I enrolled in a new uni course on Friday night, while travelling in an Uber on the way to the footy.
There were a few interesting aspects, particularly in light of the growth in corporate education provision. Enrolment took only about 10 minutes, it appeared to be free and voila! I am now a student of Chip University! Yes, dear reader, for students earnest in the quest to find a the very best way to fry a sliver of potato, there is a dedicated university brought to you by Simplot.
Is this the future of diversified institutions and qualifications for all that the Accord envisions? Education Minister Jason Clare has repeatedly said he wanted to see more specialised, differentiated universities. Is Chip Uni the new dream for the underserved?
Chip Uni certainly knows its strengths – mastering the techniques for golden crispy chips, discovery of the best configurations for setting up your fryer and pro tips to keep chips fresh and crunchy.
Upon signing up, I had immediate access to 40 minutes of training videos a downloadable reference guide and guidance on how to choose the perfect chip, whether you are looking for speed, crunch, flavour or margin – a little like the choices for educational institutions.
The growth in training programs by corporates, usually unfettered by concerns over accreditation or government oversight is sometimes aimed at external audiences (in this case, shops selling hot chips) but more often appears to be growing in-house, as organisations look at ways to train their own staff. This trend appears likely to grow as AI usage becomes integrated into business practices – displacing some roles and changing others.
Telstra have a huge array of online courses available to their workforce but Workforce Experience and Capability Executive Niki Rose said it was not delivering a sufficient return on investment as research indicated that 80% of all learning today was not retained. As a result, Telstra are looking at opportunities to insert personalised learning into workflows – so staff continually receive learning at the time when they require it.
“AI is going to help us blow up learning and make it more valuable for all of us,” Ms Rose said.
For example, induction packs will become a targeted cluster of learning modules to help someone settle into a new role and when a leader is preparing to have a difficult conversation, they will be able to rehearse it and get advice from an ai coach before they deliver it in the workplace.
So should a new corporate training offering be allowed to use the university title? I can guess your answer, but should note that if you have concerns over the offerings of Chip Uni, there are other options.
Veg University is also nearby.
Disclaimer: The author is a proud graduate of Gelato University as well as some other more conventional local universities.