The post-Covid era has witnessed the acceleration of two megatrends: digitalisation and an ageing population.
Although life has mostly “gone back to normal” after two years of social restrictions, we have also observed some significant lifestyle changes that could impact the dynamics of many Western economies.
From remote work to ordering a round of drinks using a QR code, social distancing brought about the increased adoption of digital solutions. A lot of these changes have now become the norm, meaning personal priorities may have changed for good.
An example of this is the significant increase in early retirement, which has resulted in 565,000 people leaving the labour force [1]. In turn, this has been blamed as the main reason why it’s so hard to fill jobs — and could also help explain why prices are going up!
This situation presents a double whammy for companies that must contend with a skills gap and a shrinking labour force.
Learning Technologies is one of the companies in our Ethical Plans which is in a great position to close the skills gap, help reduce inflation in the long-term, and provide digital solutions to minimise energy consumption and unnecessary travel. Learning Technologies features in the Liontrust Sustainable Future UK Growth Fund.
What do Learning Technologies do?
As a market-leader in the fast-growing workplace digital learning and talent management market, Learning Technologies offers an innovative approach to learning in a world driven by digital transformation. Their objective is to put the best people into the right roles helping employees become the best they can be.
What impact is Learning Technologies having?
Learning Technologies positively impacts the environment by reducing the need to travel for learning. The company also offers considerable social benefits through providing educational content to 8.4 million people across 44 countries. Global charities like Humentum also use Learning Technologies to provide more than 150 learning programmes to non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
In addition to closing the skills gap, they also focus on Environmental, Social and Governance learning content, using new technologies to make complex subject matters engaging and understandable to global audiences through games and immersive learning.
This approach was used to teach millions of children about the importance of good hygiene; crucial, considering the global impact of recent health crises. In collaboration with partners, the company created a hybrid learning programme called ‘Dettol Hygiene Quest’, which brings together interactive play with story-led learning.
Another area of Learning Technologies’ expertise is diversity, equity, and inclusion, providing training and insights to track progress against diversity goals. These solutions enable organisations to increase diverse representation through recruitment, retention, and promotion initiatives, using data and engagement surveys, and creating learning opportunities to promote inclusion.
Why Liontrust like Learning Technologies...
Learning Technologies is a leading digital education and human resource company. Their brands help create engaging content and training for companies to ensure their employees have the training, whilst being compliant with relevant regulations. As our workplaces become increasingly complex and the nature of work continues to change at a rapid space, companies like LTG are ideally placed to enable and benefit from this structural tailwind. Meanwhile, the shares remain very attractively valued, despite the strong revenue growth and margin expansion.
To wrap up
Our society is always evolving in response to demographics and consumer preferences, yet recent developments have accelerated this process. The economy has had to endure some big blows which have triggered a significant reallocation of resources – from services to goods, and back to services.
Until the dust settles, we may continue to see some big swings in jobs and inflation. Learning Technologies, and many other companies in our Ethical Plans, will continue to play a key role in making this transition as smooth as possible.
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Capital at risk. Please remember the value of your investments can go down as well as up, and you could get back less than invested.
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