Earlier this year the UK government unveiled its plans to commit to a financial boost to the country’s Edtech strategy. £10m will be invested in the coming years as the government is determined to make sure the education sector is able to take advantage of all the opportunities available through developing technology.
Edtech has become one of the UK’s fastest-growing industries over recent years and is estimated to be worth somewhere in the region of £170 million to the UK economy, and whilst most children regularly use technology, thus far it hasn’t been used to its full potential in education.
With the recent media spotlight on an already rapidly developing sector, there’s been an upsurge of startups in the industry that have appeared, all with a unique offering.
To celebrate cutting edge innovation in the educational technology sector, we’ll be focusing on a selection of key themes that we expect to explode into life over the coming months.
To kick things off we look at our favourite startups who are making it easier to learn online.
Providing your team with opportunities to upskill and better themselves is a key ingredient when it comes to an employee’s development. Startup, HowNow has incorporated AI technology to create a learning platform specifically tailored to you, including informative videos, podcasts, blogs, courses and webinars by industry experts.
The benefits are clear to see, HowNow suggest that workers spend 20% of their time looking for the know-how they need. When using HowNow this is almost reduced to 0%, on average for every £1 that a company spends on training, it receives an estimated £30 worth of productivity.
Lingumi allows parents from all around the world to give their children a head start on learning the English language at the best neurological stage. So far 50,000 families have started learning English using Lingumi.
After working an as English teacher in Russia and Italy, Founder and CEO, Toby saw how difficult it was for children to learn a second language at six or seven years old in a group of 20-30.
Using his previous learning from Oxford University, he knew that the best time to begin learning a second language is in early childhood before the brain loses its ability to learn languages.
One new lesson is added a day on the app, with each lesson containing five to six fun games, providing an interactive and fun way for your child to begin learning English naturally. Just one new lesson a day, it also begins to create a daily lesson structure for your child and develops a healthy screen-time habit.
Tapping into unused potential is Chatterbox, a social enterprise that employs skilled refugees as language tutors.
Chatterbox has given refugees an opportunity to work and rebuild their confidence and CVs. The award-winning platform matches undervalued and underemployed refugees with exciting working opportunities online.
Currently, eleven languages are covered on Chatterbox ranging from Arabic to Korean, users get one-to-one tuition, online or in person.
London based financial education business, Blackbullion was born out of one very simple principle; we’re all better off when everyone is money smart.
Working with schools, colleges and universities, students work through the online learning platform which develops their financial literacy.
Students can begin learning about the perils of a credit card or emergency loans, and pick up some tips on the best way to motivate to save money.
Based in Hammersmith, Mrs Wordsmith is on a mission to teach every child in the world, the 10,000 words they need to succeed in life. The literacy startup exists to take every child on an epic word learning adventure that will make them smarter and prepare them for later life.
Mrs Wordsmith has spotted a gap in the learning market that children no longer want to learn about words, they remain uninspired about it and would rather play video games instead.
But what if they could become inspired about learning, writing, arguing and singing again? Through paper and digital work, a team of Hollywood artists transport words chosen by data scientists into the progressive, culturally diverse and technologically advanced world children now live in.
Get ready for an epic learning adventure!
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