NEW YORK—This week, EssilorLuxottica (Reuters: ESLX.PA) is officially introducing Leonardo, an innovative learning platform open to the entire vision care industry. Employees, eyecare professionals and patients eager for professional and personal development, or curious about the unique and powerful world of vision, will find expert curated content from Essilor and Luxottica that can be tailored for every learner, the company said. Marking a major investment in EssilorLuxottica employees and customers, Leonardo offers an intuitive, user-friendly experience across all devices, accessible any time.

The content delivered by industry experts spans the areas of product development, lens technology and practice management, amounting to over 5,760 hours of video, interactive lessons, podcasts and virtual classrooms in over 15 languages.
 
“We have always seen education as an important lever for growth and for elevating vision care overall—it’s why we’ve invested in it for over a half a century,” said Alessandra Senici, the head of Leonardo at EssilorLuxottica. “With Leonardo, we took that concept even further by creating a single platform with the vast array of expert content from Essilor and Luxottica that anyone in the industry can access. Whether it’s a doctor looking for e-commerce fundamentals, a sales representative studying the storytelling behind eyewear icons or a patient researching the benefits of photochromic lens technology, this will be a mecca for knowledge about all things vision.”


Alessandra Senici.
In an exclusive interview with VMAIL, Senici said, "We know that our industry is really growing and we strongly believe that the future of eyewear and eyecare will be shaped by the knowledge of all of its stakeholders. We hope Leonardo can be part of redefining how we all learn. And some of the content can be accessed by consumers while most are to help all of our industry stakeholders and teams better leverage the expertise among so many aspects of our company."
 
Leonardo can tailor the learning experience based on the individual user’s interests and needs, becoming smarter over time, earning the tagline “Science for a New Vision.” The platform invites users to like and share recommendations, creating a unique environment for industry stakeholders who value learning as part of their journey. The platform recommends content, shows the most popular learning modules among other ECPs and employees in “trending now,” tracks favorites and highlights skills that employees in an optical practice might need or benefit from. 
 
The launch includes a premium content section of the site featuring business and practice management courses, with ABO CE content and a series of Masterclasses to come in the first quarter, including the first Leonardo certification on Myopia (a Masterclass on Myopia). All courses are taught by industry leading experts.
 
Accessible with a subscription, Essilor and Luxottica customers will receive a three-month free trial to this section as a way to explore its value. Future plans for Leonardo include the expansion of accredited courses and new features ranging from gamification to social learning.
 
Leonardo will now serve as the single learning platform for EssilorLuxottica customers, replacing Essilor University/ECPU and Luxottica University. The open platform can be accessed here. Some of the features have been made available to Luxottica employees already. Today, Essilor University/ECPU users, both employees and customers, will be redirected to Leonardo and their existing log-ins will work there, a spokesperson said.
 
A global team has been working on the concept of the Leonardo open platform for several years now, Senici said. The site is now up and launched and is the official launch for all EsslorLuxottica customers in the U.S., Italy, U.K., Singapore and Portugal and others will come onstream soon. She added, "Our vision is to become more to become really an ecosystem, where we create a community of experts, both internal and external partners, many stakeholders of the industry, where we can bring people together and share knowledge." 
 
When VMAIL asked about the name of the platform, Senici said, "The name of course, Leonardo, is for Leonardo da Vinci, first of all—not because he's an Italian, but because he was a sculptor, an architect, a painter and an inventor who studied the laws of science. He laid the foundations for much of modern culture and really, is a symbol of innovation." 
 
But, yes, she acknowledged, "It is also a way to pay homage to another certain Leonardo, Mr. Del Vecchio, our chairman, who has always understood the real value of learning on the job, and recognizes the tangible and intangible benefits that learning can bring."