Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Lumify Work

Lumify Work New Zealand is helping local businesses meet the challenges of digital transformation. The training organisation, led by Country General Manager Andrew Smith, is zeroing in on skills for the future - with a focus on digital, tech, and process training.

"We're fundamentally a training organisation. Organisations send their staff to us and we help them gain the skills that they need for the future of work," Smith explained. "These skills can be across a range of areas. Most of the training that we do is in the digital domain and that might be end user training for a lot of staff or it might be technical skills for the IT team. We also provide training in subjects like project management, service management, and a whole lot of soft skills as well."

The company's role has become even more vital as New Zealand's workforce adapts to ongoing changes in technology and workflow. Lumify Work's courses are developed in partnership with leading technology vendors and delivered by industry-accredited experts.

Smith and his team are also no strangers to change themselves. Lumify Work New Zealand only recently underwent a rebrand, a move that unified the company under a single umbrella after years operating as "Aware House", a well-known legacy brand in the local education market. "Aware House has been around for over 30 years in the New Zealand market, so it's a very established brand and has been through multiple owners through that time," Smith said.

"The business was acquired in 2021 by an Australian organisation called DDLS," he added. That new ownership brought changes and opportunities, including the chance to standardise operations. "The intention around the rebrand was to essentially unify several different businesses under a single brand. Here in New Zealand, Aware House has become Lumify Work, and we continue to service our New Zealand-based customers in the same way that we always have."

The move has quickly translated into practical benefits for Kiwi enterprises. "One of the great things about becoming part of the Lumify Group through this acquisition is we have access to over 700 courses now," Smith said. In the past, being a smaller training provider in New Zealand had its drawbacks. "We have plenty of demand for some courses, but not a great deal of demand for other courses," he explained.

Now, a broader course offering and greater flexibility are at the heart of Lumify Work's approach, thanks to increased capacity and more delivery options. "By having access to a wider range of courses and also different delivery options as well, rather than a student having to come into our training campus they can attend a virtual course that's perhaps delivered out of Australia," Smith said. "So there's more options available to customers."

That flexibility is closely intertwined with a growing emphasis on digital learning. "We're putting a much greater focus on digital learning. A lot of our customers now want to be able to look at doing training outside of normal business hours so we have more e-learning offerings than we ever have done before and we're also working with our customers to develop custom e-learning solutions," Smith said. "A good example of that was a government customer down in the South Island who wanted to get everyone using Microsoft Teams consistently and so we developed a small online e-learning module that could be delivered to hundreds of staff across their organisation."

These changes reflect a broader shift in the sector, as training needs and delivery modes evolve rapidly. "One of the major trends that we're seeing is we have to have more flexible and adaptable solutions to how people want to learn," Smith said. "A typical person who is very busy struggles to take a few days out of their work week to go and attend a training course these days. If we can shift some of that learning online - the experience in the classroom is still very important - but we want to actually give them different options where they can maybe study some of it in the evenings then attend for one or two days instead of four or five days."

Cyber security, too, is front of mind for Smith's team. "Several years ago, cyber security learning was quite specific and quite technical… whereas cyber security now is actually something that needs to be learned by a whole lot of people in every organisation," he said. "Everyone who touches data - customer data, financial data - needs to have a high level of confidence around the risk, so we are building out that cyber security portfolio and we're seeing a lot more interest in those courses."

Lumify Work has a significant physical presence in New Zealand, with training campuses in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. "Our training campus in Auckland is up and possibly where it's been for a long, long time. We have a large training facility in Wellington right in the CBD and we have a training campus in Christchurch just on Stanley Street so quite close to a city as well," Smith explained.

They also differ from some competitors by keeping most trainers as permanent staff, ensuring consistency and depth of expertise. "We have over 20 staff here in New Zealand and most of our trainers are our permanent staff members. Unlike many training businesses who just use contract staff, a lot of our trainers across Australia and New Zealand are actually permanent people who have been with us for a long time," Smith said. "We have a big commitment, if you like, to facilities and staff and all our vendor partnerships, so we're here to sustain."

For New Zealand companies aiming to build IT and workplace capability, Lumify Work offers both its legacy expertise and the scale of a larger trans-Tasman group. While Smith is proud of the company's growth and adaptation to customer needs, he remains focused on what lies ahead: "We have to have more flexible and adaptable solutions to how people want to learn," he said.