Introducing EV Education Group

We have been developing and refining the EV Education Group to provide an integrated and comprehensive full suite consulting service that meets the education sector’s needs in the areas of QA, due diligence, compliance, tech, HR, training, etc.

Here, we share with you more about the Group’s vision, how the brands work together and our key guiding strategies.

In our previous article, ‘An entrepreneur and his company that challenges QA & compliance norms for the education sector’, we shared about how EduValue Singapore (EV) was founded, its growth thus far and where we are striving towards. We also mentioned how we started different brands in our second and third year of EV’s operations. These brands, iCosys, Bay Alliance, The EV Network and EV Academy, were to establish a foothold as well as support the growth and development of the education industry in Singapore and beyond.

From the initial conceptualisation of Bay Alliance as our Group holding company, we have over the years re-structured our brands as the EV brand was growing in traction and recognised by more than half the industry in Singapore. EV had also begun to establish our brand name in the education sector. In 2020, under the direction of our founder, Barry Awyong, the Group and brands underwent major restructuring to focus on what we do best and tap on the branding of EV. These companies were re-established under EV Education Group to collectively work towards a common vision of transforming schools into world-class establishments. Now, we would like to present to you the EV Education Group, our key products and brands as well as our 6 key strategies that drive our philosophy of The EV Blue Ocean Series.

The EV Education Group

EV Education Group is made up of 3 front-facing brands and 3 supporting brands. Our front-facing brands are EV, Bay Alliance and Knowledge Tap Academy (KTA). Our supporting brands are iCosys, The EV Network and EV Academy. Together, the Group’s main goal is to ensure that the different contributions of our brands will strengthen the sector and make Singapore a quality education hub. We strive to serve the education sector through understanding operations and guiding our schools to intrinsically or fundamentally change their ways to become better or more sustainable. This keeps them abreast with the changes and trends so that they continue to remain relevant.

EV is our main company as it is the main block of the EV Education Group. EV specialises in QA, regulations and compliance. Since its inception in 2012, EV has emerged as a leader in ERF, EduTrust Consulting and QA Frameworks for Private Education Institutions (PEIs) that are regulated by the Committee for Private Education (CPE) in Singapore. EV also does set-up and consulting work for Kindergarten, Enrichment & Tuition sectors, and Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) Training Providers/ Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) sectors, forming an in-depth footprint into Singapore’s education landscape. EV has also expanded to have a branch office in Malaysia.

EV Global provides similar services to EV but is catered to the international education market.

Bay Alliance is the Group’s dedicated arm that manages Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) as well as turnkey projects. This company ties together different functions by leveraging on its strengths like HR and investments with the other brands in the Group like EV’s expertise in QA and compliance, and iCosys’ expertise in technology and EdTech.

Knowledge Tap Academy (KTA) is a new tuition centre that was invested by the Group in 2020 to be our first education retail arm.

The EV Education Group is also made up of supporting brands. While these brands provide similar offerings to other IT and EdTech companies, and training providers, we are differentiated by customising our products based on the scope and depth of our understanding of the education sector’s needs. We ensure that our products not only meet the functional and educational needs, but the regulatory, QA and compliance requirements as well. This creates a seamless and efficient workflow for all stakeholders involved. These supporting brands prioritise R&D and investments over revenue as we want to create products that drive the industry forward. We aspire to create long-term sustainable strategies to support the education industry through our products offered by our key brands (EV, Bay Alliance and KTA).

iCosys is the digital supporting brand of EV specialising in customising digital infrastructure to support each school’s needs whether it is in school systems like School Management System (SMS), Learning Management System (LMS), Workspaces or Digital Certs. Through Digital Certs, iCosys ensures that different segments of the education industry have access to good quality and high security functions for issuing certificates and transcripts.

The EV Network strives to create Asia’s largest network for all stakeholders in the Private Education Industry. We bring together government regulators, universities, colleges, schools, agencies, vendors, etc. to create quality education that can impact communities and societies. We are committed to our vision and offer free membership to allow equal opportunities in the empowerment of all stakeholders.

EV Academy develops schools’ key competencies by lightening the learning curve through training and development. We capitalise on EV’s expertise in QA, compliance and regulations and adapt it to specialised training to meet each schools’ needs. We believe that we can help improve the industry’s standards and support it as it moves to greater heights.

Our 6 Key Strategies

During our restructuring in 2020, we established 6 key broad strategies that would form the backbone of EV Education Group. These strategies carry out and drive the EV Blue Ocean Series philosophy.

1. Focus on Sector

This is our core strategy, without which we would not have the EV Education Group. We ensure that whatever products and services we innovate and provide are for the benefit and growth of the education sector. For example, Bay Alliance looks at investment opportunities that challenge norms and innovate within the educational sector.

2. Diversification and Reinvention of Strategic Products

We strive to research, develop, innovate and diversify products in the education sector. We also seek to reinvent existing strategic products on how it can evolve with the needs of the education sector. Additionally, our research team persistently conducts a comprehensive review of our systems and infrastructure from our products to our company structure and functions. Currently within the Group, EV has in the pipeline creating new products and initiatives that would change and enhance the education market and its landscape.

3. Building Excellent Service through Systems

We pour investments into ensuring that our supporting brands builds reliable and efficient systems that support the education sector. For example, iCosys builds SMS and Workspace systems that enables school employees to constantly be engaged, increase efficiencies and build employees competencies. iCosys supports EV who manages over 40 schools QA departments. iCosys seeks to understand individual schools’ needs in terms of daily operations, QA and regulatory compliance requirements and all other specifications and needs before building workflow systems that enhance the school’s management. Similarly, all supporting brands of the EV Education Group strive to build correct, efficient and useful systems before releasing it to our clients, non-clients and public for the betterment of the education sector.

4. Prioritise Our People

The Group identifies that we are made of two things – systems and people. People are important as they engage our clients and help to drive the education sector forward. In prioritising our people, we listen to their feedback and find a balance to ensure that our employees, management, brands, and the Group can prosper.

5. Strength in Unity of Aligned Brands

When any of our brands receive a client with multiple needs across different functions, the Group’s brands are able to work cohesively to bring out and leverage on the strengths and expertise of each of the brands to support our clients. For instance, when Bay Alliance invested in KTA to create a new capability of tuition centres, we also brought EV and iCosys on board to assist KTA in navigating through regulatory requirements and technological needs. The Group is currently in the works with new products in our pipeline that taps on all the strengths of our brands and initiatives.

6. Competency Building for Employees

This key strategy works together with our 4th strategy on Prioritising Our People. With this strategy, our Group looks at holistic development of competencies needed for our employees like soft skills. Currently, we are working on our Group level to develop a recognised certificate that will bring our employees above and beyond what other organisations have.

The Future of the Group

Looking forward, the EV Education Group aims to have a brand for each type of function. Currently, we have brands for QA and compliance, school management and operations (student services, HR, consulting), and training. We strive to develop other brands that can empower our clients and by extension, the education sector to become world-class institutions.

Original article on LinkedIn

Written and graphic design by Gillian Koh, Industry Research Team at EduValue Global