ALISON Celebrates Ninth Birthday

ALISON, the global leader in free online certified learning for the workplace, celebrates its ninth birthday.
On 21st April 2007, ALISON founder and CEO Mike Feerick ‘switched’ on the ALISON platform for the first time. This week in a special message to the education platforms 7 million learners Mr Feerick recalls those first few anxious hours:

“As we watched online for something to happen once we switched the service on, our first visitor came from Germany. Then a gentleman from Nigeria enrolled in a free Microsoft Excel course. Then a grade-school teacher from California, USA, logged on. We were off.”

“It has been a wonderful journey” says Feerick. “In the early days we had absolutely no marketing budget. We survived by happy learners telling family, friends and work colleagues about our free learning, and today, we still amazingly source the majority of our new learners in that way.”

Mr Feerick goes on to explain that as “ALISON has grown, especially over the past two years, we have been able to invest in stronger, deeper infrastructure; better, quicker navigation; and, of course, provide many more free courses. Our services have grown beyond free learning to free learning management; from individual learners to corporations, colleges and universities; and we are still in our infancy.”

“Next year, on our tenth anniversary, we’ll have a very big celebration. For now, I’d like to express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who has helped ALISON to the success we have enjoyed to date – our staff, our supporters, and most of all our learners.”