bn per year by 2020 due to soft skill shortages. Not only does a lack of soft skills affect productivity but also the well-being of individuals. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants showed that 90% of the firms surveyed reported that their workload had increased because of soft skills shortages, with 66% agreeing it had increased the stress levels of staff.

Partly caused by an intensive focus on hard skills throughout education, existing state-of-the-art solutions including private mentoring, e-learning and digital platforms (e.g. Quora, LinkedIn Mentoring) fail to address the soft skills gap because of either high cost and exclusivity or the inability to continuously provide personalised advice to foster, assess and demonstrate soft skills development. Furthermore, none of these solutions can effectively contribute to the Continuing Personal Development (CPD) goals of professional members through a centralised, on-the-go and highly accessible platform.

Powered by crowd-sourced, community-driven content that enables and rewards soft skills development, QDOOZ is an innovative, game-changing platform that has the information, tools, and resources to identify, improve and apply skills both at a personal and professional level. Led by a highly experienced team of renowned mentors and software developers, QDOOZ will partner with numerous Professional Memberships Organisations, Brands and Enterprises and Universities Bodies (e.g. UCAS) to directly reach the workforce and students markets.

This main objective of this project is therefore to refine and commercialise QDOOZ into the most accessible, accredited, on-the-go and personalised system to develop and foster soft skills development and contribute to the CPD goals of millions of individuals. The end result will be a more productive workforce which is ready to face the challenges that future labour markets will bring.

Work performed

A feasibility study has been completed, based on the activities listed in the original Phase 1 project application. Specifically, these activities included 1. Detailed Market Analysis, 2. Customer/End-User Analysis, 3. Stakeholder Analysis and Business Model Validation, 4. IP Management and Competitor Analysis, 5. Risk assessment and 6. Business Plan Refinement.

1. Effective risk management is crucial for project success and a comprehensive risk assessment was undertaken. The outputs from this work has already been used in planning further work and devising an effective work plan. The assessment exercise included technical, commercial and management risks. Higher risks have been identified and contingency plans developed.

2. A detailed market analysis was completed, including an analysis of the main market dynamics at European, Global and Local levels. Our market analysis confirms the strong demand for soft skills development. Driven by digital technology, jobs are becoming more flexible and complex. This has resulted in a growing number of employers seeking staff with the necessary capacities to manage complex information, think autonomously, be creative, use resources in a smart and efficient manner, as well as communicate effectively. However, industry, government and academia realise the shortages of soft skills across the workforce. As a result, this study confirms our initial market analysis which predicted a huge market potential for soft skills development tools such as QDOOZ.

3. As our business rapidly evolved over the reporting period of this Dedicated SME Instrument (DSI) Phase 1 project, we placed significant more research efforts onto understanding the Professional Membership Organisations (PMO) in our prioritised market. In the UK, there are over 1,600 PMOs across all industries with over 4 million members. Research findings from this task have given us detailed understanding of the specific end-user requirements in this market. As a result, we have been able to refine our value proposition, content quality, pricing strategy and audience acquisition strategy.

4. A thorough stakeholder analysis has been completed in our prioritised market which has allowed us to better understand the PMOs and their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requirements. Key PMOs have been identified and the fit between our product proposition and their needs has been further validated. We have also expanded our understanding of the students market through our engagements with the largest university student service in the UK (UCAS). Potential content partners have also been identified and our content strategy has been defined. Overall, this task has helped us refine our understanding of the requirements of key stakeholders in our prioritised markets.

5. An analysis of the current state-of-the art allowed us to analyse the strengths and weakness of competing solutions to refine our unique selling points (USPs). Main competitors together with their respective solutions were further identified. Each approach was compared against the market needs and requirements for cost-effective, inclusive, on-the-go soft skills development platform. It was apparent that solutions do not adequately meet all end-users needs. As a highly intuitive and digital platform, QDOOZ has the capability to develop soft skills while being able to effectively contribute to the CPD goals of key end-users. Furthermore, QDOOZ has made great progress in protecting our IP through key trademark registrations.

6. Finally, our business plan has been refined and it includes the product offering, end-users and USPs, resources and expertise, commercialisation plan and commercial impact.

Final results

Broadly speaking, the current state-of-the-art for soft skills development can be classified into 4 main categories: 1) coaching and mentoring 2) academia 3) online education and training and 4) digital platforms. To address the so-called soft skills gap, although each approach has its own strengths, none of these solutions can holistically meet the specific end-user requirements of our targeted market.

1) Although arguably the most effective method to develop personal and professional qualities, coaching and mentoring remain by far the most exclusive and expensive approaches. Fluorometry require the presence of aromatic hydrocarbons to trigger the fluorescent response, which are not necessarily present with heavier oils that are likely to become submerged. It will typically cost $500/hr up to $3,500/hr for executive coaching which lasts on average between 7 and 12 months. This means it can cost between $14,000 and $168,000 to mentor a person in a “low-intensity” coaching programme (e.g. 2 hours per week every two weeks). As a result, it is only the upper management which benefits the most from mentoring. 58% of organizations spend more than $1,000 per learner on training for senior leadership, compared to just 39% for high-potentials and 32% for mid-level management.

2) In general, educational establishments largely focus on developing hard skills in order to meet government-designed curricula, leaving very little time for soft skills development. However, our research shows there is a growing number of initiatives promoted by universities across the EU such as the U2ES project to boost skills by the University of Namur in Belgium and numerous national “observatories” for soft skills development in Spain and France. Nevertheless, as much as 75% of UK undergraduate students believe their courses do not supply them with essential employability skills. Thus, complementary soft skills development tools are necessary to fill in the soft skills gap.

3) Many educational institutions and training suppliers provide online learning services in the form of e-learning courses (e.g. LinkedIn Learning) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). However, without any guidance, most users will not know what course to choose and how to make the most out of the knowledge and skills learned. Furthermore, progression and validation of soft skills development becomes quite challenging, especially in the long-term as most courses will last for very short periods of time. Finally, like with any other online training provider, these courses are typically individually priced which presents a significant barrier to adoption and use.

4) Most digital platforms serve as question-and-answer (Q&A) websites which cover a multitude of topics including in many cases soft skills development (e.g. Reddit, Quora, Zhihu, to name a few). Although these options try to create strong communities among users globally, the content is typically too general and does not address personal needs. As a result, users cannot benefit from a personalised soft skills development experience.

On the other hand, QDOOZ goes beyond the state-of-the-art by providing end-users, for the first time, with personalised content to develop their specific needs through an inclusive, easily accessible and affordable platform. After years analysing what employees and employers want and businesses need to succeed, QDOOZ have determined that the key qualities and soft skills required to advance in life and career. Users map their goals and track their progress and our content partners provide the most relevant, actionable content available to move them forward along their chosen path. Unlike traditional publisher (PUSH) models, our expertise and algorithms tailor content, based entirely on what our members want to learn about 24/7.

Soft skills are increasingly becoming more important for society as rapid advances in technology and dynamics in the labour market require individuals t

Website & more info

More info: http://www.qdooz.com.