Digitalization is a drastic change in the history of mankind brought about by the information revolution, leading people to go beyond the age of industrialization, towards a time when all the information can be expressed and transferred in binary codes. In the digital age, information…

In 2016, more than half of the world's population connects to the Internet. Today, digitalization has penetrated all aspects of people's lives: e-mail, social media, e-books, e-banking transactions, etc. Digitalization makes it possible to spread massive information instantaneously, and it also stimulates a large-scale market demand, which companies are actively tapping into to connect product and customer needs more closely. For us, we are thinking about how more low-income groups can enjoy the dividends of the Internet age and how to make use of the scaled social influence to solve social problems.

(1) Vocational Training for Rural Women:
Reach A Larger Low-Income Population
In helping low-income women to lift themselves out of poverty and explore new life, we have invested in Beijing Fuping Vocational Training School, which so far has helped more than 30,000 women to work with dignity. After years of cultivation, Fuping has grown into a social enterprise thinking advanced. Therefore, when thinking about how to scale up, Fuping seized the new opportunities brought by the Internet age to make education online, which allows more low-income population access to education and job opportunities at a lower cost. By the end of 2014, Fuping launched an online education platform dedicated to the housekeeping industry.

The platform offers training courses, employment guidance and vocational competence assessment. It also provides trainees with links to housekeeping employment agencies. There’s even a forum that allows domestic workers to communicate with one another. In two years of operation, the platform has greatly expanded, and there are now over 100 mini-courses available. What’s more, the interactive learning community, “Domestic Skills Made Easy,” has more than 30,000 registered users. Moving forward, Fuping will work with industry associations and government officials to promote this model nationwide.

(2) Rural Preschool Education:
Build An Online Learning Community for Frontline Teachers
Since 2011, we has worked with the Education Bureau of Gansu, Qinghai, Hubei and other central and western regions to promote teaching activities suitable for rural kindergartens, establish local training and research systems for teachers, and are still exploring ways to build a support system for rural kindergarten teachers. As the project advances, the limitation in time and manpower of the current model is increasingly evident, which hinders the project to achieve a large-scale impact to solve social problems.

Therefore, as online education and the Internet are increasingly available in rural areas, we decided to start the exploration on the digitalization of the program. In August 2015, we set up an online education department, and try to find solutions to compensate the limitation of conventional offline training. Today, our online education platform starts to take shape. It includes guidance for teaching methods, expert consultation, a resources center and a social networking platform.

(1) Guidance for Teaching Methods: Frontline teachers can have one-on-one chats with backbone teachers—experienced educators who act as mentors; lessons can be streamed in real time, and then backbone teachers can provide feedback and suggestions.
(2) Expert Consultation: Trainers, backbone teachers, and education experts stream lectures and seminars to rural teachers to provide expert consultation. The sessions are recorded and can be viewed later online.
(3) Resource Center: A variety of materials produced by the Thousand Trees and other educational organizations are available online; these include documents, workbooks and videos.
(4) Social Networking Platform: This gives teachers across all regions the opportunity to speak with one another, compare notes, and even watch lessons being conducted.

The online platform has proven to be an invaluable asset in the effort to bring quality pre-school education to the children of rural China. In the future, Leping hopes to see more of our partners involved in the effort to balance the scales, so that regardless of the location, teachers are well trained and well supported, and students are able to receive the excellent education they deserve.