In 24Slides, our main purpose has always been to empower people. We wholeheartedly believe that by giving people the tools and opportunities they need to grow and shine, we can create a better, fairer world for everyone.
That’s why, over the last years, we’ve worked on setting up online courses for employees through the 24Academy platform. Our goal is to give all the 24Slides collaborators easy access to knowledge that will help them to grow not just as a professional, but to improve their personal life too, like last year’s Personal Finance Training course.
This year, however, we decided that we wanted to go one step further.
Our Talent Development Team, along with our Designers and CSR department, worked together tirelessly to set up our very first external 24Academy Course: “Introduction to Presentation Design.”
We wanted to share growth opportunities not just within the 24Slides team, but with all the communities that surround us. As a company that aims to support the UN Sustainable Goals, we believe that this is how we can do our part in Reducing Inequalities and creating a world with better Quality Education and No Poverty.
By giving people the tools to gain professional, practical skills, we aim not only to give people better opportunities in the future but to create a positive impact in the communities surrounding them.
The Project
If there’s one thing that 24Slides has in spades, is talent. Our designers are able to work with some of the biggest companies all around the world thanks to it! And that’s precisely why we wanted to share this knowledge outside 24Slides and use it to empower people in the communities that surround us.
And so the initiative to create an external course was born. This completely free online course was a means to offer market-relevant courses and to disrupt the traditional way of thinking education, ensuring quality and accessibility above all.
We are fully aware of the importance of doing things meticulously, and that’s why we decided to begin small. On May 15th, our 4-week intensive design course began, with 10 spots for Malang students interested in learning the bases of graphic design.
During these 4 weeks, the course consisted of 4 main materials, 2 tasks, and 1 final assignment. The students were required to join 2 mandatory online sessions which allowed them to discuss and ask about any issues or insecurities during the course. They were expected to spend approximately 5 to 10 hours a week, in order to fully learn and complete the course.
Through this course, the students learned basic design principles like how to maximize slides’ layouts and create an interesting visual through icons, shapes, and pictures. As Prizcha Willary, one of our students in the course said, students learned many practical skills as well as the importance of creating visually balanced and appealing designs.
This course is great for improving my skill in designing, especially in PPT. I really like the vibe of this class, not as strict as I thought, but it is so chill. The materials are accessible and insightful. Thank you to all tutors on this course, you guys are amazing! Kinda sad because this course will come to an end. – Prizcha Willary, student in the “Introduction to Presentation Design” free course.
By the end, students presented a final project consisting of a presentation deck design along with a one-page reflection and design concept description – a practical, down-to-earth task that aimed to give them experience at what design work truly means.
Going into the future
In 24Slides, we believe in the power of education. By prioritizing knowledge first, we chose to invest in our people’s growth and believe this is the best way to help them grow as people as well as resourceful colleagues. We’ve learned much over the past courses on our academy platform, and we believe it’s time to go beyond our own people.
Of the 10 students of our pilot course “Introduction to Presentation Design”, 7 successfully completed the program and are now eligible for a 24Academy diploma, given by a renowned international company.
We believe that creating better opportunities, no matter where you’re from, is key to our purpose of empowering people in emerging markets. By giving people the chance to learn new skills, we aim to have a positive effect on socioeconomic growth and generally increase their livelihood.
For this pilot, the call was for Malang and the Malang regency, in Indonesia, only. However, our ambitions go well beyond that. We don’t only aspire to habilitate more courses with a bigger scope and with more spots in Malang, but to implement similar initiatives for other offices – and in time, why not, the whole world.
We are confident that this pilot course is only the beginning of what we can achieve through the 24Slides team’s motivation and talent. Until then, we’ll keep giving our all to change the world for the better, one slide at a time.