Forage: A review of the free virtual work experience program
Introduction:
For my ETEC 522 Analyst Report I am excited to jump into a review of the educational platform Forage. I came across Forage a few months ago in my role as a Project Manager in the Career Center at UBC. I’ve been introduced to a lot of different experiential learning type platforms, but Forage stood out to me as they were providing valuable work experience to students, a strong employer brand presence for employers and a tool for universities to provide more experiential learning opportunities in the classroom.
So what exactly is Forage?
Forage brands itself as ‘The pre skilling platform for early talent’. The platform helps to address a serious gap in the market between students and organizations:
Their platform hosts free virtual experiences by leading Fortune 500 companies. Students sign up and complete 5–6 hour modules that simulate work that would normally be undertaken during a traditional internship or graduate program. After completing these virtual experiences students can then add this experience to their resume as work experience.
On the other side of things, companies are looking to engage with universities and build out their talent pipelines. Forage allows these companies to develop their employer brand with students and create an engaged talent pipeline while providing students with work experience. After completing the course students receive an industry recognized completion certificate that they can add to their resume or Linkedin. Additionally if a student wants to share their data with Forage, they will be included in a recruitment dashboard that employers can leverage when looking for potential candidates.
What kind of success have they seen? (according to theForage.com)
- Employers are 2x more likely to advance a Forage candidate to an interview
- Employers are 4x more likely to extend a job offer to a Forage candidate(forage)
- Students are 3X more likely to accept an offer after completing a Forage experience
Sounds like a win win for both employers and students!
So how long has Forage been around and who founded it?
The company was launched in 2017 by Tom Brunskill and Pasha Rayan.
The Australian founders launched the company after their own experiences during university where they first hand saw the inequity that existed within the employment market for students. They also saw a gap that existed between what is taught in university and what is expected in the professional workplace. (Brown, 2020)
Initially the company was called InsideSherpa and launched as a mentoring marketplace to connect students and professionals. Soon however they realized that students were less interested in mentorship and more focused on asking for help getting experience to land internships so they decided to pivot towards their current model.
What is their revenue model?
Forage focuses on partnering with large companies that employ upwards of 1,000 students per year via internships to help open up new pipelines for these companies. The corporate partners then pay a subscription fee per year to post courses, and students can access all courses for free. Additionally university partners are able to promote the courses to students and even embed into their courses if they wish, for no fee.
Without directly contacting Forage, I was not able to find out direct subscription pricing for companies that have courses on the Forage platform, but something that sets apart Forage from many of it’s competitors is it’s revenue model which is focused on charging companies a fee vs university organizations. We will discuss this further in the competitor section below.
And what does the future look like for Forage?
Since launch, they have had over 1.5 million students register into Forage programs. The platform offers over 70 programs in diverse industries and roles.(Forage)
In August 2021 they announced the closing of their $25M USD Series B round, led by Blackbird Ventures an Australia’s VC fund. The raise comes less than 12 months after they announced that they had raised 9.3 million in Series A funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners in September 2020. (Thompson, 2021)
What does the experiential learning platform e-learning market look like?
It was challenging to find any specific market information on experiential learning platforms (likely because it is a small and fairly new market) so we we will take a look at the broader e-learning market. E-learning or electronic learning is an activity of learning or training through digital resources. E-learning is based on formalized education but is provided on electronic devices such as a computer, mobile, and other handheld devices. The e-learning market is catered by a variety of different players ranging from small and medium enterprises to larger corporations. (Factors,2021)
The uncertainty of the pandemic and the shift towards virtual learning has create a huge growth opportunity in the e-learning market.
E-Learning Market size surpassed USD 250 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to grow at an exponential CAGR of over 21% between 2021 and 2027. (Gankar,2021)
It is expected that new technologies such as AI, VR and cloud based LMS will drive this continued market growth (Ganker,2021). The need for continuous skilling and upskilling to remain relevant in the job market has increased the demand for easily accessible online learning platforms. Additionally, a rise in content digitalization and the digital transformation of education systems over the global pandemic has created exponential growth potential in this booming market.
In 2020, North America e-learning market accounted for over 35% revenue share and will drive the e-learning market through technological development and innovations. (Gankar,2021). The APAC region will show considerable growth in the market due to increased demand from India and China due to the increasing literacy rate, high youth population and government initiatives to bridge the digital divide. (Factors,2021)
So what other experiential learning platforms are available that might be a competitor of Forage?
In this competitive analysis it was challenging to find platforms that are using the same model as Forage. While many companies offer a version of ‘virtual learning’ these structures looked very different and Forage was the only platform that did not charge either the university or student to use its services.
A further look at Forage:
Recommendations:
As we wrap up this analysis of Forage, in my professional opinion, I would recommend investing further in Forage due to the value that is provides to all its partners: student, employers and university partners.
For employers: I believe that Forage’s biggest competitive advantage is it’s revenue model. While many companies are offering similar virtual experiences/internships to students, Forage’s relationship with large companies is what differentiates from its competitors and makes it a standing player in the field. Employer brand and campus recruitment strategies are key priorities for companies across the world, and leveraging a work experience opportunity provides value to students and therefore access to talent. Additionally large companies have L&D plans and campus recruitment budgets that provide the ability to invest in platforms such as Forage.
For students: Students are curious and looking to understand life outside their university classroom. Forage’s virtual experiences provide a way to learn about a new industry, practice their skills and increase awareness of new companies. From my own experience working in career development, I know how badly students want to build out their skillset and start landing an internships and Forage is a great tool to work towards these goals.
For university partners: A big challenge in university career centers today is the ability to scale services and support more students. I think a huge benefit to Forage is how scalable the platform is and it’s ability to provide experiential learning opportunities for students with limited administration on the university side.
As long as Forage continues to create strong content for students, provide top talent to companies and collaborate with universities I believe that there will be a market for this product to continue to grow and expand in the e-learning space.
In conclusion, I will be looking at how we can leverage Forage as a resources to support more students in gaining work experience in my own day to day job!
Reflections:
Conducting this analysis with Forage has allowed me to reflect on the different type of digital experiential learning opportunities that are easily accessible for students looking to develop career skills. In my own work in a university career center I see huge value in the growth of these type of platforms as companies scramble to find talent and students are focused on building the skills that they need to land internships and enter the workforce. In my experience, this gap between employer and student is very real and it is exciting to see these new technologies that are helping to bridge this gap.
In thinking about the upcoming venture pitch assignment, I would like to continue to explore the experiential learning platform space and I think it will be important to consider the revenue model. In my opinion what sets Forage from it’s competitors is that’s its revenue is generated by focusing on charging a fee to employers. Employers will always have budgets to spend on recruitment and so from a financial feasibility standpoint, this revenue is effective and consistent. In the past other competitors have focused on revenue models generated from charging a fee to both students and universities, which in my opinion is less reliable and efficient.
In conclusion, I personally will be looking at how we can leverage Forage as a resources to support more students in gaining work experience in my own day to day job. I also will be considering for the venture pitch assignment how I can leverage what Forage is doing well to create my own venture.
References:
Brown, B. (2020, August 17). Q + A With InsideSherpa Co-founder, Tom Brunskill. Retrieved from The Legal Forecast: https://www.thelegalforecast.com/blog/2020/8/17/qa-with-insidesherpa-co-founder-tom-brunskill
CrunchBase. (2021, August 23). Forage. Retrieved from Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/insidesherpa
Factors, F. &. (2021, August 12). E-learning Market By Provider Market Size, Business Intelligence, Consumer Preferences, Statistical Surveys, Comprehensive Analysis, Historical Developments, Current Trends, and Forecasts, 2020–2026. Retrieved from Facts & Factors: https://www.fnfresearch.com/e-learning-market
Fain, P. (2022, January 13th). The Job. Retrieved from The Job: Work Experience: https://www.getrevue.co/profile/the-job/issues/the-job-work-experience
Forage. (n.d.).Retrieved February 21, 2022,from https://www.theforage.com/
Gankar, P. W. (2021). E-Learning Market Size By Technology . Selbyville: Global Market Insights.
Mascarenhas, N. (2020, September 17). Forage, formerly InsideSherpa, raises $9.3 million Series A for virtual work experiences. Retrieved from TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/17/forage-formerly-insidesherpa-raises-9-3-million-series-a-for-virtual-work-experiences/
Ong, J. Y. (2020, December 5th). The 4 Best Free Virtual Internship Sites for Students. Retrieved from Muo: https://www.makeuseof.com/free-virtual-internship-sites-students/
Thomsen, S. (2021, August 20). Workplace skills edtech Forage raises $35 million series B. Retrieved from Start up daily: https://www.startupdaily.net/2021/08/workplace-skills-edtech-forage-raises-35-million-series-b/
