Tackling the skills crisis: what role can early-stage funding play?

Join Ufi Ventures at Bett 2023. 30th March, ExCel London.

-----

Ufi Ventures will be making an appearance at this year’s Bett in March 2023 to discuss the trends, technologies and approaches that are transforming learning for work.

The annual three-day event brings together educators from across the globe.

Drawing on Ufi’s experience of providing more than £28m in grants and EdTech investments, Alex Bishop, Ufi Ventures Senior Investment Manager, will discuss the approaches we have backed and the companies helping to tackle the skills crisis.

The session will provide an opportunity to hear about Ufi's grant funding, partnership work and our current VocTech Challenge programme.

Alex will be joined by David Bartlett, CEO of Purlos, to share his journey from ‘idea’ to ‘market’.  Ufi Ventures invested in Purlos in October 2022 alongside a group of private investors.

Purlos is an experience management platform which transforms the way students interact with education providers. David’s team work with staff and students across the UK to improve the learner experience and reduce drop-out rates.

As in many busy colleges across the UK, staff at NESCOT in Surrey were spending hours responding to routine student enquiries. What’s more, they noticed that email response rates to their own correspondence were low and that their learners were no longer reliably engaging with the college by phone. Modern students expect instant communications and staff realised that a new approach was needed. Enter Jenni, Purlos’ human-supported digital support assistant.

Today, students interact with Jenni through WhatsApp and receive instant responses. Jenni handles the bulk of day-to-day questions so that staff have more time to focus on the students who really need and benefit from their time. Instead of technology reducing human connection, it is strengthening it.

You’ll find Alex and David on the Bett Futures stage at 15:45 on Thursday 30th March.