Industry Partnerships Manager, FutureLearn
FutureLearn is a UK-led global learning platform, founded in 2012 offering top online courses.
Be an early applicant
FutureLearn is a UK-led global learning platform, founded in 2012 offering top online courses.
201-500 employees
Be an early applicant
201-500 employees
Company mission
FutureLearn’s purpose is to transform access to education.
Role
Who you are
- 3+ years of experience in business development, partnerships, or account management and strategy, ideally within the education, EdTech, or digital content industries
- Proven track record of identifying, pitching, and closing deals with external partners. Experience negotiating agreements and partnerships that deliver mutual value
- Ability to assess potential partners' strengths and align their content offerings with FutureLearn’s mission and learner needs. A proactive approach to identifying new partnership opportunities, and proven experience in developing business and partnership proposals
- Ability to analyse market data, trends, and competitor activities to inform partnership strategy and decision-making
- The ability to collaborate and lead across a multi-disciplinary team, flexibility towards changes and specific direction, whilst maintaining a positive attitude
- Highly motivated, self-driven, and comfortable working independently to achieve targets in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build strong relationships with external stakeholders and internal teams alike
- Commercial skills and financial acumen
- Industry partnership experience would be a strong plus
- A consultancy mindset, strategic thinking and passion for developing innovative solutions to improve learner outcomes, new growth channels & operational efficiency
- Demonstrated ability influencing internal and external stakeholders across the organisation at all levels, to ensure perfect execution and effectively deal with risks and issues
- Demonstrated ability to form long-term strategic business relationships through engagement at all levels of the partner organisation, particularly with senior executives and subject matter experts
- Thought leadership and subject expertise within key verticals, such as Health, Tech, and Business, and a passion for addressing emerging skills and tackling global skills gaps
What the job involves
- At FutureLearn, the Industry Partnerships Team aims to enable learners to acquire the skills and knowledge to succeed at the jobs of today, and of the future
- Through innovative partnerships with industry leaders (e.g. Microsoft, Meta, AWS), we can open up access to high quality and cutting edge education, and empower learners around the world to up-skill or re-skill and secure their next job or promotion
- The Industry Partnerships Manager will be responsible for identifying and developing relationships with leading brands around the globe to form content partnerships with FutureLearn
- Championing the partner’s content vision, you will collaborate with a number of cross-functional teams (learning design and technology, marketing and product management), to design, develop and launch high impact and successful programmes that help learners around the world acquire the skills that will help them succeed in their career
- Your strategic thinking, relationship skills, project management and ability to achieve results will enable you to succeed in this role, and drive forward an important part of FutureLearn’s strategy
- Identify, engage, and build strong relationships with leading Industry Partners (Fortune 500 companies), to bring new courses and programmes to FutureLearn
- Evaluate and negotiate terms and agreements that align with both parties’ strategic goals, and close key deals that will help expand the portfolio of brands on the platform
- Lead content acquisition for your portfolio, cultivating strong relationships with decision-makers at target organisations, and drawing on your creative and strategic thinking skills to develop proposals that highlight the benefits of joining FutureLearn’s platform and innovative mutually-beneficial content strategies
- Develop and execute strategies to expand FutureLearn’s partnerships and fill content gaps in key industries and subject areas, conducting market research and keeping up-to-date with industry trends
- Drive the design, development and launch of innovative partner programmes, collaborating with internal teams to evaluate potential partners' course content, and ensuring educational learning content is created and launched on time and to the highest quality, to ensure Partner offerings are integrated seamlessly into our platform and promoted effectively to learners
- Develop the business plan and overall strategy in collaboration with Partners, providing focused goals based on overall strategic drivers, ROI and value matching, to grow partnership revenue and learner engagement
- Ensure the success of the programmes launched on the platform, leading programme monitoring, review, and optimisation, internally and with the partner, to achieve joint business plans and ensure successful learner outcomes
Salary benchmarks
Our take
Massive open online courses (MOOC) have taken off in the previous decade. Companies such as Udemy, Coursera and Lynda.com have led this wave.
FutureLearn is a UK-led global learning platform, founded in 2012 with the mission to transform access to education by offering top online courses from the world’s leading universities and brands. In November 2022, the company was acquired by Global University Systems (owners and operators of one of the world’s most diverse networks of higher education institutions). Subsequently, FutureLearn's CEO Andy Hancock stepped down and the company's primary subscription plan "Unlimited" was raised in price.
FutureLearn has set itself apart in the fast-growing market for higher education and lifelong learning, helping 10's of millions of learners globally, and has longstanding relationships with leading higher education institutions, including more than 150 UK Universities. However, Future Learn's turbulent year and price rise signal difficulty moving forward as an acquired company. Its price hike is comparable with the price of Coursera's subscription. The latter has a wider back catalogue to bolster its cost though.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Some candidates hear
back within 2 weeks
58% female employees
-27% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (1 round)
Apr 2019
$63.2m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $63.2m
Company benefits
- Calm Premium Subscription
- Westfield Health Cash Plan
- Buy up to 5 additional days of holiday
- Volunteer for a charity of your choice for a day
- Cycle-to-work scheme
- Season ticket loan
- 28 days holiday (excl. bank holidays)
- Hybrid Working
Company values
- We are Social Learners | We learn together. We empower and inspire our learners, our partners, and ourselves to develop through the power of lifelong learning
- We are Transformative | We see no limits to what we can achieve by harnessing our individual and collective strengths. We are changing the world with our ideas, insights, and unique perspectives
- We are Experimental | Our innovation is led by data, curiosity and the occasional happy accident. We create an uplifting environment where we learn from our failures and celebrate our success
- We are Purposeful | We work hard to succeed because we’re so invested in our shared purpose. As we grow, so does our opportunity to make a long term difference to the lives of millions around the world
Company HQ
Holborn, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Vitaly Klopot
(COO (Not Founder))Currently Chief Innovation and Commercial Officer at Arden University, Board Member at Dignity Health Global Education, Host of The Business of Education Podcast. Previously COO of Global University Systems.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at FutureLearn
- We value all the great benefits that diversity brings and encourage everyone to bring their whole self to work – At FutureLearn we are proud to have Diversity and Inclusion at the centre of everything we do. We are committed to Equal Employment Opportunity regardless of race, colour, national origin, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or religion.
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