Introducing ReSkilled: Stories of Lifelong Learning in the Age of Disruption

Adriana Lopez Forero & Jeff Woodward

Onlea’s President, Adriana Lopez Forero and Director of Client Productions, Jeff Woodward, share what our new podcast is all about, why we thought now was the time, and why we’re the right people to make it.

Episode Transcript

Jeff:

There are a lot of podcasts in the world right now (over 850 thousand, according to iTunes). So with over 35 million episodes already out there, why would we at Onlea want to dip our toes into this vast ocean?

The short answer is because we went looking for some good podcasts about lifelong learning and didn’t find much.  We looked at this as an opportunity to expand our internal production work, learn from an even wider array of people, and share what we find with the world.

If we’re looking for this, other people must be as well, right?

Adriana:

I feel lucky to be that kid that grew up to do what she loved most: reading books and learning something new every day. There is an implicit joy to learning, and that joy has supported me in so many ways.

Throughout my life, I have had to adapt to new situations and roles on the go. You could say that I’ve made a career out of re-skilling myself on a regular basis, starting as junior software developer back in the 90's to now President of an outstanding eLearning company: Onlea.org

Why is this podcast important to Onlea? Why is this podcast important to me? I believe that re-skilling is a fact of modern life, and I want to share and learn about those stories that made re-skilling times a success or a challenge. I would love for all of us to share that joy of learning something new together. Going back to when learning was play and play led to growth.

The need to re-skill is not going away, let’s embrace it and learn from each other, what works, what doesn’t work, and what to do next for a brighter future.

This podcast is our way of saying that learning is for everyone.

Making ReSkilled

Making a podcast is no small undertaking and if you’re familiar with Onlea, you know that we don’t do things in half measures.

We’ve been thinking of ways to use podcasting for educational purposes for quite some time and have included podcast style audio in courses we produced to allow students to consume course materials while in transit.

Prototyping is an established part of our process, so we tried a couple things on our own, while also doing market research and listening to other podcasts for inspiration. We interviewed our own team members and looked at different show structures, different hosts, various types of theme music and the dozens of other details that make an excellent podcast.

In the end, (or beginning, depending on how you look at it) we arrived at this, Episode 1 of ReSkilled: Stories of Lifelong Learning in the Age of Disruption.

We’re going to be exploring the vast experience of what it means to be learners and teachers in the 21st century. Each episode will focus on a particular area of online learning or teaching, from career changes, to life changes, to specific technical advancements and trends, to just helping people cope with the constant change we’re all experiencing.

You’ll likely see changes in upcoming episodes as we tinker and improve but we want to start sharing these inspiring human journeys with you all right away. We hope that the stories you’ll hear in the coming months and the people you meet will resonate with you.

We want to hear from you as well! What’s your story? Have you changed careers? Have you made a big move in your life? Do you try to learn something every day? What will you teach the world? Tell us, and let’s talk.

Introducing ReSkilled: Episode 1

In Episode one of Re:Skilled we’ll sit down with Azumme Degun and Darcy Kaiser who’ve made big changes in their lives and careers. We’ll talk about their motivations, how they did it, and what obstacles they faced as they made dramatic turns in their lives and careers.

In May of 2016 Azumme packed up her life in Nigeria and moved halfway around the world to Canada. After navigating the immigration process, Azumme left her career in banking to focus on helping to mentor other recent immigrants. She is now the director of the Career Mentorship program at the Edmonton Region Immigrant Employment Council where she plays a key role in mentoring recent immigrants and helping them find the same success she has.

You can find out more about the work that ERIEC does here.

Darcy graduated high school and enrolled in university without a clear idea of what he wanted to do in life. He studied science at the University of Alberta and found he had a particular interest in Alzheimers research, which led him to pursue a masters in the topic. Upon graduation, Darcy secured a job in the oil and gas sector testing the toxicity of effluent from drilling sites on a variety of species, but after several years it became apparent that this career path wasn’t fulfilling him as he’d hoped. Darcy left his science role behind for the trades. Ten  years later, Darcy is working full time as a journeyman electrician and recently started his own company, Safe and Sound Construction.

You can check out Darcy’s company here.

Listen to ReSkilled now. Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you find your favourites so you don’t miss an episode.