Decentralized Online Learning Platform
Decentralized Online Learning Platform
Business Model Description
Through B2B and B2C models, companies can develop online learning platform that provides subscription based or curriculum based services to corporates, individual students and people of all ages to give them access to decentralized education that focuses on speicfically on STEM and digital skills, and financial literacy.
This IOA will help the general public with improved financial literacy to help manage household debts, reduce inequality in terms of access to education for students in remote areas, and help professionals and students acquire skills that are relevant and aligned with employment demands. This in turn can help reduce unemployment, drive productivity and spur innovation for government and corporate employers.
Money Class offers in-class, workshops, and an online financial literacy curriculum for two target groups: students and employees of private companies. It is a financial classroom for Thai people of all ages, committed to providing accurate financial knowledge with the skills to use money wisely (1).
Skooldio, established in 2017, offers online courses and workshops focussing on high-demand professional skills development. Skooldio has supportive courses and workshops for private and public organizations (9).
SkillLane offers online courses for professional skills taught by subject matter experts, co-founded in 2015. Students can even obtain online degree from universities or receive course credits from completing SkillLane courses. According to Financial Time Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies 2021, SkillLane was ranked the 1st in Thailand and 36th in Asia-Pacific region (16).
Expected Impact
Decentralized online learning platform for STEM, digital skills and financial literacy help develop skills important to employer and entrepreneurship.
How is this information gathered?
Investment opportunities with potential to contribute to sustainable development are based on country-level SDG Investor Maps.
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Country & Regions
- Thailand: Countrywide
Sector Classification
Education
Thailand placed 68th in reading, 59th in math and 55th in science (1) out of 79 countries in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). In 2019, Ordinary National Education Test (ONET) results were lower than 50% in all key education areas (2). Low education assessment scores can indicate lower competitiveness, and skills mismatch can cause labor shortages in certain jobs (3).
Policy priority
The National Education Plan (2017-2036) aims to promote inclusiveness, improve efficiency and effectiveness of education system, promote student-based learning curriculum, develop human resource capital to increase competitiveness and drive innovation and economic growth, and improve educational equality by investing in ICT infrastructure, online materials and data centers (4).
Gender inequalities and marginalization issues
Thailand still faces inequalities in access to higher education, with only 5% of students from impoverished households entering higher education. Additionally, the education system faces gender inequalities, such as the lack of knowledge on gender equality and sex education among teachers (2).
Investment opportunities introduction
Thailand has made efforts to incentivize foreign investors and leading academic and vocation training institutions to supply educational support in Thailand. Board of Investment (BOI) is offering tax incentives to companies engaged in human resource development (HRD).
Companies investing in the establishment of education and vocational training institutes specializing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics will be granted five years corporate income tax exemption (5).
Key bottlenecks introduction
Thus far, the education system in Thailand is highly dominated by the public sector with little areas for private sector involvement besides private education. Moreover, there is decreasing government expenditure on education from 4.86% of GDP in 2011 to 2.97% of GDP in 2019 (6).
Education Technology
Development need
From the Global Competitiveness Report (2019), Thailand ranked 89th for critical thinking, 74th for quality of vocational training, 79th for skills of graduates, and 86th for ease of finding skilled employees out of 141 countries. Low scores indicate problems in the formal education system, while decentralized online learning platforms can help overcome these gaps (7).
Policy priority
The National Education Plan (2017-2036) aims to improve educational equality by investing in ICT infrastructure and online learning materials (4). The Ministry of Education has put forward an online learning platform during the pandemic, such as distance learning approaches via satellite or DLTV, and Masstive Open Online Course (MOOC) (8).
Gender inequalities and marginalization issues
Students from low income households and those living in remote have difficulties getting accessing to educational technology infrastructure, and are largely excluded from the government's responses to the pandemic (2).
90% of students from top 20% wealthiest households have access to private learning devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones, while only 10% of students from bottom 20% poorest households have access to education technology (9).
Investment opportunities introduction
There is USD 10 billion venture capital funding globally for education technology in 2020 (10). As of December 2021, there are 91 education technology start-ups in Thailand (10). The pandemic calls for greater public-private partnerships to invest in education technology and infrastructure (11).
Key bottlenecks introduction
Resources and infrastructure to support online learning are not readily and widely available among low income households. Small schools with less than 20 students per grade increased from 15,000 in 1993 to 19,800 in 2010,
but these small schools are more expensive to operate and insufficiently provide high quality education, suffer from lack of teachers, teaching materials, and physical infrastructure due to decreased in the number of students from falling birth rates (12).
Educational Technology
Pipeline Opportunity
Decentralized Online Learning Platform
Through B2B and B2C models, companies can develop online learning platform that provides subscription based or curriculum based services to corporates, individual students and people of all ages to give them access to decentralized education that focuses on speicfically on STEM and digital skills, and financial literacy.
This IOA will help the general public with improved financial literacy to help manage household debts, reduce inequality in terms of access to education for students in remote areas, and help professionals and students acquire skills that are relevant and aligned with employment demands. This in turn can help reduce unemployment, drive productivity and spur innovation for government and corporate employers.
Money Class offers in-class, workshops, and an online financial literacy curriculum for two target groups: students and employees of private companies. It is a financial classroom for Thai people of all ages, committed to providing accurate financial knowledge with the skills to use money wisely (1).
Skooldio, established in 2017, offers online courses and workshops focussing on high-demand professional skills development. Skooldio has supportive courses and workshops for private and public organizations (9).
SkillLane offers online courses for professional skills taught by subject matter experts, co-founded in 2015. Students can even obtain online degree from universities or receive course credits from completing SkillLane courses. According to Financial Time Asia-Pacific High-Growth Companies 2021, SkillLane was ranked the 1st in Thailand and 36th in Asia-Pacific region (16).
Business Case
Market Size and Environment
USD 100 million - USD 1 billion
According to Kasikorn Research Center, the private tutoring industry (including all types of academic tutors and other tutoring) had a market size of USD 500 - 600 million (THB 15 - 18 billion) in 2020, which can be inferred as a potential market size for online learning platforms (2).
Indicative Return
10% - 15%
According to expert survey, the majority of respondents answered that the ROI for the IOA is around 5-10%.
Investment Timeframe
Short Term (0–5 years)
According to expert interview, as online products can be scaled-up quickly and require low investment capital, the IOA has short investment timeframe.
Ticket Size
< USD 500,000
Market Risks & Scale Obstacles
Market - Highly Regulated
Customer's Buy-In
Limited Infrastructure
Impact Case
Sustainable Development Need
School closure during the pandemic affected about 15 million Thai students who were left at home for distance learning. Few teachers have training on distance learning while still keeping students engaged. Consequences can include learning loss, mental distress, and drop out (3).
More than 290,000 new graduates in Q2 of 2021 are unemployed with an increase of 10% from last year (3), with mismatched fields of study being one major reason beside the pandemic. Labor demand for STEM employees is as high as 41%, while the supply of graduates in STEM is only around 21% (10).
Financial knowledge is basic knowledge of financial concepts and application of numeracy skills in a financial context. Financial knowledge score for Thailand was 3.9 out of 7 in 2020, while the average for OECD member countries in the sample is 4.6 (17).
Gender & Marginalisation
Thailand still faces inequalities with regard to access to higher education. With only 5% of students from impoverished households having the opportunity to enter higher education (4).
90% of students from top 20% wealthiest households have access to private learning devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones, while only 10% of students from bottom 20% poorest households have access to education technology (11).
According to the OECD survey, Thai households with low education and low income are likely to have lower financial knowledge. Thai households have low knowledge of compound interest rate, definitions and impacts of inflation, and benefits of diversification (17).
Expected Development Outcome
Decentralized education technology enables students to continue education despite closures of schools, and access to resources being unavailable within the formal education system, such as coding skills.
Online learning can be accessed by students of all ages to promote life-long learning, and upskilling and reskilling of the labor force. This can help reduce unemployment, and help Thailand transition to an innovative and digital economy.
Financial literacy is not taught in schools, and online learning can fill in this gap for both students and adults. This will help Thai people make more informed financial decisions and lower the high rate of household debt, consisting of mortgage, personal consumption, and business purposes (90.5% of GDP during Q1 of 2021) (18).
Gender & Marginalisation
Education inequalities can be mitigated using education technology, as it eliminates location-specific restrictions. However, funding and support are needed from the government for development and distribution of resources and infrastructure for students to access the online learning.
With the prevalence of internet coverage and smart devices, education technology can penetrate across the whole country and population. Female students will have equal access to online learning as male students, and special curriculum can be developed for people with specific disabilities.
Increase in financial knowledge can lead to other benefits in terms of less household debts, and higher insurance coverage, which have high impact in improving the livelihoods of women.
Primary SDGs addressed
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people (a) in grades 2/3; (b) at the end of primary; and (c) at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in (i) reading and (ii) mathematics, by sex
4.4.1 Proportion of youth and adults with information and communications technology (ICT) skills, by type of skill
4.3.1 Participation rate of youth and adults in formal and non-formal education and training in the previous 12 months, by sex
Thailand ranked 68th out of 79 participating countries in PISA 2018. Average score for Reading, Mathematics and Science was 412.67 (5).
21% of new graduates are from science, technology, and innovation programs in 2017 (12). There were around 4 million workers in science and technology in Thailand in 2017 (6).
70.49% of children age 12 - 14 years enrolled in middle school (grade 7 - 9) and 40.70% of children age 15 - 17 years enrolled in high school (grade 10 - 12) in 2020 (19).
Average PISA score of 510 by 2037 (6).
50% of students graduating from science, technology, and innovation programs by 2037 (6).
100 % of the population enrolled in middle school and 95% of the population enrolled in high schools by 2037 (7).
8.6.1 Proportion of youth (aged 15–24 years) not in education, employment or training
14.88% of people age 15-29 years not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in 2019 (https://sdg-tracker.org/economic-growth).
Data not available.
Secondary SDGs addressed
Directly impacted stakeholders
People
Gender inequality and/or marginalization
Corporates
Public sector
Indirectly impacted stakeholders
Gender inequality and/or marginalization
Corporates
Outcome Risks
Too much of online learning can have disadvantages that in-person leaning do not have, such as lack of feedback, social isolation, no communication skills, or lack of practice.
Gender inequality and/or marginalization risk: Online learning platforms charge money to users, which can exclude low income individuals from accessing the platforms and worsen inequality in education.
Impact Risks
Stakeholder participation risk: Students and professionals have limited time or do not see the necessity of online learning platforms.
Drop-off risk: Many employers still do not recognize online learning platforms as qualifications, and prefer formal education, such as GPA and degrees. Hence, there is limited incentives.
External Risk: Online learning platforms depend on access to internet and computers, which can be limited to many people, especially low income individuals.
Gender inequality and/or marginalization risk: Low income students are less likely to have access to the basic infrastructure needed for online learning.
Impact Classification
What
People can learn STEM and digital skills, and financial literacy that are highly important to employers, necessary for entrepreneurship and promote life-long learning.
Risk
Online learning platforms should be affordable for low income individuals, and be recognized by employers to incentivize people to learn from the platforms.
Contribution
Additional contribution is likely better than base case as online education faces high competition from international companies that can limit growth.
Impact Thesis
Decentralized online learning platform for STEM, digital skills and financial literacy help develop skills important to employer and entrepreneurship.
Enabling Environment
Policy Environment
National Education Plan (2017-2036) aims to develop human resource capital to increase competitiveness, meet demands of the job market, and drive innovation and economic growth. It also aims to promote inclusiveness, ICT infrastructure, and student-based learning curriculum (7).
Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation Strategy (2020-2027) aims to promote human resources (HR) for R&D and STEM, and HR that matches with demand of the job market and global trends, has resilience for disruption, is life-long learners, and has knowledge of artificial intelligence (13).
20 Years Human Resource Development Strategy (2017-2036) aims to promote a competitive workforce that has high productivity, innovation and works in R&D. This is done through reskilling, multi-skilled and STEM education (20).
Bank of Thailand Strategic Plan (2020-2022) aims to promote equal access to financial services along with promoting public understanding on financial literacy, financial services, digital financial services, and financial technology in partnership with various organizations (22).
Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) Master Plan (2018-2022) aims promote education for the technology and digital sector, technology integration, knowledge of ICT for general public and entrepreneurs. It also aims to promote digital transformation in businesses, and growth for start-ups (23).
Financial Environment
Financial incentives: Digital Economy Promotion Agency's (DEPA) Digital Transformation Fund provides up to USD 100,000 (3 million baht) for digital transformation projects including AI, intelligent applications, internet of things, digital platform, etc (https://www.depa.or.th/th/smart-city-plan).
Financial incentives: Digital Economy Promotion Agency's (DEPA) Digital Manpower Fund provides USD 3,333 (THB 100,000) for students and individuals from both public and private sectors, and USD 10,000 (THB 300,000) for executives from both public and private sectors that aim to develop skills in industrial and digital innovation (https://www.depa.or.th/th/smart-city-plan).
Fiscal incentives: 5 years or more of Corporate Income Tax (CIT) exemption, import duty exemption on machinery and raw materials, and other non-tax incentives for educational technology digital services (15).
Regulatory Environment
National Education Act (1999) with a new draft currently underway aims to promote education that is high quality and in accordance with future economic development, promotes life-long learning, and is inclusive and helps solve inequality by taking into account the private sector and people (8).
Learning Promotion Act (draft underway to replace Non-formal and Informal Education Act 2008) aims to promote life-long learning and increase access to education via online and offline that corresponds to local needs through partnerships with local governments, private sector and the public (14).
Equitable Education Act (2018) established the Equitable Education Fund used to provide financial support for underpriviledged children to reduce inequality by forming partnerships with different groups. EEF also supports teachers developing and conducting research in education (21).
Marketplace Participants
Private Sector
Online learning platform providers (i.e. Money Class by Learn Corporation, Vonder, Voxy, InsKru, Conicle, Skooldio, SkillLane), corporate employers, private schools, corporate venture capitalists (i.e. InVent by Intouch Holding, True Incube)
Government
Ministry of Education, Ministry of Labor, public schools, Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, public universities, Digital Economy Promotion Agency
Multilaterals
Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Financial Corporation (IFC)
Non-Profit
Change Fusion
Target Locations
Thailand: Countrywide
References
- (1) https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/683311593415205230/Thailand-Programme-for-International-Student-Assessment-PISA-2018-Country-Report.docx
- (2) https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/279482021_VNR_Report_Thailand.pdf
- (3) http://sdgs.nesdc.go.th/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/THA-Survey_launch-version-OECD.pdf
- (4) http://backoffice.onec.go.th/uploaded/Outstand/2017-EdPlan60-79.pdf
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