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Image credit: Guide Education

UK-based edtech company, Guide Education, has raised £6M (approx €7M) to address the increasing shortages of qualified teachers. The round was led by the UK Government Future Fund and other private investors.

Funds for better education

The raised capital will help the company to further improve their quantity as well as the quality of teachers to create better outcomes for all learners.

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Speaking on the development, David Hans-Barker, Guide Education’s co-founder, says, “Education levels the playing field, and as long as we lack quality teachers, our educational system will always be unequal. That’s why we want to get this to everyone. It’s time for the monopoly to be over, your background should not determine the quality of teacher you can access. Teachers are the most powerful differentiator in a student’s educational outcomes and thus their life chances. We have the tools to make a difference, and now we have the means too.”

68 million teachers short by 2030

Currently boasting a 7-figure turnover, Guide Education encourages people into teaching by offering them the tools they need to kick start their career.

Highlighting the opportunity and responsibility from Guide Education, Founder & CEO Leon Hady says, “We have refined our services and are now poised to scale the offering. The UN has stated that the world will be 68 million teachers short by 2030. Without a qualified teacher in every classroom in every school, the quality of education for young people will diminish significantly. This will impact the poorest students first and foremost, furthering educational inequality.”

Guide Education’s mission is to leverage the potential of online learning, and in particular, widening access to educational material for disadvantaged students.

According to Vipul Bhargava, Partner at Guide’s advisors Novistra Capital, he understands the gaps in the edtech boom. He says, in 2020, the investments in the edtech sector were the highest year on record, and the same would follow this year in 2021. However, one of the biggest challenges in deploying edtech has been teacher training.

He said in a statement, that “The pandemic has exasperated the many problems teachers face. This product solves the core problem by making it even easier for schools, colleges, and governments to effectively train their staff. The latest funding round is a testament to Guide Education as a company and their mission of solving the teacher shortage and training challenges we face today.”

About Guide Education

Guide Education was founded in 2016 by former Headteacher Leon Hady, who achieved the government mark “Outstanding” multiple times.

The company currently works with over 700 schools and has helped train over 15,000 teachers. Guide Education provides over 3000 videos in 30 courses covering five years of teacher training materials.

Users credit Guide Education’s technology as it allows personalised learning and detailed student-mentor interactions, which is a key factor in their success and uptake of the platform.

Hady says, “What makes Guide Education unique is the flexibility we have built into our learning systems. We’ve taken all the core elements of effective face-to-face learning and repurposed them into a 4-step process that improves teacher training outcomes in a faster, cheaper, and more impactful model. Educational technology should bend around the user, not the other way round. Our software has been designed by teachers for teachers and holistically supports the delivery of pedagogy and an actual learning process. It’s true online learning, not just online delivery of offline content.”

Guide also owns and runs TuitionKit, a GCSE support system that provides learning opportunities for over 600,000 students in 24 countries.