The Edupreneurs project, funded by the SAIS 2 program, is gaining traction and the first week of June is full of surprises! We will not only offer two workshops for building capacity among education entrepreneurs, but we will also roll out officially our digital platform on June 4th.
The platform is accessible through the link: https://edupreneurs.ahaa.glowdom.com/#/
Click here to access the Platform Launch Event on June 4th, at 11h (Namibian time).
Benefits of the platform
For education institutions: through the portal, education stakeholders from K-12 schools to HEIs will have access to efficient and secure solutions for education, as well as reach out for a broader market range beyond national borders.
For education entrepreneurs: education suppliers and edtech start-ups will be able to promote their services and products in the digital platform. By engaging enterprises that complement each other’s services and products, we strengthen the business ecosystem among stakeholders and guarantee education services tailored to the local needs.
For the society: civil organizations, such as parents’ associations, community centers, municipal libraries and other (non)-governmental organizations can promote their contributions and network with relevant partners for a broader impact on.
Participatory design and co-development process
The innovativeness of our platform is reflected in the participatory design implemented throughout the whole project, in which all stakeholders have contributed collectively for developing our solutions. As a starting point, during the Project launch in March, we have gathered stakeholders’ suggestions for how the project could attend their demands. One of the participants, Nhlanhla Lupahla, contributed in the workshop for assessing stakeholders’ needs by stating:
“Practice and innovation development cannot be complete without cooperation between teachers, students, IT developers, researchers”. Nhlanhla Lupahla
And this is exactly what we are realizing through the platform.
The platform from the point-of-view of its developers
Jannaten Nayem and Masood Ahmadi from Eduix had a fundamental role on designing and programming the digital platform. For Jannaten, working on a fundamental step toward establishing a Southern Africa digital business ecosystem was a great opportunity.
“In the process of designing the platform, the most essential thing for me was to offer the user a wonderful visual experience and to ensure that the user gets the right information within the blink of an eye.” Jannaten Nayem
For Masood, coding the web software was a new positive challenge and learning experience, because the application was used with programming components not deployed by him previously. He highlights that, taking the developer point of view, the coding components strongly support the platform functionality and its further development.
In addition, Olli Ovaskainen’s knowledge about Formjack database was his most valuable asset for the project development. He was responsible for developing the backend connecting the platform to the Glowdom’s Formjack. Olli’s main goal was to
“develop an interface between the data and the user interface that is easy to update and maintain.” Olli Ovaskainen
Erobiam Shinima from Glowdom participated continuously on the platform development. His hopes in this project is in
“Creating the opportunity for the presence of all types of services offered by different types of entrepreneurs in the education sector in one collective platform, in such a large community, SADC”. Erobiam Shinima
From June, Glowdom will be the main responsible for developing new features of the platform.
Platform launch
The patform will be launched on Friday, June 4th, at 11h (Namibian time). The event will count with the participation of Marko Saarinen, the Senior Specialist Development Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Finland). During the event, we will present the platform main features, how stakeholders can start engaging with it, and users’ benefits.
To participate in the event, there is no need for registration. Just click on this meeting link on Friday at 12h (Finnish time)!
Until then, do not waste more time, access the platform now and register your organization there !
The platform is completely free to all stakeholders to register on it and benefit from all its functionalities until end of July. After July, some of the platform features will be charged for an accessible price, but the main functionalities will continue to be accessible for free to all.