Creating high-quality community care for the children of factory workers
Team Leader
Morgan Lance
OneSky supports governments to improve the quality of early childhood care and education
Solution Pitch
The Problem
When workers migrate to find industrial jobs, they leave behind their families and social support networks, which particularly impacts their childcare. Residency status may limit access to public services in a new place. Urban caregivers also often lack training and resources to safely and effectively educate their young students, who then miss crucial early-learning opportunities.
The Solution
OneSky brings quality early-childhood education to Vietnam’s factory communities by training women as professional childcare workers and creating nurturing care for vulnerable children. An on-the-ground team coordinates programming with government officials, trade associations, and women’s groups to ensure that OneSky consistently meets local needs. The program thus creates jobs and careers for its adult participants, and helps children prepare for academic success—breaking familial cycles of poverty.
Following a 2018 pilot with 80 providers, OneSky now trains 240 home-based caregivers annually using classroom instruction, home center coaching, and an engaging online learning platform.
Market Opportunity
Of the nearly 150,000 early childhood educators in Vietnam, 37 percent have had little-to-no pre-service training. Further, it’s estimated there is a shortage of 27,500 teachers in the early childhood care sector across the country, especially in Vietnam’s industrial zones where the adult-to-child daycare ratio can be as high as 49:1. If scaled, OneSky’s proven model could train and upskill early childhood educators to reach 1.2 million children of factory workers living in Vietnam’s 300 industrial parks.
Partnership Goals
OneSky currently seeks:
UI/UX expertise to further develop and improve its online learning platform;
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) expertise to build robust processes to analyze and share impact data from OneSky programs; and
Consultation to create a sustainable business model and shift away from dependence on grant capital.
Organization Highlights
Some of OneSky’s notable achievements include:
Founder Jenny Bowen’s selection as a Skoll Awardee and winner of the AmCham Women of Influence Award;
Recognition as a best practice by the Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), the leading network for early childhood education in the Asia-Pacific region; and
Governments of each country of operation (China, Vietnam, Mongolia);
Local welfare programs; and
Foundations providing grant funding support.
What is the name of your organization?
OneSky for all children
What is the name of your solution?
OneSky Caregiver Training
Provide a one-line summary or tagline for your solution.
OneSky supports governments to improve the quality of early childhood care and education
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Da Nang, Vietnam
In what country is your solution team headquartered?
Vietnam
What type of organization is your solution team?
Nonprofit
Film your elevator pitch.
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What specific problem are you solving?
Vietnam’s rapid urbanization has outpaced social infrastructure, leaving low-wage migrant workers without affordable, accessible childcare. Public services are constrained by limited capacity, residency requirements, while private options are expensive. Unregulated independent centers have emerged, often run by untrained providers, varying widely in quality and risking children’s safety and development.
What is your solution?
OneSky empowers ICC childcare providers to provide responsive care. Our Vietnam team coordinates programming with government officials, trade associations, and women's groups to ensure that OneSky consistently meets local needs. The program thus creates jobs and careers for its adult participants – empowering them to become respected ECCE practitioners while critically improving the quality of childcare for the marginalized children in their care. This helps to increase children’s ‘school readiness’, preparing them for active participation in their education and future academic success. Thus, breaking familial cycles of poverty in the long term.
Following a 2018 pilot with 80 providers, OneSky now trains 240 home-based caregivers annually using classroom instruction, in-person coaching, and an engaging digital learning platform. Now we have partnered with MOET to amplify impact by training government trainers, who will in turn deliver training to ICC trainers, enabling the program to reach and benefit significantly more children.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Young women account for up to 70% of the migrant workers living in Vietnam's industrial zones and the children they bring with them to, or who are born in, industrial zones, lack the residency status for public preschool or daycare in a new province. In rare cases where high-quality local private preschool spaces are available, the fees vastly exceed a factory worker's salary. It is these women and children we seek to help.
In order to support these vulnerable families, we are creating a network of trained caregivers who support and encourage each other in improving care for children living in industrial zones. We also offer parenting training workshops to empower them in supporting their child's healthy development. OneSky's team on the ground collaborates with local government entities, trade groups and women's groups to ensure we are meeting the needs of the local community.
Stats
OneSky currently trains 240 caregivers and has impacted 12,000 lives in Da Nang Province, Vietnam.
