Further training while gambling – a startup wants to provide digital tutoring with games

The Düsseldorf startup Talent :: digital imparts digital skills for employees in companies. Games should help to increase learning success.

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Entrepreneur and philanthropist Edward York will make the world a better place with new inventions. To do this, he needs expert support, patents researched, appointments coordinated and new comrades on board. York starts doing research online, downloads software.

But York is just a fictional character, a so-called avatar in a computer game by Talent :: digital. If York makes mistakes and endangers the security of the company with his online actions, the player will be informed.

The startup founded by Roman R. Rüdiger in Düsseldorf in 2019 offers such games to companies and authorities in order to impart digital skills to their employees. Like a TV series, these educational games, known as serious games, consist of individual episodes per season that can be played through in a maximum of 20 minutes. Gladly at work, but also at home or on the way between the two locations on the train.

Rüdiger has been working on the topic of digital competence development for several years, now he employs 20 people in Düsseldorf and other programmers in Poland and Portugal, the team is multicultural. “We live in unusual times,” he says – and cites the successful digital bank Revolut from Great Britain as an example.

Teaching digital skills with ease

“A six-year start-up that is worth more than many large traditional banks.” In the days of industrial founders such as Werner Siemens and Robert Bosch, reading, arithmetic and writing were the most important skills to be successful, says the 55-year-old. “Today you have to be able to think digitally and collect data.”

A study by the European Commission in 2016 described the fact that many companies and authorities still lack digital skills. According to this, 43 percent of employees in the EU lack the necessary digital skills to survive in the labor market.

At the same time, at least 90 percent of all professions would no longer be able to do without digital skills by 2030. Rüdiger took advantage of the fact that, according to a study by the Technical University of Munich (from 2017), 84 percent of companies do not have their own specialists to prepare their employees for the digital upheaval.

Its customers could offer their employees targeted advanced training and training on the basis of the game results via the online platform from Talent :: digital. This service can be used by companies from seven euros per month and user.

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According to Rüdiger, data security, also known as cyber security, is now a particularly important issue. In many companies and administrations, however, there was a lack of employees who would be familiar with it and who could ensure safe processes in the organization.

“Above all, areas such as accounting or administration are at risk from cyber attacks.” And the increased work in the home office and virtual encounters instead of real meetings would have accelerated the process here.

The Talent :: digital product has been available since February and, according to Rüdiger, has already been used by around 3,500 people at 17 customers. The spectrum ranges from small businesses to job centers to corporations. “Companies have to tell us what their problem is in the digital transformation,” said Rüdiger. “Then we will take care of specific solutions.”

Employees of the Arbeiterwohlfahrt (AWO) also rely on the Düsseldorf offer – in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, in Oberhausen or Mettmann. “Managers or HR staff at a company or authority have access to the tool at any time – whether in the office, at home or on the train,” says Rüdiger. In doing so, however, all conditions of the data protection regulation would be taken into account, also in the interests of the works councils.

Employee privacy should be protected

The employer cannot draw any conclusions about individual employees, says Rüdiger, but only about the entire workforce. At the same time, it becomes clear where there is potential for improvement or development among employees; Talent :: digital also has offers for such training courses.

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Rüdiger’s company is still not making a profit and cannot yet cover all costs. But co-investors who believe in the future of the startup support the business model.

For example Bernd Gross, Chief Technology Officer of Software AG in Darmstadt, one of the largest German software companies. Or the S-UBG, a subsidiary of savings banks in the Aachen, Krefeld and Mönchengladbach regions. One and a half years ago, the AG invested in Talent :: digital through a fund. And now one is apparently thinking about a further investment, as can be heard.

This article first appeared at Welt.de.

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