OBLA - Online Board Learning Area

Learning & Training Ecosystem

Our Utopian world of education. A world …

Where the 'outward life' is arranged in such a way where a learner and an employee finds as few obstacles as possible and as much encouragement as possible in his or her intellectual and spiritual endeavors;

Where learning (in-school development) and training (workforce development) are integrated with the ‘real world’ (the world as we perceive it to be) through lifelong learning experiences in order to give the learner, the employee a true understanding of their reality by merely bringing everyone together with the intended purpose of helping them to become the best that they can be;

Where learning and training institutions utilize ideal methods, practices, of data and technologies for education proficiency and economic prosperity.

If all of the above represents what the ideal education world should hold, how then do we overcome the greatest challenges in modern times, in particular:

• Eradicating youth unemployment;
• Strengthening learners ability to prepare for the ‘real world’;
• Integrating the efforts of roleplayers
• Reducing educators workloads and training complexities;
• Increasing economic profitability, productivity and prosperity;
• Creating lifelong learning experiences and;
• Strengthening cohesion between people, communities, societies and countries.

An opportunity certainly presents itself for a solution able to create this utopia. A solution capable of elevating through the education & training prism as it were, the levels of interaction as the best epistemological tool in the pursuit of knowledge and growth for everyone.

 We call it…

OBLA is a learning & training ecosystem. Most modern education systems are either designed for learning purposes or for training purposes. OBLA on the other hand is a hybrid model that focuses on the provision of both learning (for school and post school development) and training (for workforce development) and as such is designed to promote a lifelong learning approach to human capital development, integrating learning & training at all levels as well as empowerment, job creation and entrepreneurship.

OBLA’s ecosystem fosters collaboration with various roleplayers in particular businesses, academia, government, labour, schools, training providers, learners, parents, trainers, educators, book publishers, book resellers, car dealers, realty agents, travel agents, universities, colleges, economists, psychologists, tutors and bursary sponsors where these challenges are resolved by applying a cohesive approach that involves a "sustainable" solution. 

OBLA empowers humanity; generates skills; it promotes employment and promotes entrepreneurship. 

Above all, whether employment is created or entrepreneurship promoted, both elements involve empowerment through education/learning, training, collaboration and the necessary data and analytics to understand and track the landscape. Through the use of data analytics, OBLA is capable of understanding more about the potential of its users (both learners and trainers) in order for administrators to better understand areas of progress, areas that would require improvement as well as re-organize strategies to yield maximum benefit.

Welcome to our World!

OBLA looks at the education journey in reverse, and starts at the end of a learner's school career (after Grade12). 

Planning the process backwards, OBLA is capable of generating innovative solutions in line with the three aspirations of a learner (ie: start a job, start a degree, start a business) and in doing so, builds up a host of “requirements” for the learner’s success. Five years ahead of time, teachers can now employ critical thinking on how to develop the academic and soft skills of every learner; connecting daily responsibilities with societal goals; personalizing education with the end in mind

OBLA, a cloud-based system with 100+ features is designed to address the digital divide. Its delineation between learning and training and through its ‘education reverse process’ makes it possible to adjust its output given changes occurring within the milieu.

It amplifies quality teaching and reduces teacher workload. It aligns teachers efforts with learners aspirations and creates the ethical bond. It reduces youth unemployment, preparing them for the real world.

It assists schools to transition from ‘teacher quality’ to ‘learner engagement’. It re-aligns corporate social responsibility. It creates transparency and encourages everyone to join in the content creation process.

The focus over the next 12 months will be South Africa.

Financial goals:

• From the Academia sector we intend increasing our user base.
• From the Business sector we intend increasing our revenue base.

Technical goals:

• Online payment service roll out
• Artificial intelligence enhancement
• Employee life-cycle Process roll out
• Mobile app rollout

Marketing goals:

• Raising considerable awareness and understanding about the benefits of OBLA targeting all the media outlets.

Joint-Venture Goals:

• Identify partners that can add value to our vision. 

OBLA benefits realization:

• Universities prospectuses aligned to real world needs
• Businesses access to investable candidates
• Governments oversight strengthened
• Labour deployed in support of economic activities
• Advertisers gaining maximum exposure
• Increased Schools ICT maturity levels
• Learners aspirations fulfilled

South-Africa:12-24 months:

• Deployment in 6000 Public schools
• Deployment in 50 top-tier Corporations/Institutions
• Deployment in 100 Accredited-Training-Providers
• OBLA User base increased to 8 million

South-Africa:24-48 Months:

• Deployed in 24500 public schools; Remaining Universities/Colleges
• User base 36 million

Sub Saharan Africa:48-60 Months:

• Pilot in 1000 public schools.
• User base 38 million

OBLA target audiences are Primary Users (Schools, Training providers, NGOs) and Secondary Users (Business, Academia, Labour, Government, Advertisers).

Primary Users remain in OBLA until the completion of their learning/training development, ensuing, these users enter/re-enter the ‘real world’ in the form of a Job, a Tertiary education or an Entrepreneurship, and will seek additional OBLA resources that further support their endeavors generally on offer by Secondary Users, hence a lifelong learning approach to human capital development (creating a negligible churn rate).

OBLA deployment occurs through customer engagement and online registrations. Access to the platform transpires via Internet and mobile platforms.

Currently in the deployment stage with a large non-profit-organisation in South Africa who has over 200 learning centers nationally and have in excess of 50,000 users registered annually. Due to OBLA, the NGO is now capable of offering courses from all economic sectors boosting user registration and revenue. They also have complete management control over their operations, easily integrating their efforts with the other roleplayers such as Bursary sponsors, Recruitment agents.

Deployment includes:

- Setup Learning Groups

- Setup User access 

- Aligning existing training courses to groups

- Trainers access rights to OBLA

- Define 12-month Roll-Out Plan

Within 12-months, leveraging off our early adopters, we envisage OBLA deployed to 6000 public schools, 50 Top-tier Corporations/Institutions and 100 Accredited-Training-Providers generating a user base of 8million. Users will include in-school learners, post-school students and workforce personnel, all benefiting from the online platform and the collaborative network built within OBLA.

 Roll-out Plans, generic Policies are developed per school, given a school’s ICT maturity level. Top-tier Corporations are engaged to transition personnel training onto the online platform. Accredited Training Providers approached via their State-Training-Agencies to increase their revenue.

OBLA deployed to remaining 18500 public schools within 3 years

Faheem has 17 Years Accounting and Project Management experience and financially managed 300+ Infrastructure projects throughout Africa.

Ishaaq is an Enterprise Architect with 25+ years IT experience with a Bachelors of Science degree in IT.

Saadiq is a certified Enterprise Architect with 25+ years IT experience with a Bachelors in Business.

Zarina is an online marketing specialist with 20+ years experience in online marketing

Zahira is an online content management specialist with 10+ years experience in online content management

Zaytoon is a financial accounting specialist  with 15+ years experience

OBLA adopts both a Freemium and Subscription model.

Freemium model is offered to all Groups to enable quick access to OBLA selected features and content.

Subscription model is offered to groups requiring additional OBLA features. These Groups are classified as Content-Providers, Content-Creators or Advertisers.

OBLA features are clustered into Bundles.  Subscription is offered over a 3month, 6month and 12month period. Subscription fee is calculated based on “Period” and “Bundles” selected including the group’s “User count”.

Content Creators: Unlimited user base. Typically using OBLA for online training purposes (eg: Universities, Colleges, Training Division).

Content Providers: Limited user base of 2users. Typically businesses that intend creating “content” for advertising purposes (eg: Banks, Insurances).

Advertisers: Limited user base of 2users. Typically businesses that wish to join OBLA for “promotion” purposes (eg: Pharmaceutical Manufacturers).

Public Schools, selected NGO’s are given “free” OBLA access. All other Groups are encouraged to seek sponsorship for activation of additional OBLA Bundles.

OBLA integrates learning & training for lifelong education which means a ‘negligible-churn-rate’ creating sustainable profits for OBLA owners/partners. One of the innovative features of OBLA is its agility to be deployed for any organisation, be it an ordinary school/college to non-profits and Corporations

3 of the 4 challenges mentioned by Solve (Workforce of the Future, Teachers & Educators, Frontlines of Health) have been identified as solvable by OBLA. Solve has an extensive network of members that could potentially help promote OBLA and speed up adoption of the ecosystem. 

Potential Barriers:

1. Slow adoption rate
2. Pace of political buy-in
3. Financial constraints

Solve can assist in promoting OBLA through its extensive networking channels. As OBLA evolves into meeting the demands of its users infers greater user-friendly functionalities to be designed.

OBLA requires both a top-down and bottom-up approach. Political buy-in from Government and Captains of Industries together with a bottom-up approach that proves credibility is vital. Both necessitate extensive communication and collaboration with potential equity partnerships.