OPTIMI LEARNING: Modernising Methods in Age-Old Industry 

In August 2023, leading South African education business – Optimi – was busy supporting 300,000 learners on their journey through adolescence, on to matric and beyond, and also underpinning skills by offering unique and bespoke training for professionals across various sectors. The company, established in 2019, came about as a result of the merger of several South African education and training organisations, most with deep roots and impressive records in the education space.

Last year, CEO Stefan Botha told Enterprise Africa that the Covid pandemic, which caught so many businesses digitally off-guard, highlighted the strength of Optimi. The company was already digitally savvy, with Botha highlighting its “strong technology focus”, and when the lockdowns came into force, Optimi was one of few organisations able to thrive.

“During the Covid period, we grew more than 50% on the home learning side,” says Optimi Home MD, Louise Schoonwinkel. “Operationally, that was a strong period and we had to scale very quickly. Luckily, we did have all the systems in place and so we could scale effectively.”

Optimi’s strength is in its ability to reach learners through various channels. Always accessible, and consistently quality, the way the company interacts with people differentiates it from others. Recently reorganised to simplify the structure, Optimi is now made up of four distinct divisions: Home, Classroom, College, and Workplace.

Schoonwinkel’s responsibility sees learners from grade R to 12 taught in a modern and proven environment, removing barriers and positioning outcomes at the top of the list of priorities.

Interestingly, in this division – the largest for Optimi – the pandemic highlighted home learning as an opportunity and a viable alternative. When learners moved to distanced education, the company’s offerings were far ahead of others and Schoonwinkel explains that this helped the brand to deliver a message that it was confident in all along: technology can transform education for the better.

HUGE OPPORTUNITIES

“In South Africa, there is a huge opportunity for growth in education, across general provision and general standards too,” she says. “Optimi has a role to play in that by modernising education. It is difficult to change, but we are pushing, step by step, and we are providing platforms for others who are ready for something completely alternative.”

A chartered accountant and experienced leader, her goal is to use the tools developed by the company to assist wherever possible in the journey of a learner.  

“My vision is that we help every learner in South Africa in one way or another. We have so many different products and solutions – it’s a very broad sector. Our group vision is to bring accessible learning to all, and our work in the Home division is a big part of that.

“We are looking at how we can support schools in a more effective way,” she adds. “Many schools are still run in the same way as they have been for many years. We want to assist schools to be future-proofed and forward thinking.”

Optimi sees trends coming across AI, nanolearning, VR, cloud-based learning, gamification, and mobile learning, and the team is busy getting to grips with these trends to apply them effectively for users. The result is, hopefully, a future where education knows no bounds, empowering individuals to realise their full potential and shape a brighter tomorrow. 

Schoonwinkel explains that the company saw the market completely open when Covid hit. Despite being a relatively new group, it performed extraordinarily well and this has helped it to grow.

“The online school was something we always thought about but the market wasn’t quite ready for it.

“Education is a very conservative market,” she highlights. “People are willing to try a new streaming service or similar but when it comes to a child’s education, no one is willing to try something different. Even in a school, they are slow to adapt to change as you cannot take a chance with it not working.”

ACCELERATED ADOPTION

Optimi’s offering does represent wholesale change. The parent becomes part of the system, but is not required to deliver lessons or have an in depth understanding of the subject matter. All tasks, tests and exams needed to complete the grade are delivered digitally. Printed or electronic CAPS-aligned lesson material in English or Afrikaans comes as standard. Step-by-step support for parents on how to work through the content is provided. Access to the Optimi Learning Portal (OLP) – an all-in-one learning platform – is included. And comprehensive recorded lessons by education specialists are designed for success.

“In terms of technology, education has been one of the markets that has been very slow, prior to Covid, in adopting new technology. The pandemic has accelerated that. It has forced schools to use new platforms, and it has forced people to think of online schooling, home schooling, and other options, because there was no choice.

“From a home-schooling perspective, it certainly did open the market. There has always been a stigma around it and Covid showed the reasons to at least look at it. For some families who wouldn’t have considered it before, it was a potential fit. They saw it work for their circumstances, and that was helpful,” Schoonwinkel remembers.

Importantly, the Optimi model brings new options for teachers as well as children and their families. The OLP, which Schoonwinkel helped to build early iterations of, is set up to embrace flexibility and technology while remaining focussed on results.

“From a school perspective, teachers had to go online or use new platforms to push content to learners. Those tools had not been needed before. The situation made the whole sector view technology in education very differently.

“We started our online school in 2022 and that has been one of our biggest growth areas. It’s a fully digital school – very similar to a brick-and-mortar school, with teachers present throughout the day – but in a virtual classroom. Teachers take students through their content, and we invigilate exams online. Pre-Covid, a school that ran like that was very hard to sell. Now, it is our biggest growth area,” she says.

Teachers can pre-record videos and highlight various parts of the curriculum quickly and easily for learners that need to receive support on specific topics. They can set goals for the day, week, and month, and there is an active report card that is updated intuitively. While textbooks can still be purchased to support learning, there is now less of a requirement to spend on these traditional tools.

SUCCESS IN SUPPLY CHAIN

Currently, Optimi is at home in South Africa. The company has much experience operating across different provinces, in different languages, and building its brand as a modern and alternative educational organisation.

“Learning about the industry is the easy part,” says Schoonwinkel, who joined Optimi in 2017.

Building a great team and then structuring a wider support network that includes both local and international suppliers is the challenge, she says.

“We mostly work with local suppliers and we like to support locally where we can. We do work with international partners, especially on the IT side, but as a proudly South African company working with local partners is our choice.

“We build the majority of our own systems but we do use a whole range of suppliers and partners to ensure excellence. We are selling directly to clients and when we are in our peak period, we get literally thousands of enquiries per day. We have a digital system and a call centre that helps us to manage that.

“We develop the bulk of our learning material ourselves but we do buy in some content. We do also on-sell certain products. Many of our clients do still purchase printed books and that is a big expense every year, and that is why we partner with the best printers.”   

In March 2024, the Department of Basic Education released a report revealing insight around the country’s foundational learning sector, in partnership with UNESCO through its Global Education Monitoring department. In many cases, the report found learning outcomes to be “well below target”.

Clearly, through the development of new educational eco-systems and the adoption of modern teaching and learning methods, there is a change agenda that must be driven primarily for the benefit of the wider economy as well as those that operate in the space. Optimi is leading the charge, and its focus on innovation and development is refreshing in an industry that is behind the curve technologically.                                                                                

“In education, digital transformation goes beyond integrating technology into the classroom, but also rethinking the teaching and learning processes to meet the demands of the digital generation. This shift from traditional learning has redefined how students learn, educators teach, and institutions operate,” the company says.