This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 10, 2022 - October 16, 2022

Over the years, Capital A Bhd (formerly known as AirAsia Group Bhd) has diversified its business from being the world’s leading low-cost airline to providing logistics, lifestyle and financial services.

The rapid expansion beyond its core budget airline business, however, has left the company struggling to find the talent needed to support its new portfolio of technology businesses.

“We need to make sure that our whole ecosystem is secure and robust enough to encourage business development,” says Aireen Omar, CEO of AirAsia Academy, Capital A’s education arm.

“[However], finding talent for all these tech [ventures] has been very difficult,” she tells Digital Edge.

According to a study by global organisational consulting firm Korn Ferry, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people by 2030, which is almost equivalent to the population of Germany today. The shortage is likely to result in about US$8.5 trillion of unrealised annual revenue if left unresolved.

Capital A’s solution to address the dearth of local tech talent was to build technology centres in Singapore and Bengaluru (in Karnataka, India) to house its AirAsia Software Engineering and Technology (AASET) experts who design and custom build solutions for its business operations.

But Aireen — previously Capital A’s deputy group CEO in the technology and digital division — realised that the solution may not be sustainable in the long run as the company was heavily reliant on foreign talent.

“They are not only expensive, but we also have to deal with a high turnover of staff because every other company is pinching from one another,” she says.

Using as a benchmark the AirAsia Cadet Pilot Programme that enabled its airline arm to develop a pool of pilots, Capital A began leveraging the services provided by Redbeat Academy, which was established in 2020 to help its staff reskill and upskill according to the company’s and the industry’s needs.

Formerly a division within AirAsia and exclusively for staff, Redbeat Academy began offering some of its retraining programmes to those outside of the company in October 2020. In April last year, it was rebranded as AirAsia Academy, following which all of its reskilling programmes are now open to the public.

“As we become more data-driven and increase our machine-learning work, many more employees will likely be redeployed. As a responsible employer, [we need to think about] how we can help them to reskill, so they can continue to participate in the digital economy and be successful in it,” says Aireen.

All AirAsia Allstars — the term used to refer to Capital A’s full-time employees — can sign up and learn digital fundamentals for free. And if they are keen to explore the topics in depth, they can enrol in one of six “specialised tracks”.

The specialised tracks are based on skills that Capital A needs to fulfil its ambition of becoming a leader in software engineering, data analytics, product UI/UX design, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure and digital marketing.

“Over 2,000 staff signed up [for the courses] and more than half have actually completed and received their certification. From that list, about half of them have signed up for the specialised tracks,” says Aireen.

The Allstars who undergo the full reskilling programme can choose to remain in their current position and be more data-driven in terms of their job requirements, or completely change their career path into tech, she adds.

“Now, we have baggage handlers who are data analysts, we have pilots who do coding, and aircraft engineers turned software engineers.”

Currently, over 6,400 learners have registered with AirAsia Academy, 70% of whom are not staff of AirAsia and Capital A.

There are two learning modules offered on the AirAsia Academy platform, namely instructor-led training (ILT) and on-­­demand learning (ODL). The ODL platform was launched in July.

The ILT sessions are conducted in hybrid learning settings, with a combination of physical and online classes. Meanwhile, those who enrol in ODL have access to videos that are available directly on the platform for users to watch and learn at their own pace.

All physical ILT sessions are conducted at AirAsia Academy’s headquarters in KL Sentral. The classes are equipped with Google’s latest presentation technology for comprehensive and engaged learning, both online and in class.

Participants of the full reskilling programme and short courses will receive professional certificates recognised by the Malaysia Board of Technologists (MBOT) and microcredentials from local universities such as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM).

Graduates then have the option to continue pursuing post-graduate degrees offered at UTM such as Master of Business Administration and Master of Science (Data Science).

AirAsia Academy currently hosts 16,000 ODL content — with topics involving hard skills and soft skills as well as leisure programmes — and plans to upload 20,000 to 24,000 videos by the end of this year.

“A lot of [the content] is based primarily on what is in demand right now, whether it is in terms of building [their] skills for a job or helping them learn new skill sets,” says Aireen.

At RM28 per month for an annual subscription, subscribers can enjoy all-in access to AirAsia Academy’s ODL content, including Jom Tuisyen which offers ODL classes according to the national primary and secondary school syllabus in Malay and English, making it suitable for people of all ages and walks of life.

According to Aireen, digital marketing, data analytics and software engineering are the top three courses on the platform, followed by customer experience and customer engagement.

Interestingly, AirAsia Academy’s ODL platform also has a set of courses under “gig economy”. It features courses relevant to those looking to upskill in areas such as marketing, financial literacy and customer experience.

This is also in line with Capital A’s vision to give full-time employment to its gig workers, starting with its airasia food and airasia xpress riders in August.

AirAsia Academy works closely with local and international universities such as Universiti Malaya, Imperial College London and Asia School of Business (a collaboration between MIT Sloan School of Management and Bank Negara Malaysia) as well as government agencies, namely the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education.

In addition, the ODL platform has corporate partners that send their employees for training, as microcredentials continue to grow as a new opportunity for lifelong learning.

“The microcredential courses have to be relevant to the various industries because otherwise, the skills learnt from the courses cannot be applied and used immediately,” says Aireen.

She adds that AirAsia Academy aspires to continue filling the gaps in talent and education through the implementation of technology.

“The whole idea is to disrupt education and make sure that the education [offered] is aligned with the country’s needs and [helps] to build and [improve] the lives of our people by providing them with access to knowledge and [relevant] skill sets,” says Aireen.

Moving forward, the education platform hopes to expand regionally and implement artificial intelligence-guided learning tools to overcome the shortage of educators and make learning more affordable and accessible.

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