a unique approach
What makes SkillEd unique?
1. It’s open and free.
Yes, that’s right: Creating, sharing, and following courses on our lightweight online learning platform doesn’t cost you anything, as long as you share your courses publicly!
We also offer paid services, e.g., if your organization or company wants help with creating course contents, needs a private environment with classroom/communication tools, or special hardware solutions.
2. Our goal is worldwide collaboration.
Our vision of SkillEd is a large knowledge and course database that can be used by everyone, everywhere.
We stimulate open sharing and collaboration between organizations and different countries. This saves time and money, improves course material, and helps to spread knowledge.
3. It’s internet independent.
For many of us it’s hard to imagine life without the internet. Still for lots of people this is reality – because they live very remote, because their government limits access to internet or because they can’t afford it.
That’s why we find it important that all SkillEd courses can be followed and shared offline, using for example Bluetooth or SD cards. If the situation asks for it, SkillEd could run on solar-powered micro-servers so that even the creation of courses, student administration and collaboration tools could work without internet or power.
4. We know the importance of content localization.
As many organizations and companies work globally and offer trainings in different countries, it is often desirable to localize the course content. Localization means adapting the content to the local circumstances, e.g., training for farmers should be fitted to local growing conditions. It also means that, together with our collaboration partners, courses are offered in local languages.
5. It can be suitable for illiterate adults.
Despite the steady rise in literacy rates over the past 50 years, according to UNESCO, there are still 773 million illiterate adults around the world. To enable learning in areas where many people can’t read and write, our partner organizations and we adapt course material to videos and audio explanations. We found that illiterate students don’t need much time to learn to operate the SkillEd app.
6. We promote blended learning.
In cooperation with our partner organizations, we combine digital learning with in-depth practical workshops and/or webinars for both theoretical and hands-on knowledge. We find that this approach works for very different target groups and enables local teachers to reach out to a bigger number of students.
7. We focus on essential knowledge and skills.
First and foremost, we want to partner up with organizations that aim to teach basic skills and knowledge that can be real life changers, e.g., in agriculture, water and waste management, health care, construction and (vocational) education.
8. It’s an organization.
That means that all income will be used to serve our vision of sharing knowledge and bringing about sustainable change.
our vision
… knowledge can be presented and shared easily, and as independently as possible from where you are and what device you use,
… knowledge can’t be owned and open sharing should be encouraged,
… collaboration (both individual and organizational) is the way forward.
The SkillEd vision is to connect users to high-quality information and knowledge, offering all the opportunity to learn and teach in any situation and context. We believe that SkillEd can make a great impact in sharing knowledge, mainly in areas where the people have limited possibilities to access information: There may be a lack of schools, difficulty to access the schools because of distance, or violence, limited internet availability due to the lack of a network or governmental restrictions, illiteracy etc. SkillEd aims to create the tools and the network to stimulate knowledge building and exchange, and to efficiently get the knowledge there where it is needed.
SkillEd will boost cross-learning and sharing of information. We believe that knowledge is the gateway to improving life, that it makes life-changes possible. We believe that access to knowledge and information, at the right time and in the right way, is the key to improving the chances of personal, professional and economic growth for anyone.
People should be able to share the knowledge they have so anyone can have a positive impact with what they have chosen to learn. Whether it is on a personal or communal level, about (economic) independence or sustainable living, focused on less or more advantaged people, as long as the knowledge and skills contribute to a more equal and sustainable world, SkillEd wants to make it accessible to all.