MindLeaders

MindLeaders was an e-learning and organizational development company with a global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and offices in the UK, US, South Africa and Australia which has been described by Bersin as a "global e-learning player"[1] along with Skillsoft and Element K (which was acquired by Skillsoft in 2011[2]). The company had a content library (about 4,000 courses in total), mainly in the business skills and IT professional area but also for social care, hospitality and more general compliance training in the UK.[3] These courses were typically accessed through one of two learning management system (LMS) platforms owned by the company. Whilst not a widely known brand, MindLeaders content was resold by consumer-facing channel partners including learndirect, Monster.com[4] and Cornerstone OnDemand.[2]

In September 2012, Skillsoft acquired MindLeaders, bringing together the two companies in the learning field. Skillsoft offered targeted learning assets that cover key business issues such as leadership development, IT certification support and talent management, as well as compliance needs including legal, food services and ES&H, hospitality and adult social care compliance needs.

History

MindLeaders was founded in 1981 by Carol Clark and Fran Papalios. In 2007, MindLeaders was bought by ThirdForce plc, an elearning company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland and founded by current chairman and CEO, Brendan O'Sullivan. ThirdForce was an acquisition-based business which bought elearning companies Electric Paper and AV Edge in 2003[5] and Creative Learning Media[6] in 2005.[7] The merged company was known as MindLeaders ThirdForce. In October 2011, MindLeaders ThirdForce announced that from January 2012 it would be known as MindLeaders.[8]

On September 10, 2012, SSI Investments II Limited, the parent company of Skillsoft Limited, announced its intention to acquire MindLeaders.[9] The closing of the acquisition was announced on September 25.[10]

Products

Products include:

  • eLearning courses including vendor-approved certification courses[11][12]
  • Training developed in cooperation with Facebook[13]
  • Talent Development Platform
  • PLuS personalised learning service
  • Software as a Service Learning Management Systems
  • ECDL / ICDL testing
  • Functional Skills elearning and tutoring[14]

References
  1. "Skillsoft goes Private. E-Learning Market has Matured".
  2. "SkillSoft acquires Element K". Nashua Telegraph.
  3. "Human Capital Management".
  4. "eLearning by Monster". Archived from the original on 2015-04-03.
  5. silicon. "ThirdForce acquires digital TV production company". Silicon Republic.
  6. "European Tech Wire: Ireland's ThirdForce Acquires Creative Learning Media". Archived from the original on April 3, 2015. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
  7. Industry News from IT Skills Research (Jun 07) on cedma-europe
  8. "MindLeaders launches rebrand at Learning Technologies exhibition". Archived from the original on 2012-01-27. Retrieved 2012-08-11.
  9. "SSI Investments II Limited Announces Skillsoft Agreement to Acquire ThirdForce Group plc (MindLeaders)". Press release. September 10, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  10. Jerry Nine (September 25, 2012). "Skillsoft Chief Operating Office letter to MindLeaders customers" (PDF). Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  11. "CCNA Related Training in Virginia". ccna.satnamtech.com. Retrieved 2017-07-18.
  12. "Cisco Related Series by MindLeaders CCNA 640-801 Series: Understanding Layer 3 Routing Technologies".
  13. "News > MindLeaders and Facebook collaborate on elearning marketing app". Archived from the original on 2012-12-23. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
  14. "Event Not Found" (PDF). Aelpnationalconference.org.uk. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
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