As well as building on existing operations in Ireland, the UK and Europe, 2018 was Prodigy Learning’s first year of trading in the Asia-Pacific region.

Set up in 2000, Prodigy Learning is an education technology (edtech) company, that provides digital skills certifications and learning solutions for some of the largest technology companies in the world, including Microsoft, Adobe, EC-Council and Autodesk.

The company has about 3,000 customers in the education, training, corporate and public sectors in Ireland, the UK, Europe and now the Asia Pacific region. It employs 20 full-time staff across its three offices in Dublin, London and Sydney.

High profile customers to date have included the NHS, London School of Economics and University of St Andrews in the UK, Solas and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in Ireland, and TAFE (Technical and Further Education) New South Wales in Australia.

Exports currently represent over 70% of the business and are the key driver of growth for the company.

CEO Andrew Flood says that despite the political and economic uncertainty within the UK market, the company is continuing to experience accelerated growth there. “We have continued to invest in the UK based on current levels of activity and the overall level of opportunity,” he says. “We expect UK revenues to quadruple by 2021 through increasing our market share and establishing more local awarding organisation partnerships”.

Prodigy branched into mainland Europe in 2016 and plans to continue to grow its presence there.  “In December 2018 we secured a strategic agreement to further embed and expand our European operations which we aim to do through channel and direct business” says Flood.

Initial achievements in Australia have exceeded expectations, with the company launching the Microsoft Australia National Skills Program in February 2018, delivering a project to retain ex-automotive workers in South Australia. A second programme aligning curriculums and embedding digital skills certifications in a National Cloud Traineeship alongside Microsoft Australia and TAFE NSW was announced in November 2018.
In addition to geographic expansion, the company launched “Coding in Minecraft” – the world’s first Computer Science credentials delivered through Minecraft for primary school children. It aims to develop coding skills alongside Microsoft and London Grid for Learning in the UK in April 2018.

“A key aspect to our global footprint has always been to allow the company to launch new products across multiple regions while using our Dublin base to drive operational synergies across the group. We are in conversations in multiple other geographies where we are experiencing demand for our latest edtech products and platform,” says Flood.

Going forward, as well as continuing to expand its reach, Prodigy intends to build out a wider range of assessment and learning-as-a-service product offerings. “With existing offices in Dublin, London and Sydney we are the only multi-region global player in our sector and one of Ireland’s leading companies in the fast-growing edtech sector,” says Flood.

Irish Independent article, as featured in the SFA Business Awards Supplement (07-03-19).