An Education Support Platform for the 21st Century
Enabling educators to act globally For FamiliesFor Institutions
learning TECHNOLOGY
PROGRAMME DEVELOPMENT
HOME EDUCATION
MANAGEMENT EXPERTISE
About us
We are a British organisation that provides a world-class educational support platform for families and institutions. We are driven by a unique social mission: to enable international students of all ages to make a more successful transition into learning opportunities in the U.K – especially those students originating from emerging markets.
What we do
Think of us as an ‘Education as a Service’ (EaaS) company. We provide our support services both directly to families and to various types of education & training institutions, in order to equip partners with a set of unique digital capabilities that are specially designed to assist both school-age and professional students from key emerging markets.
How we do it
Our service platform supports all major stages of the educational journey, whether students are intending to study in the U.K, already here, or pursuing career development opportunities. It comprises high-quality virtual teaching tools, first-class learning materials and management expertise. We also offer these as a single package for families who are seeking to move to quality-assured home education.
commercial support
Our Services
Our commercial services provide a complete, out-of-the-box solution for any organisations seeking to elevate the way that education and training is delivered internationally.
leveling-up your online infrastructure
Learning Technology
We build and operate technology infrastructure that is designed to enable organisations to move teaching to the cloud, in a way that integrates naturally with normal operations and complements other forms of educational delivery, thus assuring a continued, high-quality experience for all students and staff. It encompasses:
- Bespoke e-learning platform development
- High-quality data analytics & learner insights
- Continued maintenance & platform security
enhancing your digital resources
Programme development
The internet is full of generic, computer-generated content which too often does not reflect the kind of care, creativity or critical thinking that students deserve. Access our extensive library of first-class digital teaching resources, or consult with our team to have us translate your courseware into cutting-edge virtual materials. We can provide:
- Subject-based digitization support
- Digital examination design, set-up and scoring
- Co-curricular and extra-curricular learner resources
providing flexibility & quality to families
Home Education
For families who are seeking to move beyond traditional schooling, either on a hybrid or full-time basis, we are also proud to be able to facilitate a world-class home learning service, delivered entirely online and directly aligned with the British school curriculum. This includes:
- Individualized teaching plan, timetable & materials
- Provision of a personal teaching team
- Comprehensive support through all key examinations
SECURING you new sources of growth
Management Expertise
If you are considering instilling new best practices around online learning in your organisation, especially in order to form more effective commercial links between the U.K and relevant Emerging Markets, we are pleased to offer our advisory support in the following key areas:
- Digital transformation strategy development
- Market penetration planning in the U.K or S.E Asia
- Partnership origination, outreach and management
Who we’ve teamed up with
Partners & Customers
We have worked with both educational and corporate clients to build out online educational infrastructure, develop teaching and training programmes, and directly deliver learning.
Our History
Committed to developing Human Capital
BEGINNINGS
IDEAS Globally was founded by James Lavender in 2016, following work in China to establish funding for students who had been disadvantaged by natural disaster to study in the U.K. Our goal was to build upon this experience, by forming an incubator for longer-term education and training ventures in Emerging Markets, with an initial focus on Southeast Asia.
DEVELOPMENT
A remarkably diverse and highly talented team of people found common cause with our mission. We began developing blended learning solutions which addressed specific local shortfalls at each stage of the education process – for middle school pupils, university applicants, and professional learners. In each case, our aim was to improve access to quality learning resources.
GROWTH
Over time, we have consolidated our services into a single, quality-assured support platform serving partners who are operating between the U.K and markets including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Burma, Thailand, Nepal and Indonesia.
Social Impact Initiatives
At IDEAS Globally, we also strongly believe in leveraging our unique platform in order to widen educational access and extend learning opportunities into more disrupted environments. As such, we have invested in, built and delivered a number of education & training initiatives on an impact-driven basis, particularly in southwest China, western Afghanistan and rural Nepal. Find out more about these below.
In developing these initiatives, we have focused on addressing local limitations or resourcing challenges in meeting particular Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Our overarching aim has been to promote solutions to those SDGs that are defined by MSCI as being related to the empowerment of human capital.
BOOK SUPPLIES TO SCHOOLS AFTER THE 2008 SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE: ‘BOOK BRIDGE’
Problem: Many schools in Sichuan Province, China, experienced the total destruction of their libraries and teaching resources during the 2008 Earthquake. The mission of ‘Book Bridge’ was to repurpose used books in the U.K in order to re-equip such institutions. We later expanded the remit of this project to also assist schools in a wider number of provinces.
Solution: To do this, our project team partnered with more than 20 British schools, book shops and charities and ran a 2-year effort to collect 10,000 books. These were ultimately shipped to our school partners in China.
Outcome: In order to help the students who received these books to develop English and reading skills, we later facilitated multiple in-person teaching programmes with school partners and the support of local government.
Schools supported
Books collected
hours taught
ENTREPRENEURSHIP & TECHNOLOGY TRAINING FOR WOMEN: ‘MYGO’
Problem: ‘MyGo’ began with a simple premise: free software can have transformative effects for entrepreneurs in frontier markets, by drastically lowering the cost barriers to doing certain types of work. However, information about how to use such tools for practical problems was lacking, and women in particular often did not sufficiently benefit from them.
Solution: We devised a training programme in applying such software tools to common business problems, and this was followed by a foundation programme in entrepreneurship and business skills. After running some pilot courses in Burma, we decided to bring this project to where we felt it could create the greatest possible impact, in western Afghanistan.
Outcome: We focused on training university-age women in the country, partnering with Herat University. This was launched with a large in-person course, and followed up with further online training.
Years operational
Afghan women
Programmes delivered
HEALTHCARE TRAINING MATERIALS FOR FCHVs: ‘HEADLINE’
Problem: ‘Headline’ was formed following the Nepalese earthquakes in 2015, as a way to augment the longer-term provisioning of healthcare support in more rural areas of the country.
Solution: We found that the best way to achieve this was by supporting Female Community Healthcare Volunteers (FCHVs), whom the WTO has called the ‘backbone’ of rural healthcare delivery in the country.
Outcome: Our project team worked with government-accredited FCHV training providers in Nepal to digitize, refine and expand their existing training materials, and provide training to local facilitators in how to deploy these into their current programmes.
Visits to nepal
(£) Grant funding
FCHVs Assisted
IDEAS Globally
In the Media
Our team has participated in a number of media events in connection with our work between Britain and Emerging Markets, ranging from the EY Strategic Growth Forum in Shanghai, to the launch of the Legatum Prosperity Index, to the China-Britain Trade Expo. We are also grateful to have been featured on the broadcast network ‘London Live’ (now London TV), in the International Business Times, and in the Evening Standard.
MEET OUR PEOPLE
Leadership team
We are proud to be powered by an energetic leadership team who are all experts in their areas of management, and bring a wide range of skills to the table.
James Lavender
Founder & Managing Director
James oversees our people management, product development and service delivery. He also takes responsibility for managing government and corporate collaborations, with a focus on China and Southeast Asia.
He gained a 1st Class Degree in English from University College London, and studied Chinese at Peking University. James is also a board member of the Future’s Forum, a part of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership (CLEP), which supports economic strategy and investment decision-making.
Languages: English, Mandarin Chinese (working proficiency)
Dr. Joel Sugarman
DIRECTOR OF PROJECTS
Joel takes responsibility for the educational monitoring, evaluation and data analysis that underpins our services. He additionally helps to lead our social impact projects, and has played a critical role in nurturing local partnerships in China, Afghanistan and Nepal.
He graduated with a first-class degree in Medical Sciences, and is a qualified medical Doctor, balancing his directorship alongside an active medical career. Joel additionally acts as a point of contact for university students interested in getting involved in our social impact initiatives.
Languages: English, Welsh (fluent), French (working proficiency)
Jose Calero
Non-executive director
Jose advises our executive management team on operational setup, financial planning, pipeline development, and strategic relationships.
He has supported IDEAS Globally as a business-advisor for several years, and has extensive professional experience in change management (including at J.P Morgan, UBS and EY). Jose has been particularly instrumental in advising on the integration of technology into our delivery of education and training, and in the quality assurance of our leadership training programmes.
Languages: English (native), Spanish (native), Catalan (fluent), Italian (fluent), French (fluent)
Vivek Shah
Learning Delivery Manager
Vivek has an essential role in connecting the digital resources and physical service delivery that comprise our platform at IDEAS Globally. He helps to ensure that we are effectively supplying e-learning capabilities to our students and partners. In line with this, Vivek also leads our programme delivery, working directly with numerous young and professional learners.
He graduated with a prestigious degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, and a specialisation in Data Science. Vivek also formerly worked at IBM in Business Development, where he was awarded a patent.
Languages: English, Hindi (working proficiency).
Virginia Lampani
STRATEGIC PLATFORM Support
Virginia provides extensive support to the development, operational maintenance and innovation roadmap for our digital education platforms, both for younger learners and professionals.
She has a first-class degree in Economics, and a Postgraduate Law Diploma (PGDL). During her degree, Virginia also completed courses at Harvard and the London School of Economics. After graduation, she worked with a major e-learning consultancy, where she was fast-tracked to Senior Analyst.
Languages: Italian, English (native), Spanish, French (fluent), Chinese (elementary)
Sina Dupslaff
sTRATEGIC PROGRAMMES SUPPORT
Sina works closely with our programmes team to integrate highly creative, game-based activites into our learning materials. Additionally, Sina has participated in a number of intensive in-person teaching and training programmes run by IDEAS Globally, working with many of our local learners in China, Myanmar and the U.K.
She was awarded a 1st Class Degree in Arts & Sciences from University College London (UCL), and has broad experience working in several creative roles, including at Google and for a major Advertising company in London.
Languages: German (native), English, Spanish, French
Get In Touch!
If you’d like to discuss ways that our educational support can be leveraged to amplify the reach of your organisation, or for the benefit of your family, please contact us to speak with a member of our team.
Visit us
We are based in Central London and in the Lake District National Park. Let us know if you’d like to arrange a visit to meet with our team!
Call Us
For U.K enquiries, contact: (0)20 8638 7783.
Email Us
If you are not sure who to speak to, reach out to us at admin@ideasglobally.org, and we will connect you with the best person.