To foster lifelong learning, these M’sians are creating an education super app for all ages

Since the inception of ReSkills in 2020, the edutech platform has grown two-fold. 

Founded as a way to help corporate trainers shift their content online during the pandemic, the online live training platform secured US$1.5 million (about RM6.2 million) funding in a year. 

It also managed to reskill and upskill 100,000 registered learners, boosting their professional and personal growth, according to its team in 2021. 

This has validated the platform’s position in the saturated edutech market. Now, the company is ready to expand into a new phase, ReSkills 2.0. 

Its mission? To become a Malaysian educational super app.

Grow as they go

ReSkills intends to provide holistic education services to learners of all age groups, spread across four categories: Pre-School, K-12, Career Learning, and Sport and Health Learning. 

Clocking in a reported 605,000 total users from web sign-ups and app downloads from 65 countries since launching,  CEO Jin Tan believes ReSkills is now ready to serve other age groups. 

“Whether you are a child, parent, graduate, retiree, we want ReSkills to always have something for you,” he announced.

Malaysia isn’t lacking in edutech platforms meant for kids and adults, with names like MyClaaz or Evetag. Not to mention, all the other education marketplaces Vulcan Post has featured over the years in our education category.

What did ReSkills see lacking in our current edutech landscape that it thinks its super app can fill? 

“ReSkills’ mission has always been to make education as affordable and accessible as possible,” Jin stated. “The creation of an education super app where users can access all the necessary learning services they need, at one reasonable price, would therefore be the pinnacle of all we have been working for.” 

He addressed that while the current edutech landscape is booming, the scene in Malaysia is a little less active. Many of them serve only a particular niche or target audience, which can sometimes result in the situation feeling very fragmented. 

ReSkills’ super app hopes to offer the value of convenience and a more comprehensive, well-rounded approach to learning. 

So, when users graduate from one learning stage to another (e.g. K-12 to secondary, and later on to tertiary) ReSkills provides all resources in one place. This is meant to alleviate users’ need to find another suitable platform. 

For all and sundry

As in-person schooling and tuition have returned to what they were pre-pandemic, ReSkills will not be focusing on classes for general educational topics for its Pre-School and K-12 categories.

“Rather, we will be providing classes on advanced learning topics to complement a child’s basic academic learning. Our aim is to equip them with invaluable skills for the future,” Jin said.

For pre-school learners, for example, ReSkills will be providing classes dedicated to life foundation skills including critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and communication skills.

Classes offered will also cover in-demand skills such as robotics, web and mobile app programming, data science, entrepreneurship, and 3D printing.

To fulfil this, ReSkills acquired 30% of Wonderspire Digital School, a local educational group with four physical learning centres nationwide. Its mission is to nurture Technology & Future Skills Leaders from the early stages of education.

ReSkills’ new Sport and Health Learning category targets those in their golden years, as it will provide lessons relating to keeping fit and maintaining health. 

“Health is wealth, so they say, and healthcare and fitness are crucial considerations at later stages of life, when the body is no longer at peak performance and more susceptible to injury or illness,” Jin said.

Thus, ReSkills acquired 30% of Run Fast Academy, a Malaysian edutech company for sports coaching.

Content in this area will consist of fitness exercises, nutrition, and fitness theory learning. Jin believes these will not just benefit senior users, but anyone interested in keeping a fit and healthy lifestyle.

Currently, the team is working on developing the best strategies to promote their healthcare awareness services to their target market. 

Jin noted that based on the app’s experience so far, users have enjoyed using its OnLive feature. It’s where ​​courses are available every day, and users are notified about upcoming classes two weeks in advance so that they can plan ahead.

Post-pandemic forecast

ReSkills’ rapid customer growth was largely catalysed by the pandemic and lockdowns.

Since the globe is transitioning back to life as we know it, surely that would have an impact on ReSkills’ customer acquisition and retention.

Jin pointed out that one unintended effect the pandemic had on society is our increased demand for fast and convenient services from food deliveries to online shopping. 

“Even now, as the pandemic is more controllable, many people still prefer quick delivery services instead of having to go out and do things physically,” Jin realised.

“The same principle applies to ReSkills. Instead of having to travel to attend classes, which will take up time and resources, you can now take classes from wherever you are.” 

Of course, some may still prefer to have face-to-face learning, but that’s why ReSkills isn’t competing head-on with the existing in-person tuition market, and instead offering learning materials for topics beyond the academic.

Confidently taking big steps

On the subject of costs, ReSkills uses a subscription model that’s charged annually. When we last broke down the fees, we found that subscribers can expect to pay between RM1.70 or RM3.20 per day to access content and speak to industry experts. Limited content is also accessible for free.

With the platform now targeting users young and old, ReSkills will be looking into having different fee tiers for different category subscriptions.

The team may even introduce a family plan that gives multiple users access to all its services, like Netflix and Spotify.

By the end of 2022, Jin is targeting for ReSkills to reach one million learners and about 1,000 coaches globally.

The CEO believes the platform is still on track for that achievement, looking at their numbers right now that reportedly include 650,000 users and 408 coaches from 17 countries.

ReSkills’ parent company, DCOM Holdings has gained interest in a private placement of Series A US$10 million and another US$100 million for Series B. 

To add, the platform has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the economic recovery foundation, Yayasan Mahkotam.

This is in addition to another MoU signed with Pandai Education to mark the implementation of two projects involving education technology and talent development initiatives.

• You can learn more about ReSkills here.
• Read our previous coverage of ReSkills here.

Featured Image Credit: The team at ReSkills