Case study
Industry
Telecommunications, Energy, Construction, Technology
Company HQ
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Number of Employees
15,000+
Office Locations
North America, Europe, Middle East, Asia
NEQSOL Holding Delivers Flexible, Learner-Driven AI Upskilling Across Four Continents
Udemy driving business outcomes
Case study details
NEQSOL Holding is an expansive business that crosses continents and sectors, including telecoms, construction, energy, and tech. One of its most valuable assets is its community of thousands of employees who serve over 25 million customers worldwide.
Over the years, NEQSOL’s Learning and Development team has partnered with trusted organizations to build a foundation of learning for its teams. But as the group grew rapidly through acquisitions and new geographies, Dilara Jafarli, Head of Learning and Development, knew it was time to offer more options for flexible, self-driven education.
The group’s aim is to create a learning culture that empowers talent throughout the organization, investing in its people to help them thrive in their roles – and Udemy Business is now a key component of this vision. NEQSOL now provides 32 AI-focused learning paths, with 63% of its team already upskilled in AI. With a 90% adoption rate, employees can explore everything from the basics of generative AI to preparation for project management and IT certifications, cutting NEQSOL’s certification prep costs by 60% in a single quarter.
Creating an adaptable learning and development strategy for thousands of employees
NEQSOL Holding is an exceptionally diverse group of companies in telecoms, energy, construction, and tech, including Nobel Energy, Nobel Upstream, Vodafone Ukraine, Bakcell LLC, and Norm OJSC. It operates in 11 countries, including Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Ukraine, Georgia, the US, and the UK. And a diverse business means a huge array of skills, certifications, cultures, and languages to account for in learning and development.
With a strong commitment to upskilling its people, the organization’s learning and development team had already established a corporate learning and interaction platform called NEQSOL Academy. Through partnerships with trusted providers, the team built a structured, high-quality set of resources to support soft skills development, initially targeted at C-suite and other business leaders.
But recognizing the need for educational content and support that would benefit every employee – in many different sectors and roles – NEQSOL wanted a skills development platform that could keep up with its changing workforce.
“As our organization grew rapidly and expanded into diverse sectors, we began facing a new challenge: relevance and engagement at scale,” explains Dilara Jafarli, Head of Learning and Development for NEQSOL Holding. “With such a wide range of learners, roles, and geographies, it became increasingly difficult to ensure the right learning reached the right people at the right time.”
What NEQSOL needed was an evolution, not a replacement. The team was looking for a way to build on the NEQSOL Academy foundation and introduce a more varied library of learning and development resources. And the team needed a platform that could support a more flexible, personalized, and engaging approach to upskilling.
Head of Learning and Development, NEQSOL Holding
Aligning individual growth with organizational goals
Udemy Business was the perfect fit for NEQSOL, offering customizable, multilingual content that covers all the key topics the organization’s people need – from cybersecurity certifications to the latest developments in generative AI. It complements the existing structured content with a curated library of learner-driven courses that can be completed at any pace, supporting individuals’ development goals in a way that suits them.
“We didn’t want our people to be overwhelmed by the volume of courses, or feel like there was pressure to approach their development in a specific way,” says Jafarli. “This is where Udemy Business came in, offering a wide, regularly updated course library, flexible learning paths, and the ability to localize and scale learning effectively.”
Introducing Udemy Business allowed the team to keep the core of NEQSOL’s learning and development strategy centralized – without sacrificing autonomy for each business and location. It’s fully integrated with the organization’s learning management system, Enocta, simplifying oversight and reporting while allowing local teams to adapt the courses and content for their people.
“Adopting Udemy Business has helped us provide deep-dive functional training at scale and intensify our approach to blended learning. Our employees can actively drive their own development while staying aligned with business priorities,” says Jafarli.
Key to the platform’s flexibility is its Multi-Language Collection, which unlocks courses delivered by local, native speakers in 15 languages. When you’re learning about new concepts or complex topics, language shouldn’t be a barrier to progress. NEQSOL delivers courses in many languages, including English, Russian, Turkish, and German, making sure content is accessible to everyone. So, employees can learn more quickly and intuitively – and they feel more recognized and supported by the group.
NEQSOL sets the benchmark for AI in HR – and beyond
As a dynamic, future-focused organization, it’s no surprise that NEQSOL Holding is exploring the most effective ways to incorporate AI into its strategy. The AI Starter Paths and AI Assistant in Udemy Business have helped Dilara Jafarli, NEQSOL’s Head of L&D, and the wider team make significant progress with adoption in just a few months. These starter courses offer general introductions to AI for business applications, as well as guidance for specific tools such as ChatGPT and Midjourney.
“Our aim for 2025 was creating AI awareness, and helping each business embrace AI. So we started with the enablers of the whole process, the HR teams,” says Meric Tunc, Chief Human Capital Officer of NEQSOL Holding. “The People-Powered AI HR program is one of our flagship initiatives. We didn’t want to just upskill our own teams; we also wanted to help set the standard for AI integration in HR in the broader business community.”
The four-week program includes tailored content focused on AI-driven tools and best practices, with a flexible online learning model and 15 customized learning paths for different roles in the HR function. By providing real-world applications and case studies for AI in HR, the program helps foster a learning community centered around digital transformation.
So far, more than 300 learners have completed the program. As well as supporting NEQSOL’s own HR colleagues, the team also invited HR professionals from more than 20 other businesses in Azerbaijan and Ukraine to participate. “The HR community is very impressed with the course. Some of them are even exploring Udemy Business for their own organizations now,” adds Jafarli.
After the success of the People-Powered AI HR program, NEQSOL has continued to develop its AI upskilling options, extending access to other functions, including IT and marketing. While the HR courses focus on enhancing specific functions, NEQSOL’s IT teams have access to technical and functional expertise on topics like cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, programming, and DevOps.
Head of Learning and Development, NEQSOL Holding
An L&D strategy that delivers high value and high engagement across the organization
Throughout this initiative, the ability to analyze learner habits and progress – and gather feedback on each course – has been instrumental for Jafarli and her team. Udemy Business’ reports help them measure the success of their strategy and look for ways to evolve.
“The overall feedback from teams is overwhelmingly positive,” says Jafarli. “In fact, we’ve seen an exceptional adoption rate of over 90% in a short period of time, with an average course rating of 4.9. It speaks volumes about how well Udemy Business has been received throughout NEQSOL, and reflects the quality of the content and the value the learners are getting from the platform.”
With its AI courses, the Learning and Development team aims to upskill 75% of the business in AI applications relevant to each person’s role to enhance organizational agility and future-readiness. It’s already achieved 63% – significant progress against its goal and a boon for NEQSOL, as a growing proportion of its workforce can work more efficiently and creatively. It’s a strong foundation for scalable AI integration across all functions, creating the capabilities teams need to innovate and capture the competitive advantage of emerging technologies.
“We believe AI isn’t going to change what we do, but how we do it. Udemy Business helped us move from strategy to action, equipping our people to thrive in an AI-enabled workplace,” Jafarli says.
A culture that celebrates learning and colleague successes
Udemy Business is also helping NEQSOL change the learning culture across the business. For those pursuing formal development opportunities, such as industry-recognized qualifications in Power BI or AWS, Certification Prep and Badges simplify their studies and offer ways to support and uplift colleagues.
“Certification prep courses added real value, not only by making training more cost effective, but also by giving employees something tangible to share and to be recognized,” Jafarli says.
In a single quarter, NEQSOL saved 60% on its certification prep costs by removing the need to outsource to external training providers. Plus, those preparing for exams with Udemy Business can also access other courses through their license – without extra costs – unlocking even more skills.
And when team members complete their course, they can share a verified badge on LinkedIn and other platforms to help build their professional profile and celebrate their progress. “Earning and sharing badges has helped increase engagement and create a stronger learning culture where people are excited to speak about their progress and encourage each other,” Jafarli adds.
Head of Learning and Development, NEQSOL Holding
An ongoing commitment to innovative, collaborative learning approaches
“At NEQSOL, we believe knowledge grows when it’s shared,” says Jafarli. “Our focus in the future is to ensure learning remains practical, applicable, and impactful, not just theoretical. We want our people not to just gain new knowledge, but to apply it in real work situations to create value.”
That means continuing to find new routes for learners to access development opportunities. Jafarli and her team are currently working with their partners in Udemy to launch hybrid courses that blend self-driven learning pathways with live online sessions that include more collaborative and interactive formats.
“We’re creating space for employees to learn, engage, and reflect together,” says Jafarli. “Ultimately, our vision is to continue making our learning and development programs more sustainable, collaborative, and closely linked to business outcomes. And we see Udemy as a long-term partner in that journey.”
Head of Learning and Development, NEQSOL Holding
Chief Human Capital Officer, NEQSOL Holding
Read more success stories
