Skill Finder, influential tech leaders working together to benefit Australians

Discover the collaborative efforts of Skill Finder and influential tech leaders.

Launched earlier this year in October, a first-of-its-kind digital micro-skill marketplace, Skill Finder has been made possible because of an incredible, public-spirited collaboration of leading technology companies operating in the Australian market. In the face of the pandemic, the resilience and determination of the tech industry have shone a bright light on the importance of helping others. Through collaboration, Skill Finder came to life because of a collective desire to create something to support the Australian workforce.

Since its launch, Skil Finder has equipped individuals with in-demand, immediately applicable digital micro-skills from leading technology companies. And, it’s not just the fact that all of the courses are free that’s impressive – Utilising industry-leading technology, in new and exciting ways, the platform delivers a highly personalised user experience every single time, with best-in-class tech at the centre of it all.

Magneto Commerce for Skill Finder

Magento Commerce typically powers the websites of leading global eCommerce brands, helping its retailers to trade online, earning hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Yet, in this solution’s experience, all of the micro-skill courses are free. Instead, the platform has been utilised to harness the guiding principles of a Magento eCommerce experience, in a different environment. These are the experiences that online customers have come to know and expect. 

Balance Internet has instead developed a site which uses the guiding principles of a Magento, eCommerce experience, to deliver a non-transactional journey, on any device.

PWA

When it came to the mobile experience, the collaborators knew that progressive web apps (PWAs) are the future of mobile-driven commerce. Todays’ on-the-go shopper is connected to their mobile device and has growing expectations for how their attention is attracted and directed on that device. The solution uses a progressive web application framework based on Magento PWAStudio to redefine the mobile experience, delivering a fast and engaging app-like browsing experience, although it’s not an eCommerce site.

Using the PWAs has transformed the mobile experience in unique ways. PWAs use a variety of performance optimisation and responsive design strategies to load content fast on any network and thereby provide a consistent experience across desktops, tablets and smartphones. 

Because of the decision to use PWAs, the content on Skill Finder loads instantly and responsively, without ever showing a full loading screen. The site responds quickly and smoothly to users, with smooth animation, and it has a solid UI/UX that resembles that of an app rather than a website.  

Once the user has found a micro-skill course that piques their interest, they are taken to a course page, unlike a typical course page you might expect to see, these pages are more akin to a product page. Though, still providing all of the course specifics required.

Adobe Analytics

Adobe Analytics has also been used to provide data and insights for each step throughout the customer journey. Part of the concept for Skill Finder was to be able to measure customer pathing, traffic sources, content effectiveness and engagement. Wanting to be able to know more than ‘who’ was visiting the site, Balance Internet and the technology partners wanted to be able to understand ‘why’.

With Adobe Analytics, the team can analyse and interpret popular content. Typically this level of analytics would be more focused around gathering insights on an eCommerce website. On Skill Finder, it’s possible to see top-performing courses and providers and delve into the relationship between those courses and the demand for jobs in the industry which require those skills.

Impressively, site administrators can drill down into the insights to discover the cities and locales where specific content is being consumed. 

AWS

Finally, AWS hosting delivers the Skill Finder site to the public. The globally recognised enterprise-grade website hosting is built to be highly scalable for top eCommerce websites, able to meet the demand of site traffic quickly. Site traffic for an eCommerce website would likely surge around critical sales and marketing campaigns in a merchants calendar.  Skill Finder can handle continuous traffic, as well as peak loads potentially bought on by collaborator and partner Marketing activities. 

Applying the Technology in New Ways

What’s truly impressive about Skill Finder, aside from the collaboration of influential technology leaders in the Australian market, is how the technology partners have re-interpreted the ways that their tech can be used to respond to the challenge of helping others in the current climate.

Technologies and software that is typically used in transactional eCommerce have been harnessed in a new and exciting way.

Just as state and federal governments are harnessing technology to serve their citizens better, technology leaders have a tremendous opportunity to reach people in new and exciting ways, helping to create the new face of the Australian work-force with in-demand skills. Balance Internet is incredibly proud to have played a vital role in the development of Skill Finder.

Skill Finder

Hundreds of online courses and micro-skills are available on Skill Finder, spanning 12 categories and 144 sub-categories across Business Tools, Cloud Computing, Coding, Computer Basics, Customer Service, Data Analysis and Management, Design, Digital Marketing, Machine Learning and AI, Project Management, Security and Small-to-Medium Business.

Are you looking to upskill, update, re-train or learn something new? Start exploring free courses on Skill Finder today.

Explore Courses Now – www.skillfinder.com.au 

Skill Finder was created after the Minister for Industry, Science, and Technology, The Hon. Karen Andrews, asked Australia’s technology sector to help with the nation’s post-COVID economic recovery. The idea for Skill Finder was born out of a hackathon that Balance Internet, hosted. Balance Internet later collaborated with the broader technology sector, in particular, Adobe and AWS to bring the idea to life. Read more about the crucial role Balance Internet played in bringing Skill Finder to Life.