Seeing the future of education with technology

Photo by Annushka Ahuja

Training Vision Institute (TVI) is a Continuing Education and Training Institute that offers modular, stackable learning units that lead up to a pathway to Professional Certifications and Higher Education. Founded in 1991, the institute aims to reach avid learners who want to expand their skills beyond traditional learning methods. To this end, they cater to both businesses and individuals.

In furthering their goal to provide niche certification courses in other Southeast Asian countries, they have partnered with Knovo, who have brought their digital tools and digital marketing services to the table. SMEhorizon speaks with David Kwee, CEO of Training Vision Institute, on their experience using Educational Technologies (EduTech) and digital marketing to further their institute’s goals. Meanwhile, Kelly Te, Founder and CEO, Knovo (MySavvyTutor), also shares on the potential that technology can unlock in the training and education sector.

Technology for learner and provider needs

Using technology to enhance learner experiences is not a new concept to TVI. Indeed, David shares that they started on their EduTech journey around a decade ago, experimenting with Blackboard, Teamie, Talent LMS and their own in-house TVI App. “We use them to achieve better pedagogical design and learner experience through the affordances of different Ed-Tech platform,” David continues.

Apart from enhancements to the curriculum and delivery, technology can also assist institutions in better managing their organisation, instructors, and students. Kelly notes that compared to individuals who use Knovo’s platform, “corporate clients typically require more dedicated and operational account support by our Knovo Account Managers.

“Individuals can sign up easily and use the Knovo tools seamlessly. The enterprises have a lot more comprehensive dashboard, class management and report tools with an admin control panel while the individual will benefit from Knovo’s from auto-collection of payments, student management and pre-buying sessions management.”

As technology continues to advance, new ways to further engaging and effective learning emerge. For example, Kelly shares that Knovo as a network aggregates the big data necessary to make predictive analysis more accurate to address the learning capacity gaps of learners.

“Our platform is designed to integrate with AI and machine learning technologies to enhance individual effective learning experience,” she shares. “We view this as a delivery of customised learning experiences that address the unique needs of an individual through real time feedback, and then adjust on teaching methods and resources, rather than providing a one-size-fits-all learning experience.

“Machine learning powered with artificial intelligence will facilitate a deeper learning process and reinforcement in learning.”

Bringing education further

These advances can help education providers bring their services further afield, and that knowledge and training become more accessible to those who need it. For TVI, this involved expanding into Southeast Asian markets beyond Singapore, such as the Philippines. In Knovo, which already had local partners and a learner pool there, they found a partner that supported them both in market access and Edutech. Indeed, David shares that with traditional educational technologies it would have been challenging to merge all their processes onto a single platform

For Kelly, supporting institutions in this way is part of her personal aim to bridge the disparity and access in the education market. “Knovo is aimed at providing easy access to quality education and helping learners to map out a learning journey towards securing good work and equal opportunities,” she says. “I think the future of digital education should be allowing access to quality education and expanding the flexibility around skills attainment.”

Access to education and skills attainment is likely to increase as automation and technology transform the labour market, resulting in the need to retrain multiple times during a career. “I see the rise and need in AI powered training tools for enterprises to manage their content for such training and this will drive an acceleration in reskilling and upskilling over a longer-term horizon,” she adds.

Moving forward, TVI remains committed to building their relationships with Ed-Tech talent in order to achieve their goals of being a 21st Century Learning Ground. Meanwhile, Kelly has an eye on the new technologies emerging that continue to enhance EduTech, including blockchain, which has the potential to transform record-keeping of certificates and student credentials. Effective deployment of the tech available will allow both providers and learners to seize the opportunities at hand.