Founder
Masters in International Business
Class of 2013
Cairo, Egypt
yehiabadawy.com
Consider the digital skills you use on a daily basis. How many of those were
taught to you at school? Today’s education systems are facing an enormous
challenge in equipping students with both the hard and soft skills to become
capable, ethical, digital citizens. Consultant and entrepreneur Yehia Badawy
took the problem into his own hands in his
native Egypt, founding a coding summer
camp to ready upcoming generations for their
online future. His learning? The kids are
doing alright.
The need for quality, relevant education is pressing.
China’s global rise has opened up big opportunities in
a market where booming population figures and high
technology adoption rates are revolutionizing the land-
scape. MBA graduate Juan Pablo Venegas has spent the
last decade in the country, experiencing such change
firsthand. Today, he dedicates his career to building im-
pactful edtech programs for tomorrow’s digital leaders.
Global Partnership Director
MBA
Class of 2012
Shanghai, China
@pablovenegas77
Juan Pablo Venegas
Yehia Badawy
HULT
How strong is the edtech scene in China?
JUAN PABLO VENEGAS
Gathered on beanbags, a group of intuitive young stu- education is changing. “We’re at this crossroads now—
dents and their digitally savvy instructors discuss how to we know technology is good, but we’re figuring out
protect one’s identity online. Tomorrow, they’ll broach our policies,” he says. “Should mobile phones be al-
the thorny subject of cyberbullying. Next week, they’ll lowed in the classroom? Should we use apps not ex-
consider the multitude of career paths they could take plicitly designed for the learning space? As years pro-
outside of the “traditional” trajectories of law and med- gress we’ll think about education in newer terms,
icine. This is Camp Altitude, where teaching is con- develop unique hardware and software implementa-
ducted for the 21st century.
tions, and pose more challenges to the dogma, whether
“We need to talk to parents about the skills of the fu- that’s questioning standardized testing or choosing
ture, not the skills of today,” says camp founder Yehia, homeschooling. The assembly-line format of educa-
an ex-banker whose business interests include crypto- tion is no longer valid.”
Yehia’s goal is to use his learnings from Camp
currency trading as well as edtech. “We can’t rely on
digital and technological solutions without the people to Altitude to roll out more permanent after-school and
actually develop them.” Noticing how outdated compu- weekend programs. He is also adamant that the curric-
tational learning was in Egypt, and inspired by the pro- ulum goes beyond hard skills to teach students to work
gressive approach of countries like Estonia, he set to together collaboratively and constructively, and to build
work structuring a summer program that would teach confidence in their abilities. The rewards and impact of
students both the hard and soft skills critical to the 21st- his efforts are evident. “I had one student ask me, when
considering future careers, can I really be a robotics en-
century job market.
Year One was not without its challenges. “It’s very gineer? Can a girl do that? She was nine at the time.
hard to impart the philosophy of
I told her absolutely, and over the
Camp Altitude on people who have
next few years worked with her
Career Mapper
not been through a wonderful
mother to equip her with the re-
learning experience,” says Yehia. Unsure of your next direction? We’re
sources to become that engineer.
here to help. Hult’s Career Mapper
But as awareness has grown among
This
stuff is much, much more re-
uses big data to plot your future path.
parents and edtech solutions have
warding
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evolved at pace, the status quo in
ever achieve on the stock market.”
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Ways of Learning
H
It is strong. Not because China has looked to disrupt edtech
necessarily, but because they’ve become really good at two
fundamental things. One, data collection and analysis; and
two, applying learning algorithms that reveal consumer be-
havior. It’s a killer combination that allows you, in time, to be
successful at virtually anything. In edtech’s case, you access
what students are thinking and how they interact with your
product or service, giving you better opportunities to deliver
an exceptional experience.
What are some notable developments in edtech?
JPV
H
Omnichannel education is interesting: mixing online and
classroom-based education to give professionals the flexibility
they need today. There’s also OBC (online before campus),
which allows you to gain a full year of credits online before
going to campus for an in-class session and assessment.
Another step forward is the “unbundling” of degrees,
meaning credits can be combined from multiple institutions.
This is even better when it means that those external credits
can come from industry-led courses with a strong skills-focused,
practical component—like the ones Microsoft or Alibaba
are teaching.
What’s your outlook on the future of education?
JPV
Currently in China?
Connect with Juan Pablo to
join alumni activity across
the country. Find him on
LinkedIn or on WeChat at
pablovenegas77.
Education on the whole hasn't really changed since I’ve been
in the industry, which is scary because everything else is mov-
ing so fast. Schools should be redesigning their curricula to
reflect the changing times, adding more soft skills components
that make our students more “human” and ultimately irre-
placeable in an AI-driven workplace. Right now we’re only
working on programs that offer a clear career path toward
growing, relevant, and future-proofed industries. Alongside
that we’re forming alliances with leading companies within
those industries, to provide the internship and career options
students need.
Ways of Learning
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