Home Articles Melbourne edutech startup signs landmark deal, announces major global expansion

Melbourne edutech startup signs landmark deal, announces major global expansion

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Melbourne-based hospitality training platform Typsy has announced recently that the world’s most prestigious hospitality management school, Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne (EHL), has signed on as its largest client, as the company expands into Europe and the United States.

Based in Switzerland, EHL is widely recognised as the leading educational institution globally for hoteliers and boasts an impressive alumni network that includes executives and managers of the world’s top companies in sectors ranging from hospitality to finance as well as entrepreneurs and thought leaders.

The partnership with Typsy will provide EHL the opportunity to significantly develop its blended learning program, which is offered to over 2800 students from 114 countries every year.

What does this mean for Typsy?

Commenting on the collaboration, EHL’s Executive Dean, Dr Inès Blal said “Typsy’s extensive course library, along with our planned custom courses, will provide our students with valuable practical knowledge in hospitality. Learning methods have evolved and today, digital access to knowledge is crucial to students’ learning objectives. With this in mind, EHL is dedicated to developing relevant programs available online, from operational tutorials to more management-oriented content. We are very excited to partner with Typsy, selected as one of the leading providers of online hospitality courses”.

Typsy founder and CEO, Jonathan Plowright, said the company was “thrilled to welcome a learning institution with an outstanding reputation and standing, and is looking forward to creating courses to better serve EHL students”.

The collaboration accompanies Typsy’s strong growth across the globe, which is on track to reach 500 per cent YoY sales growth in 2018, as the company looks to tackle the global skills shortage facing the hospitality industry. Typsy has received, to date, over $5 million from private investors to ensure the product is well suited to the current and future training needs of the hospitality market.

According to the Restaurant & Catering Industry Association, the sector is under significant threat due to massive skill shortages. In Australia alone, the industry will generate an estimated 84,300 jobs by 2020, but hotels and restaurants will struggle to fill those positions and retain staff.

How Typsy is helping

Typsy is determined to address these skill gaps by providing students access to hundreds of bite-sized online courses, designed to complement their studies and upskill existing professionals. Instructors range from celebrity chefs such as Alastair McLeod, to world champion baristas such as Sasa Sestic. Teachers have the ability to tailor training to specific students and groups, create unique content and monitor progress.

Mr Plowright said he believed helping students gain further access and exposure to occupational skills would help provide further inspiration and opportunity to graduates entering the workforce. “We want to help young people see hospitality as a career; however, feedback from associations and employers in the industry indicates this isn’t necessarily the case. We believe online learning is the key to changing that. Through the power of video we can help show career pathways, share inspiration from role models and provide on-demand courses to help students develop a diverse range of practical skills,” he said.

“By inspiring people to pursue hospitality careers, we can start to close the skills shortage affecting thousands of businesses. Employers tell us what skills they need staff to have, which allows us to produce relevant course topics to help develop those students’ knowledge base. Anything that helps expand a student’s employability is a win-win for the industry,” said Plowright.

EHL students will have access to Typsy’s services from February 2018.