Toshiba Digital Solutions has an extensive track record of successful implementations in the learning management system (LMS) market. We see people as “assets” that create value for companies. We believe that it is important to create mechanisms and systems that bring out the full potential of each and every employee's skills and competencies* and link them to company strategies. Based on that belief, we have assisted a wide range of companies over the years. In this issue, we will introduce Generalist e-University, a reskilling platform for developing the highly autonomous human resources that are essential for the sustainable growth of companies.

* Competency: The behavioral traits shared by all human resources that achieve high levels of performance.

We are said to live in an age of dramatic change and uncertainty, in which the future is unpredictable. An age of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity). Unpredictable phenomena, such as climate change and natural disasters caused by global warming, the spread of infectious diseases like COVID-19, and rising geopolitical risk, are constantly occurring. Furthermore, the rapid evolution of digital technologies like AI, IoT, and blockchain technology is generating new business models and services. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the greater adoption of remote work and more flexible workstyles. The environment around us continues to change dramatically. In addition to these changes, there is an ongoing rise in activities focused on the future of humanity and our planet. These include initiatives for realizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to create sustainable societies, as well as the promotion of diversity and inclusion to create societies in which people with diverse backgrounds can all thrive.

For companies to achieve sustainable growth, they need to be able to flexibly and rapidly respond to changes in their environment. New situations are constantly arising, new technologies are being developed, and new movements are taking shape. This means that the actions that companies must take are also constantly changing. It is vital that companies flexibly develop their human resources by investing in them appropriately so that they can adapt to changes in their environments and achieve their goals. That is why in recent years, more and more attention has been turned to reskilling. Reskilling refers to learning or re-learning knowledge and skills to adapt to technological innovation and changes in business models. Companies engage reskilling with the expectation that it will foster employee growth and contribute to the sustainable growth of the company. The national government is also carrying out various reskilling initiatives* and offering support, such as through subsidies and grants from government agencies like the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

* Reference: The Grand Design and Action Plan for a New Form of Capitalism 2024 Revised Version was adopted by a Cabinet decision on June 21, 2024. (https://www.cas.go.jp/jp/seisaku/atarashii_sihonsyugi/pdf/ap2024en.pdf)

Although the national government has prepared initiatives and offers support, the reality is that many companies still struggle with their human resource development. According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare*, "approximately 80% of business indicate that they face problems related to capacity development and human resource development." Roughly half of the business sites that indicated they faced such problems stated that they lack sufficient training staff, they do not have enough time for personnel training, and they do not have sufficient budgets for providing training.

* Announcement of results of the Fiscal 2023 Basic Survey of Human Resources Development by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/newpage_00159.html (in Japanese)

To carry out reskilling effectively, in addition to conventional group training, it is important to create learning environments that allow individuals to freely acquire the knowledge and skills they will need in the future or wish to further refine. Creating an environment where employees can study what they want, whenever they want, produces the potential for employees to achieve autonomous growth.

So, what types of systems and mechanisms are effective in enabling a wide range of companies to develop human resources that can drive sustainable growth in the face of societal trends and the struggles companies face? What systems are effective in allowing individual employees to select what they want to learn and engage in self-directed study, becoming personnel with a high level of autonomy? Based on its 25 years of experience in the learning management system (LMS) market, Toshiba Digital Solutions developed a solution: the Generalist e-University reskilling platform.

Toshiba's concept for the reskilling platform was to create an environment that employees could select what they want to learn and develop their own skills and knowledge. It would have a wealth of educational content (learning materials) and use AI to recommend learning materials which suite to individual learner's skills. This would provide a deep level of support for employees. Generalist e-University supports the development of human resources with a high level of autonomy and contributes to the growth of companies. We will talk about three key perspectives that were considered in developing this reskilling platform (Fig. 1).

The first was enriching the learning options. Our company has a long-standing track record of collaborating with numerous educational content providers. We have used this strength to create a platform in which learners can access learning materials from providers such as Grab Design, Nikkei BP, and NewsPicks. Learners can also choose learning materials from a wide range of fields, such as management, compliance, business skills, IT skills, technologies and specialized skills, language, and more. Recently, we have seen a growing tendency for platform users to select learning materials related to digital transformation (DX). This kind of information is valuable for the companies that supply learning materials. By providing information on topics such as learning trends, we support the creation of new learning materials and help ensure that learners have access to higher-quality materials. Our goal is to use this cycle to continuously increase value and develop a database that contributes to both the creators and the users of instructional materials.

The second thing we considered was what kinds of mechanisms would be effective in enabling employees to independently find the learning materials and study with them. For example, a method of searching that required learners to use keywords from the titles of learning materials could sometimes make it difficult for them to find the materials they wanted. That is why we set our sights on the ability to search for appropriate materials even through vague searches related to the fields or skills that learners struggled with or wanted to improve. It would also work with vague descriptions of what learners wanted to achieve, like "I want to get better at making presentations" or "I want to achieve success in sales." The platform would use learners' personal attributes, such as their ages or areas of expertise, along with their learning histories, such as the comprehension they have gained through their studying of various learning materials, and other information to recommend the right materials for individual learners. Of course, it supports keyword searches and similar searches.

The third perspective was creating a system that allows employees to learn freely at their own pace, while also enabling companies to track employees' learning progress and address budgetary concerns. To achieve these goals, we chose to implement a point system. Companies purchase points on the e-commerce site, and then assign these points to employees. Employees can then freely select learning materials within the limits of the points they have received. If an employee used up all of their points but wished to study further, they could ask their manager to add more points. This enables employees to freely study during down time and idle time, within the pre-decided range, and enables companies to effectively develop their employees as human resources while controlling costs through the flexible point system.

Now we will explain an overview of the reskilling platform we developed based on these three perspectives (Fig. 2). We prepared a portal as a learning space for both learners and education managers. It provides learning material recommendations to learners and is used to manage learning points. The portal is accessible from devices like computers and smartphones, with a strong focus on usability and design. It includes Content Community Cloud (C3), which centrally manages a diverse array of instructional materials based on the experience we have accrued through our years of offering e-learning solutions (Generalist/LM) and cloud services (Generalist/LW). It has an E-commerce Platform for selling learning materials in C3 repository and handling the processing involved in these sales. The Learning Record Store (LRS) stores learning histories to be used as learning data for future AI recommendations. C3 and the E-commerce Platform are integrated using Generalist e-University API, a web API* (hereinafter referred to as the "e-University API").

* API: Application Programming Interface

The e-University API can be used to integrate various systems and services. For example, information from the reskilling platform can be called into an existing company portal, allowing employees to take courses directly from the company portal. The e-University API can also be used to access Generalist/LM functions and create unique, customer-specific learning space screens. These unique learning space screens can display customer-specific learning materials created and delivered by Generalist/LM, alongside the materials on the reskilling platform Employees can take coursed using these integrated screens. By consolidating the learning space into a single platform, it enhances both the ease of learning for employees and the ease of management for the company (Fig. 3).

One of features of Toshiba's platform is the function to recommend appropriate learning materials for individual learners. It is made possible by combining multiple AI technologies, such as the Toshiba Group's own AI technologies and Microsoft's Azure OpenAI Service. Learners state their own ideals and objectives in natural language. Different AI then each play their own role in using this input, along with learners' attributes, and comprehension, to generate prompts for generative AI, to generate solutions, and to select and recommend appropriate learning materials.

To select appropriate learning materials, we used Toshiba Group's own recommendation engine. First, feature quantities related to solutions are calculated and used to create vectors (feature vector calculation). Then learning materials with feature vectors that are highly similar to the solution feature vectors are selected from the centrally managed C3 material repository and recommended to the learner.

The recommendation function made up of multiple AIs can, for example, accept input from a learner like "I want to become a consultant," combine this with attribute information like "the learner is in his 20s" and "IT," and also factor in the learner's learning history to generate a solution. It then selects and recommend learning materials in C3 repository that match this solution. In this way, the system enables AI-based personalized learning by recommending appropriate learning materials aligned with learners' current situations, goals, and desired skills (Fig. 4).

We are now using the learning-related information we have accrued to assess, for example, which parts of learning materials learners spent a long time on and where they gained a deeper understanding. This information is then used in future recommendations. This function is made possible by unique Toshiba’s unique technologies. We aim to refine these technologies to further evolve AI recommendations and develop an even more sophisticated learning assistant.

Also, in addition to Toshiba's centrally managed C3 learning material repository, we are also preparing for integration with major global online study video services, like Udemy. Like the C3 learning materials, these will also be searchable from the learner's portal and included within the recommendation scope. This enrichment of the learning material pool will make it possible for learners to find materials that are even better suited to their needs.

With the Generalist e-University reskilling platform, Toshiba Digital Solutions has created an environment where employees can choose for themselves what they wish to learn and develop their skills and knowledge. This contributes to the development of human resources with a higher level of autonomy. This is AI-based personalized learning, recommending effective and appropriate learning materials from around the world matched to the skills of individual employees. While enhancing the satisfaction of each employee, we support the efficient skill development of the entire workforce and contribute to the sustainable growth of companies in the age of VUCA.