Degreed is the first to combine lifelong learning with deep upskilling

Over the past six months, Degreed evolved its learning platform to better accelerate organizations’ workforce capabilities.

This includes the acquisition of capability-academy platform Learn In that now joins Degreed as a standalone solution for enterprise and SME clients.

Degreed has additionally strengthened its leadership with two new appointments Nicole Williams, SVP Rev Ops and John Freshwater, VP of Enterprise Sales EMEA and APAC. Both bring a wealth of experience from decades in the learning sector.

Learn In deal closed

With the Learn In acquisition deal successfully closed, Degreed now brings capability academies (also known as mastery platforms) and tuition benefits into the Degreed suite of solutions. Learn In is the world’s first platform for organizations to build academies at scale; supporting companies in establishing internal talent academies, bringing together the resources needed for building a highly skilled workforce.

As global industry analyst Josh Bersin explains “A corporate capability academy goes beyond ‘a library of content’. It’s a place people go to advance their job-related capabilities. It goes beyond technical and functional skills and focuses on the real business capabilities a company needs to thrive.”

Learn In’s features complement those of the category-defining Degreed LXP (Learning Experience Platform) by offering L&D teams skill-building experiences to the needs of one-, few- or many-employees. L&D teams can build custom academies including elements of practice, collaboration, scheduling, coaching, community, approval workflows and purchasing via a prepaid learning stipend card and a world-class skills marketplace.

Degreed plus Learn In unifies all forms of learning including core training, everyday learning, deep and targeted skill building, and financial access to educational opportunities.

Jamal Smith, a Senior Learning and Development Specialist at Checkr said, “Our partnership with Learn In has dramatically increased the overall use of our employee learning benefit. We now have more clarity on the most sought after skills among our teams, which will aid in our approach to employee engagement and career development this year.”

New hires

Degreed is bolstering its senior team including new hires Nicole Williams as SVP Revenue Operations and John Freshwater, as VP of Enterprise Sales EMEA and APAC. 

Nicole Williams brings over 13 years of industry-specific experience to Degreed, where she was most recently at Cornerstone OnDemand and Docebo. Additionally, she has close to 20 years in multiple roles working on Wall Street. With extensive industry experience and a strong financial background, Nicole brings a unique combination of strategic and operational expertise to the role. She will focus on go-to-market initiatives and lead the revenue operations, systems and enablement functions to drive company growth.

John Freshwater has been working within the people space since 2007, charting the evolution of HR and learning from reactive functions to strategy-driving, competitive enablers. As VP of Enterprise Sales EMEA and APAC at Degreed, John will be responsible for the go-to-market strategy, commercial structure, and sales operations for Degreed and Learn In in both regions.

Alongside these two new hires, the Learn In team also joins Degreed. They include Taylor Blake, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Learn In, Yael Kaufmann, Co-founder and COO at Learn In, Nate Kimmons, Co-Chief Executive Officer at Learn In, Scott Smith, Chief Technology Officer at Learn In, and Deeps Ramanathan, Chief Marketing Officer at Degreed and Learn In.

Industry recognition

Degreed’s innovation and future trajectory has resulted in its listing on the GSV 150, a list of the top private equity-backed private companies revolutionizing the world of education technology. Degreed was chosen from over 4,000 companies globally. It also won the 2022 Aragon Research Innovation Award for Learning in December 2022. 

Platform improvements

Underpinning its continued commitment to furthering the learning experience for organizations and individuals, Degreed has improved its search experience to enable learners to flag and find preferred content faster. It has also boosted the curation experience for L&D admins. Degreed additionally received the TISAX® certification validating that its Learning Experience Platform meets the stringent cybersecurity standards required by the European automotive industry. Degreed is one of the few learning providers to have passed the extensive assessment criteria.

David Blake, CEO at Degreed said,

“The past six months you have seen Degreed recommit ourselves to building a future of lifelong learning where anyone and everyone gets credit for all of their skills.. Our recognition of the importance of deep skill building led to the Learn In acquisition and I am pleased to see the Learn In and Degreed teams come together. Further evidence of our vision and progress has come from recent industry awards and the leaders who are joining Degreed on its journey to accelerate workforce capabilities in 2023.”