NomadLab

The Problem: Globally, there is a growing digital divide between developed and developing regions due to lack of access to digital infrastructure, affordability and remoteness. Majority of the digitally excluded population are ill-prepared to secure jobs that require basic sets of ICT skills. These challenges put them at a socio-economic risk aggravated by inequalities and poor employability.

The Solution: NomadLab provides access to digital tools with online and offline solutions and offers digital learning content to young students and adults from poor families and far-flung communities.

The Impact: As we scale the solution globally, thousands will benefit from low-cost ICT infrastructure, improved teacher quality, and enhanced educational performance of students. NomadLab can lay the ground for a growing community of educators, an exchange of lessons learnt and the provision of a repository for online  and offline learning tools and techniques.

To date, almost 50% of the world’s population, 3.7 billion people, are digitally disconnected and most are women from developing countries. In Cambodia, where NomadLab was initially piloted, only 52.6% of the population are internet users.  Unfortunately, the vulnerable people are most likely to be excluded from access to digital technology. In majority of public schools in developing countries, digital literacy and basic ICT training are not compulsory in basic education. In most recent study conducted by UNICEF on  digital literacy in education systems across ASEAN countries, one of the key findings is that more than half of 10-24 year-old participants said they did not learn digital skills at school with majority coming from rural areas. Aside from poverty, remoteness, limited access to technical resources and infrastructure, there is a lack of practical solutions to address the problem. Apparently, these problems have led to most of developing nation’s inability to disseminate digitally relevant resources and content and transfer of basic ICT skills to the vulnerable population. These issues result in a domino effect of inability to equip students with necessary digital skills, excluding the disadvantaged population to access remote learning, and producing highly unemployable and digitally incompetent workforce.

NomadLab is a portable educational ICT infrastructure consisting of three main components:

1. Hardware – composed of 8 devices (tablets, laptops, or convertible laptop) stored in a waterproof and shock resistant container with charging systems for security and easy transportation. An offline solution is also provided to ensure access in the areas with poor or no internet connection (raspberry and SD cards).

2. Digital educational content – customized educational materials uploaded in a learning management system that are accessible online and offline. It also contains installed applications, website content in cache, and interactive video-based lessons.

3. “Train-the-trainer” approach – provision of an intensive training to the local staff who will oversee and guide the students on the ground to ensure proper program implementation. PN also extends constant and necessary technical support to our partner schools and learning hubs.

Initially, hardware and software prototypes are finalized. In partnership with selected schools and youth clubs in rural communities, NomadLab boxes are deployed to libraries and youth club centers. Librarians and youth club leaders are schooled in proper device use and function and basic maintenance procedure. After an intensive train-the-trainer program delivered by experienced PN staff, the solution is implemented in partner schools.

With half of the world’s population still offline, African and Asian regions trail behind compared to other continents. Africa has the least ICT development index (IDI) with poor accessibility, cost-ineffectiveness, and low use of ICT. On the other hand, Asia remains to have a strong digital divide among and within its countries. Among Asian nations, Cambodia is behind its neighboring countries in terms of development in the digital economy. While Cambodia has already shown significant growth over the last decade, major transformation needs to be done for digital inclusion and addressing the gaps in digital skills. Based on recent statistics, less than 1% of its population have developed advanced skills in downloading and software configuration. On the other hand, below 30% of Cambodians know basic digital skills and only 32.4% of its vocational and college graduates use computers and the internet. Although, Cambodia’s poverty rate has dropped significantly to 13.5% in 2014 from 52.5% in 2004, almost 67% of the Cambodians continue to live below 5.5 USD a day with the majority living in rural areas.

With Cambodia’s current socio-economic status vis a vis the continuous digitalization of the world, the future of the underprivileged children from far-flung communities are at risk if the country fails to improve digital inclusion and embrace digital readiness. Most of the public school students come from low-income families, cannot afford quality education, have no access to ICT infrastructure and digital resources and have very low digital literacy. Four years ago, Passerelles numériques (PN) realized that beyond the impact of our Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) program, we can do so much more for the underserved, hence NomadLab came to life. In line with PN’s mission of unlocking the potential of underprivileged students by equipping them with digital literacy and soft skills that are a key to a job-ready future, NomadLab is  another practical solution to expand our reach. For the last 16 years, PN has produced 2,200 TVET graduates with over 10,000 people lifted out of poverty from Cambodia, Philippines, and Vietnam. Through NomadLab, PN can serve more rural communities and underprivileged students and forge alliances with stakeholders like NGOs, government agencies, and funding partners in bridging digital inclusion to the underserved. 

Through NomadLab, disadvantaged students are equipped with knowledge and skills on basic computer use. They are given access to digital educational materials with topics on self-awareness, basic life skills, financial literacy, job readiness, career choices, etc. that will prepare them for future employment. These students have limited knowledge of career options that they can pursue in the future because of lack of awareness and guidance. Moreover, students in rural areas face a critical lack of information on the labour market as well as post-secondary school options (career, studying, training) available to them. In the face of a socioeconomic context heavily impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis, young Cambodians are more than ever in need of support to enter employment and guidance to make informed decisions about their future. Through Nomadlab they are encouraged to dream bigger and to explore more opportunities. 

To choose beneficiaries, pilot, and implement NomadLab, PN partnered with SIPAR, an NGO with 28 years of presence in Cambodia whose goal is to improve literacy and reading abilities of underserved locals through setting up reading corners, libraries, and resource centers that are highly accessible to them. SIPAR has been working closely with the Cambodian Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (MoEYS) and has extensive exposure with rural schools and communities for almost 3 decades already. In strong cooperation with SIPAR and MoEYS, NomadLab is PN’s answer to the country’s pressing need to address digital literacy and inclusion aside from TVET. With their help we were able to collaborate and mobilise libraries and youth clubs that will need NomadLab the most. To date, we have piloted 3 times already in 2 provinces in Cambodia and since the first pilot, we have enhanced and have been working on refining NomadLab to serve our beneficiaries better.

Almost half of the world's population have no access to digital literacy and ICT infrastructure magnifying inequality and unemployability. PN promotes digital inclusion especially for the marginalized population to prepare them for a fast-growing digital economy. Students are given exposure to digital infrastructure’s use, customized digital learning contents, and initial career path orientation. NomadLab is designed to be shock resistant and waterproof, contents are accessible both in offline and online setting, and is a user-friendly equipment both for trainers and students. NomadLab is intelligently crafted to be highly replicable and scalable even in most remote communities.

In 2017, NomadLab was conceptualised, designed, and prototyped. In 2019, PN partnered with SIPAR and launched the pilot program in Prey Veng and Chi He, Cambodia using tablet devices. This year, PN re-launched NomadLab in Prey Veng introducing a hybrid solution with 4 hardware choices: convertible laptops, laptops only, tablets only, & mixed laptops and tablets. In this upgraded version, PN installed network access protection for sensitive contents and a data collection system.

From 2019-2021, around 2,600 are NomadLab’s estimated direct beneficiaries. But because of pandemic's setback, NomadLab’s continuity and impact assessment were put on hold in 2020, hindering us from serving more communities and students. Fortunately, through Agence Française de Développement’s (AFD) funding for the next 3 years, we target to reach additional 25,000 direct and 10,900 indirect beneficiaries within Cambodia. In the next 5 years, we also plan to replicate in the Philippines, Vietnam and Madagascar.

NomadLab combines a unique blend of carefully designed equipment, need-based educational content and applications, train-the-trainer approach, dedicated support team, and highly engaged external partners. Moreover, it was developed around the perspective of global scalability and adaptive technology. It contains hardware stored in waterproof and shock resistant containers with charging systems secured properly. The 2021 version is upgraded to be more innovative compared to the technology we initially piloted in 2019 with its suitability both in laptops and tablets. It also contains network access protection to sensitive contents and integrated data collection system to help us evaluate the efficiency of our tool for continuous improvement. In Cambodia, most learning contents are in Khmer language for better understanding but English and French content are also available for additional knowledge.

Since digital transformation is a never-ending process, NomadLab has a flexible business model and updatable apps and uploaded content. We want NomadLab to remain relevant, useful and applicable in the years to come thus it was created to be an equally-evolving solution too. With more than 3 billion of the world’s population still struggling with digital exclusion and still growing, there is an increasing demand for us to engage more remote communities and underserved students in the future. Thus, this technology can be easily passed on from one generation to another. It is a simple solution but intelligently developed to be sustainable, transportable, adaptable, scalable, and user-friendly.

Despite the setbacks brought by the pandemic for the last year, PN is determined to continue the roll-out of NomadLab in Cambodia this year and to expand in other countries in the years to come. Currently, NomadLab serves around 30 teachers and 1,500 students in the country. 

Starting next year, we plan to scale NomadLab also to the Philippines, Vietnam, and Madagascar starting with the same target of number of teacher and student beneficiaries in 2020. In the next 5 years, we aim to focus on replicating NomadLab in these 4 countries serving a minimum total of 2,500 teachers and 125,000 underserved youths. 

Furthermore, the more funding partners we secure and the more NGOs and educational institutions who adopt the NomadLab solution, the bigger the number of beneficiaries who will benefit from it. Depending on the support that we receive, we can increase the target beneficiaries every year if we are provided with more resources.

To measure NomadLab’s progress towards our impact goals, below are the measurable indicators that we use based on UN SDGs: 

1. Quality Education (SDG 4)

   a. Participation rate of students in the NomadLab program

   b. Proportion of students who graduate equipped with basic ICT skills

   c. Percentage of students who have improved academic performance at the end of academic period

   d. Number of school staff and youth club members who were trained and who actively participate in the program

2. Gender Equality (SDG 5)

   a. Proportion of male vs. male participants

3. Decent Work and Economic Growth (SDG 8)

   a. Number of students who have knowledge in more career choices or professions other than the ones present in their community

   b. Number of students who choose courses in tertiary studies that require ICT skills

   c. Number of students who choose college courses that are not professions within their immediate community.

Currently, our NomadLab is composed of the following team members:

Full time  staff - 1

Part-time staff - 15 (full-time PN staff, partly dedicated to NomadLab)

Outsourced - 1

*numbers subject to change

For the last 16 years, PN has been providing vocational training in IT and honing the employability of underprivileged youths in Southeast Asia. Thousands of families have been taken out of the cycle of poverty through quality education, serving as the instrument in securing decent jobs for our graduates. Similar to our TVET program, NomadLab is backed-up by internal and external stakeholders to make it a successful project too.

For the global strategy alignment and support, PN’s regional team provides assistance in fundraising, finance, innovation, etc. For our ICT expertise, it is led by a proficient and well-experienced IT Manager from the Regional Office who works alongside with our local ICT experts in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines (IT training managers, IT admin, IT teachers and SNA coordinators).

NomadLab in Cambodia is led by the PNC Country Representative who has a dedicated NomadLab team and with support of PNC staff. We also have Board Members based in France and Singapore who help in advocating and raising funds for this project.

Most importantly, NomadLab is implemented and sustained in partnership with other organizations. In Cambodia, SIPAR and MoEYS work with us on the ground with schools and beneficiaries. On the other hand, our corporate partners like SMART Axiata, Enfant d’Asie, and AFD provide funding support to build NomadLab in selected communities.

Our team is composed of a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and nationalities. Each team member contributes to achieving the goal through their unique skill sets, expertise and experience. We ensure that aside from cultural diversity, we also have a balanced mix of female and male team members for gender equity. Women are represented at all leadership levels, in all countries of operations.

• In Vietnam: 20 staff, including 95% local staff and 75% female staff

• In the Philippines: 19 staff, including 100% local staff and 79% female staff

• In Cambodia: 35 staff, including 85% local staff and 34% female staff

• At PN Asia and PN France : 10 staff, including and 90% female staff

• In total: 84 staff, including 81% local staff and 61% female staff

We promote an inclusive environment thus we have a fair selection process for every role giving an equal chance to everyone who wants to join us. With shared core values of solidarity, respect, responsibility and trust, we expect our staff to grow and consider everyone’s contributions vital.

Building bridges and creating fruitful partnerships lies in PN’s DNA. As a finalist in 2017, we know that the MIT Solve community offers the unique opportunity to exchange experiences and lessons learnt with fellow Solvers. Your community offers access to experts from academia, non-profits and the corporate world. Solve can help PN to grow our exposure and connect us with potential investors and future partners. Our on-the-ground experience in Southeast Asia has taught us that interdisciplinary cooperation and multisectoral partnerships yield the best results when addressing one of the most complex development challenges of our time: quality education for all. With our long-term vision to scale regionally and globally and tap thousands more beneficiaries, Solve can be one of our best partners to achieve this goal.

NomadLab’s goal is to scale to other regions to provide an innovative digital learning solution to disadvantaged communities and students to bridge the digital divide. Our technology is an instrument in equipping the students with necessary knowledge and skills to prepare them for a brighter future ahead of them. Hence, the design of the software and hardware solution is crucial in the effectiveness of the program. Cost-efficiency, relevance, scalability,  and flexibility of the technology are significant to ensure that it is an adequate solution to address digital inclusion for the underserved students.The goal is to replicate it to several rural communities where it is needed the most, therefore it has to be more attractive to potential donors and partners.

To further improve NomadLab’s technology and design, we would like to seek partnership with:

• Technical support partners

• E-platform provider

• Digital content provider

• Tech material suppliers

• Other remote solutions provider 

• Technology mentors

• Organisational mentors

To increase our network and potential partners in the future, we also want to connect with:

• Grant providers

• Peer-to-peer network

• Connections to the MIT campus

• Impact Measurement Validation and Support

• Media partners

NomadLab would like to apply for the HP Prize for Advancing Digital Equity because it supports the heart of our solution’s mission which is to advance digital inclusion through digital literacy and build employability for the underserved population. With PN’s 16 years of experience in providing vocational IT education and breaking the cycle of poverty through sustainable employment, NomadLab is another innovation to further our mission.

With the prize from this grant, it will help us materialize our goal to scale across Cambodia, within Asia and to Africa in the next 5 years. We will utilize the funds to build NomadLabs in more remote communities in Cambodia. We will also pilot this project in the Philippines and Vietnam to expand our reach in those countries of our operation too. NomadLab will also be introduced in Madagascar to complement our future TVET program there.

The funds will be used for staffing and training the NomadLab team, developing and upgrading our solution, purchasing the devices and equipment, deploying the equipment, and implementing the program. 

One of the 3 SDGs that is rooted in PN’s mission is supporting gender equality. In our TVET program, PN ensures that at least 50% of the accepted students in every admission is composed of girls. We want to give women an equal chance with men on acquiring an IT-related education so they too have the chance to thrive in this male-dominated field. We empower women by giving them means to improve the quality of their lives by equipping them with opportunities to learn and secure a more promising future for them and their families too.

Similar with TVET, NomadLab also prioritizes women as beneficiaries. Equal access to training and resources are given both to men and women. Since NomadLab aims to teach basic digital literacy, female students will be trained to learn basic computer use too. They will also be given access to digital educational content to widen their knowledge especially on career path choices to guide their future decision on courses they want to take in tertiary level and professions they want to practice when they graduate. With advanced skills and relevant knowledge, they will have a competitive advantage in becoming highly employable in the future.