ThinkZone

Education is critical for setting young people up for employment. Unfortunately, most young people from under-resourced communities come from humble educational backgrounds. They also lack the relevant skills and have limited access to innovative platforms, technologies or entrepreneurial approaches to earn livelihoods. 

ThinkZone uses accessible technology to identify, upskill & equip youth to become education micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents. Youth from low-resourced communities earn their livelihoods by becoming skilled & effective facilitators and work towards developing the foundational skills of children by using an innovative localized solution, data-driven technology via mobile application, and a community interaction platform. 

Our blended learning approach(offline & online) leads to the development of multiple skills among youth including entrepreneurial skills, digital skills, financial management & sales skills, modern teaching techniques, communication skills, etc. The program leads to the opening up of multiple job opportunities in private & public space in the future for them.

With more than half of the 1.38 billion population under the age of 25, India is capable of great agility. But a disconnected education and employment sector leaves many youth unemployed or under-employed. The skills which youth need to have to make meaning of their lives and build self-learning pathways for success in the current scenario is of utmost importance.

Education is critical for setting young people up for employment. Unfortunately, most young people from under-resourced communities come from humble educational backgrounds. They also lack the relevant skills and have limited access to innovative platforms, technologies or entrepreneurial approaches to earn livelihoods. When young people lack the right tools and skills to critically understand the world and navigate through the challenges of life, they might engage in negative behaviors and actions, or simply be overlooked and neglected.

True learning opportunities for the youth need to be available at non-traditional times, and not exclusively linked to a physical location or building. Technological innovations can provide pathways and platforms for developing skills of youth under difficult conditions and providing them entrepreneurial opportunities in their own communities.

ThinkZone uses accessible technology to identify, upskill, certify & equip youth to become education micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents. Youth from low-resourced communities become skilled & effective facilitators and work towards developing the foundational skills of children by using an innovative localized solution, data-driven technology, and a community interaction platform. With our mobile platform, youth with limited teaching and technology skills can implement high-quality education programs in their communities and earn their livelihoods. Our platform helps in identifying student's current ability through diagnostic testing and then develops personalized curricula based on each student’s specific needs which are then implemented by trained youth. 

Our work brings a micro-entrepreneurial approach towards education which is unique in nature. It also brings a personalized & gamified approach of developing skills of youth who not only utilize it to become better educators but also to find out alternate career options. Most of the skill enhancement programs at scale have a ‘one-size fits all’ solution which doesn’t give the desired result. Our work uses a data-driven approach at scale which is unique and cost-effective. Our approach mixes technology-based education with in-person mentoring to expand access to the skills for both children and youth.

ThinkZone is looking to positively impact the lives of children & young people from low-income families present in India. The population has limited access to opportunities and we are creating a scalable model of technology and community interventions that can be adapted to the local context. 

We follow a 360 degree mechanism of collecting feedback from stakeholders while also using accessible and non-internet based technology mediums of IVRS & SMS to take direct feedback from the community for improving our on ground solution. Different levels of communication at multiple levels in a process-oriented manner help us to make sure that the stakeholders are positively impacted from our solution. 

The solution's immediate impact will lead to youth from under-resourced communities becoming micro-entrepreneurs in education which will help them to earn income while they are pursuing their formal education, if any. Another immediate impact would be the enhancement of their technology skills, communication and personal skills apart from improved understanding of subject-matter. The entire methodology of the ThinkZone program in the long run, will not only help youth become better educators but will also provide them avenues to gain knowledge and open up multiple job and entrepreneurial opportunities.

ThinkZone is building a technology-based solution that is creating inclusive entrepreneurial opportunities in low-income communities and also creating avenues for upsklling youth to get good jobs in future. We use a blended learning ecosystem through education technology, capacity building, and collaboration to build skills for children and youth from under-resourced communities who don't get access to quality education and training initiatives.

Our community-enhancement solution also focuses on providing access to quality learning opportunities to girls and young women from low income communities, and so can also be considered under the challenge dimension of 'LEARNING FOR GIRLS AND WOMEN'. 

• The technology platform assesses the learning needs of the youth(educator), identifies gaps in their skills and then curates and paces the learning development cycle
• The platform will assess children’s learning needs, and gaps in learning, particularly as they relate to foundational skills in language and arithmetic
• The solution will be in vernacular language and would be contextual in nature
• The solution combines offline strategies with online through digital engagement platforms. Our operating model, the major part of which includes offline technology will help educators to implement quality and effective education programs while simultaneously developing their skills
• The solution is implemented in direct coordination with the public and private partnerships. The on-ground project messaging and communication via partnerships lead to better activities execution.
• Our innovation lies in the fact that using the technology platform requires very limited knowledge of technology! Due to this, youth who come from a limited educational background and have little exposure to the latest technology can easily use it to become effective educators

The solution brings a micro-entrepreneurial approach towards education which is unique in nature. It also brings a personalized approach of developing skills of youth who not only utilize it to become better educators but also to find out alternate career options. Most of the skill enhancement programs at scale have a ‘one-size fits all’ solution which doesn’t give the desired result. Our solution uses a data-driven and personalized approach at scale which is unique and cost-effective.

ThinkZone's on-ground solution uses a mixture of internet and non-internet enabled technology.

1. Using our mobile application, educators/youth are provided with a standardized, activity-based lesson plan that tells them what to do—and what not to do—to effectively engage the children in their respective childcare centers, schools, and learning centers. The best part of technology is that it does not require continuous internet connectivity. Once an educator has downloaded the content on their mobile application, they can lose internet connectivity but the app will be running and they can view training modules, lesson plans, worksheets, and activities. The application supports to evaluate and track learning goals of children and youth. The gamified modules present on the mobile application engages the educators/youth to develop multiple skills.

2. We provide continuous program support and monitor implementation via another mobile application which is used by the ThinkZone operations team present in the communities. 

3. Our advanced web platform and dashboard helps us to have two-way push and pull connect with these two mobile application. The web platform enables us to track learning goals and deliver personalized learning map to the end-users.

4. We also take overall community feedback and deliver content via voice-based parent and SMS-based technology to deliver content and support to parents.  We can call parents in our communities directly, or they can call a number to listen to new content—activity-based lessons for children aged 3-10—every day. And, of course, there is no cost to the parents. 

ThinkZone 360 degree engagement model and its technology platform has led to significant increase in the learning outcomes of children. Apart from the technology has led to development of 21st century skills, communication and subject-matter knowledge skills of educators/youth. 

We have also seen educators spending more time on the mobile application which has led to they using innovative teaching methods in their classrooms.

More parents are likely to engage in their child's learning after going through our voice and SMS-based learning modules. Below is our impact scorecard:

ThinkZone is directly impacting 5193 children, 401 educators and 10000 parents in 584 villages present in 4 districts of Odisha(Low-income group state), India.

Our next year goal is to directly impact 10000 children through quality education programs and also up-skill and provide livelihood opportunities to 1000 youth from under-resourced communities. We are also on track to reach out to 20000 parents with our home-based education programs in the next one year. These 3 goals would be achieved through our existing B2B partnerships with both private and public players of the ecosystem.

ThinkZone aim in the next five years to positively impact the learning outcomes of 1 million children and parents and also provide opportunities to 100 thousand youth. This will be achieved by formally partnering with multiple state governments of India and along with large NGOs and social enterprises. 

Our next year goal is to directly impact 10000 children through quality education programs and also up-skill and provide livelihood opportunities to 1000 youth from under-resourced communities. We are also on track to reach out to 20000 parents with our home-based education programs in the next one year. These 3 goals would be achieved through our existing B2B partnerships with both private and public players of the ecosystem.

ThinkZone aim in the next five years to positively impact the learning outcomes of 1 million children and parents and also provide opportunities to 100 thousand youth. This will be achieved by formally partnering with multiple state governments of India and along with large NGOs and social enterprises.  

Some of potential barriers:

1. Resource Planning (Organizational & Financial) - In innovative projects, one evident risk that could come up is improper work plan in terms of inadequate resource allocation.
2. Policy, and Regulatory risks (Contextual and Partnership Related) – Partnering and executing our work with multiple public stakeholders could lead to not been able to correctly identify the multiple layers in the public system and the associated policies/schemes related to each one of them. 
3. Communication & Training (Operational) – In innovative projects, right channel of communication and appropriate training for stakeholders, team members and end-users if not properly formulated and executed can lead to the project not having the desired results as planned.

1. Resource planning: Fast-track work planning & implementation help mitigate the risks associated with resource allocation. Identifying budget issues early in the design process especially in technology and content development helps is thorough cost estimates. Also, formal documentation of the responsibilities of team members and what work needs to be outsourced helps in proper work planning.
2. Policy and Regulatory: Stakeholder Involvement via clear documented specifications is to be effectively communicated before & constantly during multiple work phases. Having single point of contact for respective stakeholders & continuously liaising and involving them will lead to successful on-ground implementation.
3. Communication & Training: Developing & supporting organization-wide edification for soft skills & technical expertise would help team members to develop proficiency in specific work areas. Effective communication strategy for delivering right kind of information at right time to right audience through right channel is to be developed and executed as & when the multiple activities start getting implemented on-ground.

N/A

12 full-time team members

5 part-time team members

3 contractors/consultants

Our organization aspires to create and expand opportunities in areas that have little access to quality resources. Our 12 member full-team has more than 65 years of experience in domains such as education, technology, skill development, ICT4D, rural sales & marketing, branding & communication and business development. Bootstrapping from the beginning, pivoting with our model along with making a lot of mistakes in our entrepreneurial journey has helped the team learn a lot about the social impact space as a whole. 

Our experience in empowering women by working on large scale education and skill development projects and making them digitally skilled for having a better future coupled with our deep expertise of developing and implementing ed-tech and ICT4D products at the bottom of the pyramid has helped us get a deeper understanding of the challenges involved in building something sustainable.

Binayak(Founder) is a Laureate Global Fellow, World Bank Youth Summit Winner, MassChallenge Alumnus & CEMEX-TEC Global Social Entrepreneur and has worked with leading organizations like World Bank, Unitus and L&T Infotech. He has more than 9 year working experience in Education and Technology. 

Nrusingha (Technology Head) is a MEAN Stack Expert and Open Source Evangelist and has several years of experience of leading teams in               developing education products. Shrideep(Program Head) has more than 11 years of experience in education and technology and has rich expertise in development & implementation of Edtech products including assessments and training.

Our content partners include Pratham Books, IDEK, Learning Equality, CSF and Meghshala. Some of our implementation private partners are Akshaya Patra Foundation and Chirag (NGO).

Our knowledge and networking partners include International Youth Foundation, MassChallenge, India Fellow and NSRCEL - IIM Bangalore.

Our public-level partners include district administration of Cuttack, Bhadrak, Kendrapara and Khordha districts of the state of Odisha Their network and support is essential in implementing on-ground work. The partnerships helps us in multiple aspects like community mobilization and awareness, formal govt. level messaging/communication to end-users, information & database sharing, network access to local-level public authorities for the smooth functioning of the program. This also helps ThinkZone tap into their networks of registered end-users & also helps us reach out to more end-users using their existing resources. 

ThinkZone implements a B2B2C model by directly reaching out to end-users via formal financial partnerships with corporates, public entities, government, non-profits and social enterprises. 

The formal partnerships include ThinkZone implementing the entire program or licensing a particular part of our entire program offering like technology, content and training modules.

ThinkZone’s plan to financial sustainability is to implement our programs in partnerships with public and private players. We have started doing the same since 2019 and our sustainability goal for the next 3 years is to build out more earned income strategies through corporate engagement programs and reduce our dependence on grants to 10-20% of our entire incoming revenues. We also want to have innovative financing models like social impact bonds.

'Solve' will help us get connected to fellow stakeholders who are striving to build a sustainable society. It will also provide us with a structured opportunity to be exposed to the challenges involved in scaling up enterprises. ThinkZone will get great insights from the deep knowledge of the unique challenges faced by people working in the social impact domain. I really want to a part of this platform where knowledge can be shared towards building a more inclusive eco-system for sustainable social impact startups. 

Being a leader of a social start-up and striving continuously to make it successful, 'Solve' will give me a chance to meet with established sector experts who can guide me in taking my enterprise to the next level. Apart from this, the networking opportunities will help me build partnerships for my enterprise, which will help me in accelerating my work thereby multiplying our organization's social impact on ground.

In short, the Solve community will offer me ever continuing intellectual capital which I will be taking back to improve my enterprise. The financial support will help me to work on specific organizational targets, which will lead to greater social impact. 

ThinkZone would want to partner with organizations who could support us to further our inclusive technology innovation in under-resourced communities.

The partnerships/support ranges from mentorship and funding support to enhance our technology as well as support in marketing and communications so that we are able to reach out to larger audience.

Apart from that ThinkZone would like to get support in terms of implementing our on-ground model(service distribution) in effective manner by forging out partnerships.

As we scale our model we also want to have an independent 3rd party evaluation of our work from leading experts.

Some of the organizations that we would like to partner with are:

1. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

2. The Rockefeller Foundation

3. Dell

4. Google.org

5. US Aid - DIV

6. Children's Investment Fund Foundation - CIFF

7. Michal and Susan Dell Foundation

8. Atlassian Foundation

9. Vodafone Americas Foundation 

10. Morgridge Family Foundation 

11. Dubai Cares

12. MIT Solve Team, Faculty and the overall MIT’s innovation ecosystem (For Knowledge Support)

13. JPal, Indsight etc (Leading experts who can support us in doing an independent evaluation)

These organization apart from financial support can also help ThinkZone tap into their existing networks of partners and other like-minded organizations.

ThinkZone uses accessible mobile technology to identify, train and equip young women from under-resourced communities to become education micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents.

Using an innovative localized solution, offline technology, proprietary training activities and a voice-based and SMS-based community interaction platform, local women become community educators and work towards improving the learning outcomes of children.

We would be utilizing the 'Innovation for Women Prize' by streamlining processes and develop a scalable model with public-private participation, Apart from that, we would be enhancing the existing technology platform by making it data-driven at a large-scale and use the research component to build a replicable model.

ThinkZone uses accessible mobile technology to identify, train and equip young women from under-resourced communities to become education micro-entrepreneurs and community change agents. 

Using an innovative localized solution, offline technology, proprietary training activities and a voice-based and SMS-based community interaction platform, local women become community educators and work towards improving the learning outcomes of children especially girls. Our activity-based teaching methodology helps girls in the age-group of 3-10 years develop age-appropriate skills. This helps them build a solid foundation early on which helps them 

We would be utilizing the 'AI for Humanity Prize' for utilizing machine learning, and behavior science machine learning to get real-time feedback from the community which would be useful for enhancing our program offerings. Apart from that, we would be enhancing the existing technology platform by making it data-driven at a large-scale and use the research component to replicable our work in multiple geographies.

ThinkZone a for-profit social enterprise works on an economy-of-scale model. We are already backed by impact investors and would be utilizing the 'Future Planet Capital Prize' by streamlining processes and develop a scalable model with public-private participation, Apart from that, we would be enhancing the existing technology platform by making it data-driven at a large-scale and use the research component to replicate our work in multiple geographies.