Innovation Exchange challenge: Super-app for Education and Career Development in Creative Industries

Background

CASES has built a highly successful education and employment platform in Ukraine. Users self-select different learning modules to meet their own skills requirements, frequently resulting in unique cross-disciplinary abilities.

In Ukraine the team started with the proprietary content, and recently developed the platform into an educational marketplace.  While this strategy was successful in Ukraine, in the UK CASES is keen to work with other content providers from the very beginning. Against this background, for the UK, they aim to form partnerships with established local content, service, and opportunity providers.

The challenge

As the UK market values local expertise and may prefer UK-based educators, the CASES team realises that merely translating Ukrainian content into English isn’t sufficient, as the UK market values local expertise and may prefer UK-based educators. Additionally, the platform must align with UK-specific educational expectations and industry standards.

The platform needs diverse, high-quality content to attract and retain users. Developing extensive content is resource-intensive, therefore CASES initially seeks to identify and collaborate with UK content creators who need a platform for their educational material. This will provide a mutually beneficial solution to addressing user engagement and retention without significant non-core development burden for either party. In addition, CASES offers selected partners access to the current 130k+ registered users in Ukraine where there is a strong interest in lectures, webinars and courses from UK experts. Access to this content would be presented as an additional benefit to users rather than part of the basic offer. The CASES team is also keen to engage education service providers, employment opportunity creators, and specialist investors as part of the overall scale-up plan. Approaches from any actors in these or similar areas would be welcome. It is recognised that building relationships is challenging due to logistical limitations from Ukraine and the necessity for in-person networking. Therefore, CASES has already established a London-based representative for in-person project and development meetings alongside on-line working with the broader team. The team is also exploring a partnership model to potentially share operational responsibilities with UK-based entities for quicker market integration.

Rewards & Market Opportunity

Successful applicants will be given an opportunity to pitch to CASES.  Selected solutions will be trialed by CASES, with potential for further adoption if trials are successful. The solution has potential to be deployed across over 135,000 registered users in the Ukrainian market alone. The intention is to replicate that success in the UK.

The benefits package for a successful applicant may also include:

• Support from Innovate UK Business Connect
• Support in the development of a prototype or pilot
• Technical support
• Invitation to attend or present at Innovate UK Business Connect events
• A potential business collaboration
• Investor introductions (if investment is required)
• Support if any Innovate or similar competitions are relevant.

Eligibility

Entrants to this competition must be:

• Established businesses
• Academic institutions
• Start-ups
• SMEs
• Individual entrepreneurs

Applicants must be UK based or have the intention to set up a UK base.

To see full technical and functional requirements and further details, visit the Innovation Exchange site at the link below.