Education is a sensitive topic in the Philippines, whether it’s questions of quality, discussions on lack of funding and availability, or even just plain inquiries on the best pre-schools in your neighbourhood. Any discussion on the matter of education is sure to last a few rounds.
RocketLabs, which was a finalist at the 2013 Echelon Philippines Satellite recently, wants to change at least some of those aspects. Designed as an educational software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, RocketLabs aims to integrate virtual labs, course media, and one-on-one instruction for enterprise-grade tech training. This concept hopes to eliminate some of the problems inherent to traditional education systems in the country, namely a lack of access to up-to-date tech courses, as well as a lack of tech infrastructure and facilities necessary for hands-on experience and learning.
Founded six months ago by Dann Angelo De Guzman and Paul Harris, with help from AngelList, RocketLabs’ main focus is on fields like IT infrastructure, software engineering, business intelligence, digital marketing, and business and engineering applications. At the moment, RocketLabs has up-to-date partnerships in courses with subject matter experts from Microsoft MVP, and is in negotiations with several well known companies to include courses on various key technologies. They also have a memorandum of understanding to focus on cutting edge technologies with several high-level training centers for Cisco technologies. Finally, the development team is planning on a pilot test run in the next few months, with several of their partner companies.
With RocketLabs, consumers get the hands-on time they often lack in traditional education systems, which more often than not is composed mostly of lecture sessions, or at the most, video lectures. The idea is that performing and applying what you’ve learned in a hands-on environment allows for better retention of knowledge, better understanding, and a more competent skill set.
Though still in beta, the startup touted its business model as “flexible and unique”, and the team is confident that its industry-focused approach is polished. The startup promises that accessibility and ease of use will not be an issue, and that continuous learning is guaranteed. The product is set to be monetized, with paid courses, later this year.