As previously reported, the idea is to make it easier for educational institutions to train accounting and bookkeeping students on contemporary accounting software, as firms have been complaining that recruits have only been exposed to outdated systems.

This will allow participating institutions to provide the profession with new entrants — both those at the start of their careers and older workers who have decided to reskill — who have up-to-date skills.

A total of 370,000 businesses are started in Australia and New Zealand each year, said Xero founder and chief executive Rod Drury, so there is a clear demand for skilling, reskilling and upskilling.

The platform is (naturally) based on the Xero cloud accounting system, and will be kept in step with that product while remaining completely separate from the production system, said Xero Australia managing director Trent Innes (pictured). Xero is able to do this thanks to the flexibility and scalability of the cloud. Xero runs mostly on AWS, with certain parts on Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.

But the Lifelong Learning Platform also includes intensive guidance about the use of Xero, and includes a programming language invented by Xero that allows instructors to set up different scenarios with minimum effort.

The education sector has been asking for something like this for years, said Innes, and Xero is collaborating with Swinburne University to create content for the platform.

The Xero Lifelong Learning Platform is currently being piloted, and should be ready for the 2018 academic year, said Drury.