Podcast 113: Professional Education Systems Enter a New Era

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Ashish Rangnekar, CEO, BenchPrep

Continuing education has come a long way in recent years. Along with it, demand for more advanced tech infrastructure has continued to intensify. So, how are learning platforms rising to this challenge?

That’s what I’m discussing today with Ashish Rangnekar, CEO and Co-Founder of  BenchPrep. Under his leadership, this specialized test prep application has rapidly expanded its capabilities and is gaining ground at the forefront of today’s continuing education landscape.

Clearly, Ashish has his finger on the pulse of the market. So, join us as we discuss what to expect next from professional education systems on this episode of the Talented Learning Show…

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS — KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Previously, universities were the center of gravity for lifelong learning. But now, academic institutions are struggling to keep up, as a growing number of associations and training companies step-in to fill the need for specialized reskilling and upskilling at scale.

• At $79 billion, the global continuing education market is massive and growing at an estimated rate of 11% through 2031. In the U.S. alone, 80% of the country’s 60,000+ trade associations are already capturing a significant share of this market. But as AI and other factors redefine jobs, many associations and training companies are investing in professional education strategies to build more profitable long-term relationships.

• Continuing education is complex process to manage. Success depends on a strong learner experience, as well as robust tools to support both B2B and B2C ecommerce scenarios. This means learning platforms must be sophisticated enough to meet existing needs, but also flexible enough to evolve as AI and other advances continue to shape customer needs.

PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION SYSTEMS — Q&A HIGHLIGHTS

Welcome back, Ashish. Why don’t you start with a profile of BenchPrep, and how your mission has evolved?

Happy to set the stage, John. BenchPrep is a platform that serves two segments of the professional learning market — for-profit training companies and nonprofit associations. In other words, our platform is designed for organizations where learning is the core business.

Mmhmm…

As you know, lifelong learning has become an absolute economic necessity in today’s skills-based economy. And it is driving relentless demand for upskilling, reskilling, certification, and continuing education.

This was happening before AI was thrown at us. But now it’s even more front and center. Professionals who want to stay competitive cannot stop their learning journey. This has created an enormous opportunity for everyone in the continuing education market.

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No doubt…

But who is going to capture this opportunity? Will it be higher ed? Absolutely no. Will it be employers? Many people want their employer to help, but employers aren’t continuing education specialists.

So, this has opened the door for associations and training companies to drive the upskilling and reskilling revolution. And we focus on serving these organizations. They are very well positioned, but often lack the tools, the infrastructure, and the strategy to succeed. This is where we help them build a best-in-class learning business.

We build exclusively for organizations that monetize learning. That means we aren’t involved with internal compliance training or employee L&D. All of our customers sell learning — either directly to consumers, or sometimes to higher ed, or to enterprises through B2B channels. But it’s always about revenue.

Why aren’t universities stepping up?

Well, higher ed is set-up structurally to do a different thing. Culturally, universities are deeply rooted in professors and tenure and other models that limit them.

Also, their mindset revolves around fundamental knowledge rather than specific job-ready skills. They’re stuck in a world where they’re bringing degrees online. They’re not ready to disaggregate the degree model completely and replace it with a more nimble, targeted approach.

So, who is ready to help bridge the skills gap?

Some of the biggest employers out there — Google, Amazon, Microsoft — are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into upskilling and reskilling employees. But many other companies aren’t able to do that. So, they have to rely on partnerships with experts in associations and training companies.

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How can these organizations leverage content and technology to engage people who need to develop skills they may not even know they need?

Don’t start with technology. Focus first on business strategy, not the technology.

This is where many professional associations struggle. They think of learning as a member benefit or a nice-to-have, rather than a growth driver. But those who do embrace this strategy are seeing tremendous impact on both their mission and their revenue.

So, start by saying, “We are in the business of helping our members be better, and this will drive revenue for us.” Then think about picking the right learning technology partner.

With associations and training companies targeting the same learners in each specialty, who is winning?

Both sides constantly push and pull. I think that’s good, because the ultimate stakeholder is the individual. Everyone needs strong professional education options, whether it’s from a training company or an association. And overall, it’s a healthy balance.

Makes sense…

In recent years, both training companies and associations have broadened their approach. In the past, training providers usually packaged and sold a specific product without thinking about what happened before or after. For example, exam prep companies would stay in that lane. They didn’t venture into continuing education or pre-certification.

Same with associations. They tended to focus exclusively on a specific type of continuing education.

But now, both want to serve professionals better. So, they’re expanding their horizons and pursuing different types of products and learning use cases. This is very good for professionals, because they no longer have to jump from one provider to another whenever they want access to something different.

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BenchPrep is on a similar path, right?

Yes. The evolution has been fascinating. We started in high-stakes exam prep. It’s in our DNA — helping learners develop confidence, gain mastery, pass an exam, move to the next level, and achieve outcomes that matter most to them. We still do that better than anyone.

But over time, organizations we serve realized their learners wanted more. So, they began thinking about their product in terms of a lifelong learning business, where exam prep is just the front door. Everything beyond that is where the real revenue lives — continuing education, micro credentials, assessment-based certificates, and so forth.

But nothing on the market was built for that. Nothing could help deliver exam prep along with continuing education in all these use cases.

Right.

So, over the last 4-5 years, we’ve advanced our platform in two directions:

• First with depth of learning. Across all use cases, learning fidelity must be exceptional. This includes adaptive learning, diagnostic engines, mastery-based tracking, and beyond.

• Also, customers need a better way to distribute these learning experiences. So, we built monetization into our platform architecture.

How does monetization work?

If our customer is doing B2C, we help with good/better/best tiers or bundling and so forth. And for B2B deployments, we help with upselling capabilities and the like. So, now we support customers across all learning use cases, and we help them deploy in B2C and B2B settings.

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And how do organizations structure pricing for all of that?

The good ones build their product and pricing strategy by determining a learner’s long-term value (LTV) to their organization. And that’s the right thing to do.

For example, think about nursing. Once you take the licensing exam, you’ll be a nurse for maybe 20-30 years. So, rather than selling an aspiring nurse an exam prep product with a 2-month timespan, training companies are asking, “What is the LTV of this person for us?” As a result, product and pricing strategies are moving towards ongoing subscriptions, rather than a la carte.

I see…

But you’ll also find a la carte elements. The smartest approach I’ve seen is an entry point that is a lower, fixed price, a la carte product. That could be exam prep.

And then, once an individual begins their professional journey, the relationship shifts to a subscription model, where the organization delivers more and more over time. It’s not just training content, but different types of learning products.

So, a nurse who needs to upskill may want a micro credential. That might be followed by a bunch of continuing education webinars because they’ll need those credits. All of this becomes part of an LTV equation, rather than thinking about how much you can make from a single transaction today.

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Smart. So, who’s responsible for professional education? Is it better to sell to an individual, or their organization, or both?

It has to be both. Multiple factors are involved. But ultimately, the motivation has to come from the individual, because the learner has the primary responsibility in terms of usage and outcomes.

Now, let’s talk about AI. It’s everywhere. How does this fit into your professional education vision?

I cannot imagine a world where we’re not using AI in every part of the workflow within the next 12-18 months. It is integral for learner intelligence, content creation, as well as admin analytics.

However, our priority is the learner persona. Because, for us, differentiation comes from using AI to deliver a better, smarter, personalized learning experience.

As an LMS, I would rather do that. There are hundreds of well-funded companies that are trying to solve content creation and analytics problems with AI. But when it comes to the learner, we want to own the IP, because there’s so much value to unlock by focusing on learner intelligence.

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Interesting. How do you define learner intelligence?

To us, learner intelligence is about guidance and mastery, working in combination.

Our ultimate goal is to build an AI toolkit that is the best tutor for exam prep and the best mentor for continuing education. Think of it as a study coach. It should offer timely relevant guidance that helps learners figure out what to do every step of the way.

For example, what happens when you take an assessment? Rather than just throwing a score at you, the AI coach responds with a narrative report.

Or imagine you’re a nurse. The tool understands your career goals. It knows the best way for you to move from a junior nurse to a senior nurse. And it figures out the next best learning activity for you to pursue. Then, the next time you log-in, it suggests only that option.

This removes friction from the learning journey.

Okay…

So, guidance can tell you what to focus on at the right time. But you also need to master the material.

And because the tool knows your specific weaknesses, it will generate customized audio recaps, video summaries, or sessions based on pieces of remedial content that will strengthen your knowledge and skills. Things like this help accelerate mastery.

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Sounds cool. How important is this to training companies and associations right now?

Everyone is asking about our AI capabilities, but buyers rarely tell us exactly what they need. And that’s okay.

AI is moving fast, but as an industry, we are still in the early phases. So, many customers rely on us to influence their thinking.

But having said that, John, some customers do jump in as soon as they see the value of AI. Once they recognize it as a monetization channel, they get aggressive about it.

Any examples?

Absolutely. For instance, we have a customer in financial services training. They’re early adopters who are betting big on AI. It is already a core part of their offering, and they are using it to upsell…

… For complete answers to this and other questions about modern professional education, listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, on Amazon, or right here on our site.

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