European EdTech Alliance

Connecting the European Edtech ecosystem

Our Ukrainian Response

We are supporting all learners, educators, families, host families and communities affected in the current situation by gathering initiatives, connecting ecosystems and increasing awareness.

Launched on 1. June 2022, the New Ukrainian School Hub acts as a centralized gateway to relevant learning and teaching resources as well as to all relevant local information and support systems. By collating high quality and approved systems and resources together with a wide variety of relevant supplemental resources and links out to all currently active online schools and supportive initiatives, the website is a central hub of information, resources, and knowledge for Ukrainian refugees no matter where they are.

 To ensure that users of Ukrainian EdTech can have continuity in the use of their systems and resources, the hub provides dedicated support and prioritises the integration, promotion, and use of Ukrainian tools.

 

Are you working on an initiative and want to connect with others to make a difference? Submit your resources to the NUSHub and help us make learning easier for all Ukrainian educators and learners!

The Hub differentiates between displaced learners and educators within Ukraine and learners, educators, and support systems outside of Ukraine, as well as according to the following user groups:

  • Educators (teachers, teacher’s aides, tutors)

  • Learners & Supporters (learners, family and parents, host-families, local communities)

  • School Administration (Principals, Administration workers)

  • Resources from and for all member states including all relevant local support information or national welcome pages will be included.

Entry to platform: 
Accessing the hub will always be free and open to all users. To ensure users can make informed decisions about the use of any resources or tools, all items will be clearly marked according to whether or not they are free to access.  All information on the Hub will be provided in both English and Ukrainian with an option to translate the description sections of each of resources or tools into other European languages.

The Hub Partners:

Learning Together project:

Finland’s Support of the Ukrainian School Reform (“Learning Together”) is a four-year collaborative project that started between Ukraine and Finland in July 2018, and was joined by the EU in late 2018. The project is funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the EU. The expected long-term impact of the “Learning Together” project is to enhance the quality of education in Ukraine as well as the perceptions the Ukrainian citizens have of their education system. Together with Finnish Consulting Group Ltd as the main implementing agency in cooperation, the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Helsinki, and the University of Helsinki Centre for Continuing Education HY+, the Project cooperates with the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine (MDT) and UNICEF.

The European Edtech Alliance:

The European Edtech Alliance (EEA) is a non-for-profit consortium of national trade associations and clusters working with 2460 founders and providers of education technology (Edtech), to support the domestic and international growth of Edtech and Innovation in education. The Alliance has two main areas of focus: policy work and support for Edtech start-ups and scales-ups. Through these two channels, the EEA develops important insights, resources, and tools, which can be used to support sustainable development within the education ecosystem. Since February 2022, the EEA has gathered hundreds of resources and developed a thorough meta-tagging system for supplemental and curricula-based materials supporting Ukrainian learners, teachers and their families.  

The Background: Making a difference through edtech

A blueprint for support ecosystems, supported by the European Edtech Alliance

 After discussions with multiple stakeholders including MoEs, edTech Startups, Ukrainian families, and NGOs, we have identified seven, interconnected components which are necessary as part of the comprehensive support ecosystem approach in order to adequately support learners, educators and families.

Aspects of mental health and parent or adult integration have proven to be just as important for learners as their own education environments.  By only focussing on one of these components, e.g. startup offerings, we would not adequately address the needs of the learners and their families. The EEA ecosystem blueprint aims to address the needs for learners, educators and their families comprehensively, locally and in Ukrainian where possible.

It is vitally important to support existing and successful local language platforms to be integrated into an ecosystem approach as new platforms could require a steep learning curve or not yet accommodate both the Ukrainian curriculum and local or regional education or job requirements.

 

EEA Ukraine response and proposal

 

Our goal is to connect, build  awareness of and get further support for key initiatives, which can support the much needed ecosystem approach.

  1. Collating resources
    The EEA has initiated the collection of all education activities aimed to support not only the Ukrainian efforts throughout the EU, across all borders, but also as a resource for those hosting refugees or learners.

  2. Building Awareness:
    The EEA will work closely together with member and partner networks to increase awareness for efforts and initiatives throughout the EU.

  3. Connecting initiatives: Following the ecosystems approach above, our goal will be to not only be a trusted resource for Ukrainian learners, educators and families, but also to connect  Education initiatives, which could, together, build robust and locally supported ecosystems according to our blueprint; e.g. including local learning platforms, mental health and targeted language support, and resources for adult learners to support their integration journey. 

  4. Learning from the pandemic:
    During the initial response to the pandemic, 73% of EdTech companies discounted or offered their product for free. However, this led to 66% of all EdTech startups reporting that they had not enough financial runway to last them a further 6 months without external support. 

    As our benchmark report on government initiatives from last year showed:

    “Stepping up to fill the large gaps left by the policy and strategies, the Edtech industry throughout Europe provided free digital resources to aid the schools that had none. In the UK alone, this assistance carried a value of 36 million pounds during a six month period according to BESA”.

    In order to ensure that we do not repeat this scenario, it is imperative to provide the supporters of this situation with the necessary infrastructure to make the initiatives sustainable.