The leading apprenticeship company's newest applied learning module recognizes the importance artificial intelligence (AI) will play in the future for workers and employers

NEW YORK, Aug. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- To meet the needs of the AI-fueled workforce, Multiverse announced today the launch of AI Jumpstart, a new course available to all Multiverse apprentices in the US and UK. AI Jumpstart will launch in September at no cost to current apprentices regardless of their course of study. Multiverse trains apprentices in areas such as data analytics and software engineering, making the new module a natural extension of these topics.

"We've been working on AI for many years internally at Multiverse, supporting some of the most exciting AI companies with their skills strategies and in the coming years, I strongly believe that AI skills will be just as important for workers as English and math are today," said Rebecca Agostino, Vice Presidentof Learning atMultiverse. "Eighty percent of employees are expected to see AI affect the way they work, and there have been calls to innovate training in this emerging technology. We're eager to help lead the AI upskilling revolution and help organizations and apprentices alike keep pace with this fast-moving technology."

For years, Multiverse apprentices have been trained in machine learning and advanced data mining, but the new AI Jumpstart module will enable all Multiverse apprentices to go deeper into AI through applied learning regardless of what program they are in. AI Jumpstart will enable learners to identify opportunities to leverage AI in their roles while staying aware of potential risks, utilizing AI tools, and contributing to their organization's digital transformation. It will cover the fundamental principles of how AI works, ways apprentices can apply AI in their day-to-day work for example, through the use of effective prompts and its ethical considerations.

Basic knowledge and understanding of AI has quickly become a core competency for the workforce of the future, and Multiverse's training module utilizing applied learning will help apprentices remain competitive in their industries.The module comes at a critical time, as forthcoming research from Multiverse found that 83% of business leaders plan to implement urgent training on AI for their staff.

"Understanding and using AI tools effectively will be imperative to success in every line of work," said Ujjwal Singh, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Multiverse. "This latest investment in the AI Jumpstart module demonstrates our commitment to democratize access to technological advances and our continued investment in the success of our apprentices so they can continue delivering value and impact for partners today."

For more details on the AI Jumpstart module, please read more from our CEO.

About Multiverse

Multiverse is a tech startup on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by building an outstanding alternative to university and corporate training. They offer professional apprenticeships to a diverse pool of young adults and existing employees looking toupskill or reskill. Multiverse works with over 1,000 businesses, helping them embrace digital transformation, close skills gaps and develop a diverse pipeline of talent. Apprentices benefit from individualized coaching, applied learning, and a community of social, networking and leadership opportunities.

For more information, please visit http://www.multiverse.io

SOURCE Multiverse

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NAIROBI, Kenya: Amidst the complex economic landscape of African nations and the challenges they face, the Middle East-Africa partnership has emerged as a beacon of hope, potentially offering a much-needed boost to underserved communities.

With Chinese investments taking a backseat in the continent, the Middle Easts growing involvement in Africas development has become a lifeline, addressing critical economic and infrastructure needs.

Sub-Saharan Africa is grappling with a rising debt burden, reaching around 60 percent of gross domestic product a level last seen two decades ago.

This is causing a shift towards higher-cost private sources, escalating debt service costs and rollover risks.

Against this backdrop of economic turmoil, the Middle East-Africa partnership is taking center stage. As China retracts its investment commitment, countries within the Gulf Cooperation Council including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar are stepping in to fill the void. GCC investment has surged, reaching $8.3 billion in 2022, a promising sign of the partnerships potential.

This trend signifies the growing prominence of these countries as key partners in Africas development journey, Ryan OGrady, the CEO of investment firm KI Africa who regularly commutes between Dubai and East Africa, told Arab News. The connection between the Middle East and Africa, nurtured over decades, continues to flourish, signaling the strengthening of trade relationships, he added.

Experts say that the GCCs interest in Africas growth is fueled by robust GDP figures within the region and an abundance of available capital. Traditional ties between the GCC and North Africa have been strong due to cultural and linguistic affinities, but the focus is shifting towards sub-Saharan Africa, presenting new avenues for collaboration. UAE-based Mashreq Bank is leading the way, making investments across 14 African countries, while GCC funders are seeking partnerships with local lenders to bolster infrastructure development.

The GCCs diversification away from natural resources has paved the way for substantial investment in various sectors, including infrastructure, telecoms, and food security. Notably, Qatars IAS International plans to invest $1.6 billion in development projects in the Central African Republic, while Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait are acquiring agricultural land in Africa, driven by food security concerns.

This is why the Middle East-Africa corridor not only makes logistical sense but also aligns with the policy objectives of both regions. As African nations seek substantial inbound investment, the Middle East possesses ample capital and a sophisticated Islamic finance market that can effectively cater to the needs of Africas growing population.

According to CNBC, the collective assets under management by the top 10 sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf region stand at nearly $4 trillion. To put this figure into perspective, it surpasses the GDP of the UK.

As the African markets scale is notably smaller, the substantial size difference between banks, market scope, and deal flow in these regions poses challenges for cross-regional collaboration, OGrady said, emphasizing also the critical issue of financial inclusion in Africa.

Only 37 percent of women and 48 percent of men in Africa have access to formal financial services, he added. This inequality underscores the need for innovative solutions to bridge the gap, especially for traditionally marginalized populations.

Drawing attention to the progress made in Dubai, OGrady noted the growing emphasis on fintech and forward-thinking solutions. The intention is to dismantle traditional barriers within the financial sector and create more effective, cost-efficient, and outreach-oriented approaches. This strategic shift in focus aligns with the GCCs strong performance in the service and banking sectors, as well as its success in trade finance.

By combining the strengths of the GCCs financial sector with the emerging fintech landscape, the region can overcome the inherent disconnects when operating in Africa, OGrady commented, predicting that these advancements, coupled with innovative delivery methodologies, will enable a more affordable and extensive reach to the African consumer base.

This, in turn, could lead to greater financial inclusion and increased access to formal financial services for a broader segment of the population.

Risk factors are inherent to investing everywhere, he stated, pointing out that risks can be mitigated through expertise, strategic structuring, and emerging tools. In his view, noteworthy steps, such as currency pairing for trade settlement and insurance products, reflect the concerted effort to reduce transaction costs, enhance efficiency, and facilitate smoother business operations.

Despite some advancements, there remain several challenges that hinder growth.

Beneath Africas potential lies an infrastructure deficit that can disrupt business operations, Subomi Plumptre, a global entrepreneur, originally from Nigeria, told Arab News.

Insufficient transportation networks, erratic energy supplies, and communication barriers can inflate costs and test investors patience, she added.

The World Bank estimates an annual reduction in economic growth by as much as 2 percent, with productivity enduring a staggering 40 percent decrease as a result of substandard infrastructure.

The unfavorable state of roads, railroads, and ports further escalates costs within intra-African trade, thereby impeding the crucial process of regional economic integration, Plumptre said.

African ports are 50 percent more expensive than their global counterparts due to poorly equipped and badly operated facilities. Similarly, rail infrastructure is concentrated in a few countries with higher per capita income, leaving vast regions underserved.

While challenges persist, Plumptre highlighted some positive trends. Notably, the telecom sector has witnessed remarkable growth, making Africa the fastest-growing and second-largest mobile phone market globally.

The introduction of innovative financing instruments and foreign investments in the region, coupled with initiatives to improve transparency and governance, has also contributed to positive developments.

However, navigating Africas political landscape can be like piecing together a puzzle with constantly shifting pieces.

Political transitions, policy changes, and regulatory uncertainties can catch investors off guard, prompting the need for adaptable strategies. Unrest in various pockets of the region keeps political stability at the forefront of investors minds, influencing their risk assessments and investment decisions.

It's crucial to recognize that investment plans and policies designed towards Africa consider the differences, ensuring that initiatives are tailored to meet each nations unique requirements, Metassebia Hailu Zeleke, a business lawyer from Ethiopia, told Arab News.

Against this background, the UAE and Kenya are negotiating a comprehensive economic partnership agreement to enhance bilateral trade. Private companies are also seizing the opportunities, with African businesses establishing bases in the UAE to engage with global markets.

Chinas investments have come with mixed results and reactions, particularly concerning issues around Africas growing indebtedness and Beijings control of resources in countries on the continent.

Increasingly citizens are demanding, and governments are shopping for, alternatives to Chinese funding. GCC countries can make a difference, and avoid reputational risks.

The emphasis on building off of natural relationships is a pivotal concept, because rather than forging entirely new paths, the GCC-Africa partnership leverages historical ties and geographical proximity. This approach recognizes the value of familiarity, mutual interests, and established networks, creating a foundation for sustained collaboration.

Plumptre also highlighted the importance of strengthening governance and transparency within the Middle East-Africa investment corridor. Successful navigation of partnership hinges on a threefold challenge: engaging local populations, navigating intricate land ownership concerns, and adeptly managing local conflicts.

She emphasized the need for private sector-led initiatives and public sector engagements to foster understanding, dialogue, and transparency between investors and entrepreneurs from both regions.

Diverse socio-economic backgrounds and historical contexts envelop Africas communities, Zeleka, the Ethiopian lawyer, said, and this necessitates open dialogues and collaboration with stakeholders for investments to truly align with local needs.

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Unlocking Africa's economic resurgence: Can The Middle East's ... - Arab News

For many investors, the main point of stock picking is to generate higher returns than the overall market. But the risk of stock picking is that you will likely buy under-performing companies. We regret to report that long term Anglo Asian Mining PLC (LON:AAZ) shareholders have had that experience, with the share price dropping 58% in three years, versus a market return of about 21%. And more recent buyers are having a tough time too, with a drop of 28% in the last year. Furthermore, it's down 42% in about a quarter. That's not much fun for holders.

Given the past week has been tough on shareholders, let's investigate the fundamentals and see what we can learn.

View our latest analysis for Anglo Asian Mining

To paraphrase Benjamin Graham: Over the short term the market is a voting machine, but over the long term it's a weighing machine. One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement.

During the three years that the share price fell, Anglo Asian Mining's earnings per share (EPS) dropped by 43% each year. This fall in the EPS is worse than the 25% compound annual share price fall. This suggests that the market retains some optimism around long term earnings stability, despite past EPS declines.

You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image).

It might be well worthwhile taking a look at our free report on Anglo Asian Mining's earnings, revenue and cash flow.

When looking at investment returns, it is important to consider the difference between total shareholder return (TSR) and share price return. The TSR is a return calculation that accounts for the value of cash dividends (assuming that any dividend received was reinvested) and the calculated value of any discounted capital raisings and spin-offs. Arguably, the TSR gives a more comprehensive picture of the return generated by a stock. In the case of Anglo Asian Mining, it has a TSR of -49% for the last 3 years. That exceeds its share price return that we previously mentioned. The dividends paid by the company have thusly boosted the total shareholder return.

We regret to report that Anglo Asian Mining shareholders are down 22% for the year (even including dividends). Unfortunately, that's worse than the broader market decline of 3.6%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case there's a good opportunity. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 15% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. Even so, be aware that Anglo Asian Mining is showing 4 warning signs in our investment analysis , and 1 of those is a bit unpleasant...

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on British exchanges.

Find out whether Anglo Asian Mining is potentially over or undervalued by checking out our comprehensive analysis, which includes fair value estimates, risks and warnings, dividends, insider transactions and financial health.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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The three-year shareholder returns and company earnings persist lower as Anglo Asian Mining (LON:AAZ) stock falls a further 12% in past week - Simply...

High energy use is increasingly a feature of many technology processing industries, including quantum computing, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and cryptocurrency mining (cryptomining). Estimates suggest that technology processing passed the milestone of consuming 1% of world energy in 2010 and is on trajectory to increase to 6% by 2030 (Masanet et al. 2020, Andrae and Edler 2015). In recent years, data centres and Bitcoin mining alone consumed 0.9% and 0.5% of global electricity, respectively (Andrae 2017, Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance).

This intensive electricity consumption results in two negative externalities. The first is the carbon emissions resulting from electricity production of cryptomining, with the website Digiconomist estimating that the global CO2 emissions from Bitcoin mining alone are equivalent to those of Libya (see also De Vries 2018, Blandin et al. 2020).

Our work concerns a second, unstudied externality the real effects of technology processing on local economies (Benetton et al. 2023). What, for example, are the spillovers from cryptomining on households and small businesses? How does the interaction of supply and demand impact prices and delivery of electricity to homes and small businesses? As we shall see below, cryptomining also has positive externalities in that cryptomines produce local tax revenues, raising questions about net costs and benefits.

Before describing our methodology and findings, a brief note about cryptomining, which is the clearing of payment transactions for decentralised blockchain-based cryptocurrencies that rely on the proof-of-work protocol. Any person or firm can become a cryptominer, which involves solving increasingly complex computational puzzles to verify the validity of transactions. This has led to an arms race among firms who run large cryptomines, essentially warehouses full of specialized computers, crunching numbers across the world. And the key point here is that these cryptomines need lots of electricity, while employing very few people.

We analyse the negative externalities of the high electricity use of cryptomining through two channels: prices and quantity rationing.

In the first case, we study New York State, specifically Upstate NY, excluding New York City and Long Island, which was an early market for cryptomining in the US due to its cold climate, cheap electricity, and proximity to large hydropower sources (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Bitcoin prices and electricity consumption

The regions grid operator employs a marginal supply pricing algorithm, whereby upward pressure on prices from demand gets passed to all users, including households and small businesses. We combine detailed data on these local electricity prices, electricity usage, and other economic outcomes with hand-collected data on the likely location of cryptominers, to analyse whether and how the use of electricity by cryptominers affects local communities.

Our findings include the following:

We now turn to China, a country that employed a quantity rationing system for electricity, and which hosted 6582% of the worlds cryptomining during the last decade before a ban in 2021. In a quantity rationing system, when total demand increases, prices do not adjust; rather, the electricity supply is rationed among locations to align with physical infrastructure. To explore possible externalities associated with the rationing of electricity in local economies, we exploit an annual panel of statistics at the city level for China (cities in the data include the surrounding areas). We focus on the 218 inland China city-areas, which have a mean population of 355,000, and do not include the large coastal metropolitan areas. There is evidence of cryptomining in 52 of these inland city-areas, of which we find the following:

We present novel empirical evidence of the real effects of cryptomining on local economies.

First, we focus on a setting in Upstate New York, where cryptomining led to an increase in electricity prices and a resultant consumer surplus loss. On the other hand, local governments saw an increase in tax revenues, although this only offsets a fraction of the consumer surplus loss through higher electricity prices. We then turn to China, where we reveal a negative impact on the labor market as well as fixed asset investments.

What does this mean for policymakers? Though likely tempting for some, the optimal response is likely not to ban cryptomining, which would only shift the problem to a more permissive jurisdiction and restrict any possible tax revenue gains. Rather, a better response would be to introduce electricity pricing schemes or dynamic quotas that minimise the adverse impact on the local community. In addition, the effects on local communities we document should be weighed against any other costs (notably, from pollution) and potential benefits arising from the growth of proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.

Andrae, A (2017), Total consumer power consumption forecast, Nordic Digital Business Summit 10.

Andrae, A S G and T Edler (2015), On Global Electricity Usage of Communication Technology: Trends to 2030, Challenges 6(1): 117-157.

Benetton, M, G Compiani and A Morse (2023), When Cryptomining Comes to Town: High Electricity-use Spillovers to the Local Economy, NBER Working Paper 31312.

Blandin, A, G Pieters, Y Wu, T Eisermann, A Dek, S Taylor and D Njoki (2020), Third global cryptoasset benchmarking study, Technical report, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, University of Cambridge, Judge Business School.

De Vries, A (2018), Bitcoin's growing energy problem, Joule 2(5): 801-805.

Masanet, E, A Shehabi, N Lei, S Smith, and J Koomey (2020), Recalibrating global data center energy-use estimates, Science 367(6481): 984-986.

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