World short of 69 million teachers
The world is short of 69 million teachers despite a lot of global talent, and trying to fill this gap is one of the main challenges in education across the globe, said Tom Hooper, CEO and Founder of Third Space Lear ning ( TSL) in UK. Speaking at the opening of the new regional headquarters of Third Space Global (TSG) at the Orion City in Colombo on Wednesday, Mr. Hooper however added that this is a solvable problem noting that technology has the power to teach students around the world.
Sri Lanka is a hub for talent. The vision of TSG is building confidence and providing access to everyone, including the ones who are disadvantaged. “There are 200 tutors today here in Sri Lanka teaching primary school Math for kids in UK via online. We are looking forward to expand the number of tutors to 300 and more in the coming years,” he added.
On the sidelines of the event Mr. Hooper told the Business Times that the talent Sri Lankans have is not well known to the world outside. Lots of Sri Lankans have done great things in foreign countries and are now coming back to Sri Lanka to develop their home country, just like the CEO of TSG.
TSG’s Sri Lanka CEO, Roshan Nilaweera noted, “Being in Sri Lanka for two years we have very big ambitions for the company to grow. Growth of the company will take place in different levels such as doubling the staff, new offices across the island and help serve people who we work with.”
Elaborating further on the growth of the company over the next 18 to 24 months Mr. Nilaweera stated that in terms of the company’s contribution there are plans to increase export revenue by 200 per cent, expand the CSR e- learning hubs programme and launch free CSR teaching and learning workshops next summer in 2018. In terms of staff training plans are underway to develop the world’s first online teaching course accreditation, provide greater flexibility for the staff to work from home and around their studies and partner with reputed companies to provide career opportunities through established recruitment pathways.
According to the media release, TSL is building the world’s first global and scalable teaching network of highly trained online tutors supported by cutting edge technology. TSL offers the largest network of one-on-one Math tuition in the UK. In the last four years, the company has worked with 16,000 children across 600 schools, delivering 200,000+ teaching hours. It achieves this by recruiting young and intelligent Sri Lankans. Before they begin, they undergo an intensive training programme on the newest teaching techniques and how to use the Third Space technology to deliver results for children.