Dev Clever (DEV) has entered into a five-year exclusive partnership agreement with Veative Labs (“Veative”) and the National Independent Schools Alliance (“NISA”), India’s largest governing body for budget private educational institutions.
5 Year Exclusive Agreement
The agreement, which follows the announcement of 6 November 2020, will see all parties execute an implementation and rollout schedule from January 2021, that will result in Dev Clever’s Launchyourcareer being utilised by NISA as the platform-of-choice to deliver a minimum standard of career guidance across its affiliated schools. NISA represents over 70,000 budget private schools in India, attended by c.13 million students.
Chris Jeffries, CEO Dev Clever, said: “This is a significant opportunity to support the development of millions of young people in India. We are delighted to be working directly in partnership with NISA, the benchmark authority and voice of the expeditiously expanding budget private education sector in India, and Veative, the market-leading provider of online and immersive curriculum-aligned learning content. Together, we are able to deliver this solution at such a scale that it has the possibility to change the way young people learn and become prepared for the world of work in their future.
Kulbhushan Sharma, President at NISA, commented: “NISA is committed to bringing about the best learning and growth opportunities for all students within our purview, and this commitment does not end at the gates of a school. Working with Dev Clever and Veative to drive career readiness and open up further long-term opportunities brings an added dimension to all that we do. We are delighted to explore new career aspirations with our students through the launchyourcareer platform, and then excite those minds with the cutting-edge learning technology developed by Veative. Much more than a simple solution, this new way of connecting students with learning will bring a significantly positive impact to budget private schools in India.
Ankur Aggarwal, CEO at Veative Labs, added: “We are both excited and humbled to be working with Dev Clever, a market leader in career development, and NISA, a massively influential body working hard to affect real, lasting change in the lives of Indian youths. Our contribution to this endeavour is to add a unique immersive learning element to enable a true understanding of what some career choices entail, plus some real learning in that area of interest.
In these trying times, the ability for educators to pivot with the changing needs of both in-person and remote learners is paramount. Such a disruptive environment creates both challenges and opportunities for EdTech companies to rise to the occasion. Delivering online education at scale at significantly lower costs, coupled with increased internet and smartphone penetration and a large untapped consumer base, makes this a truly wonderful time to be involved in education in India.”
LaunchYourCareer.com: The platform-of-choice in India
Pleased to conclude Phase One of its entry into the Indian marketplace, the partnership has already prepared and is ready to kickstart Phase Two in January 2021. Phase One was all about evaluation. Phase Two will see NISA recommend LaunchYourCareer.com as the platform-of-choice to its 70,000 schools, which are attended by c.13 million students. It presents opportunity for widespread impact on learners and celebrates a significant milestone in the changing of India’s current careers offering.
In recent years, the demand for better careers standards and advisers in India is unprecedented. In 2019, it was reported that 93% of schools across India lacked trained career specialists. Up to 53% of school leavers are ill-advised to find a job. Market saturation has left many youths out of work. The repercussions of this are dangerous for schools, learners, as well as India’s economy.
The new partnership will tackle India’s crisis’s head on in schools and the home. Once schools have onboarded and are familiar with the platform, there will be opportunity to upgrade its subscription license to gain best practice tools, Veative modules, and virtual learning content. The upgrades are engineered to enhance not only student potential but advisory efficiency; effectively, it’ll ensure schools can better align and guide learners from all potential avenues.
A New B2C Subscription Model for Careers Guidance: Giving Learners What They Want
The EdTech space worldwide has been significantly growing year-on-year. In light of Covid-19, India has witnessed an even larger boom. Its EdTech market is estimated to grow by up to 4x by 2025, reaching approx. £10bn, and it’s becoming a space to engage young paid subscribers.
In fact, India has become a nation of digital subscribers and Dev Clever are ready to transform the existing landscape with its landmark B2C subscription model to enhance careers guidance. The service, set to hit the Indian market on [1st April 2021], delivers outstanding functionality and access to careers content at homes. It will also enable parents to supplement and monitor their child’s progress from any device. It’s a sleek and modern approach to careers guidance.
The expansive service will provide skills, guidance, and experience from all angles to maximise a learner’s potential and prepare them for college and career readiness. Students will benefit virtual work experiences, careers networking, as well as college and course recommendations.
Moreover, students can also undertake valuable modules to build aspects of their character and learning, incl. modules in interactive language learning, self-development and wellbeing, and curriculum-aligned educational units, all designed and brought to life the award-winning Veative.
Success is in student statistics: Transforming lives
Dev Clever have rocketed careers engagement in learners within the UK. It recently collected feedback from schools it works and is proud to highlight an impressive 147% growth in student participants feeling more engaged and informed after using the Launch Your Career platform.
By readjusting their focus and empowering students to make real life choices, educators could motivate learners in or out the classroom. Feedback was positive overwhelmingly with 94% of learners saying the platform was helpful to finding the right career. 89% of learners felt more informed about careers. While 96% students said they loved the Launch Your Career platform.
Chris Jeffries added, “The Indian EdTech sector is predicted to grow from *$2.8bn in 2020 to $10bn by 2025 and this partnership enables the company to enter an exciting geography at scale with a strong proposition, a direct route to market and the opportunity to secure a sizable part of this rapidly growing sector.”
Shares in Dev Clever have performed strongly over the past three months from lows of 6.8p to close last week at 9.15p prior to this announcement.
Reasons to follow Dev Clever
Dev Clever Holdings is a software and technology group based in Tamworth, United Kingdom, specialising in the use of cloud-based VR and gamification technologies to deliver rich customer engagement experiences across both the education and commercial sectors.
Its educational division offers careers guidance and recruitment solutions to secondary schools, colleges, universities, apprenticeship providers and employers with digital products to recruit and develop applicants and skills within their institutions and organisations.
Through its Virtual Reality Careers Experience, VICTAR, the group encourages ‘hard to reach students disengaged from the process as well as reaffirming students on their career journey.’
Focused on bridging this global skills gap, DEV offers technology designed to support schools globally and to embrace immersive technology and revolutionise career guidance programs.
Due to a new reality of distance learning in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic, the EdTech space has surged with analysts reporting an average increase in revenue of 335% according to an industry impact analysis by Rootstrap.
According to market data published by MarketsandMarkets, the EdTech and Smart Classroom Market size is expected to grow globally from $85.8 billion in 2020 to $181.3 billion by 2025.
In May this year DEV entered into an agreement with Intrinsic Capital Jersey Ltd, founded by serial entrepreneur and investor Chris Akers, to raise up to £10m (gross) through a subscription at 10p.
The fund raise enabled DEV to accelerate its growth plans with collaboration partners and clients whilst also funding the expansion of the Company into new territories.
The valuation multiples for EdTech Companies continues to rise as larger multinational companies acquire innovative players in the space to capture growth