FOCUSING on business development in Asia, Russia-based digital marketing school Refocus recently sold 25 percent of its stake to Skyeng, one of the largest players in the education market in Eastern Europe.
The sale is in line with Refocus’ plans to expand in the Philippines and Indonesia. Then, it will launch more than 50 educational courses in the Asia-Pacific region in 2022 to teach 1 million students in the first 5 years.
“The modern world is changing very quickly, and what you taught a year ago is no longer relevant, let alone university knowledge,” said Refocus founder Roman Kumar Vyas. “Higher education institutions are unable to meet the market demand for qualified specialists, so we are developing Refocus to help provide students opportunities to quickly master relevant skills and [land] a job.”
Moscow-based Skyeng will integrate Refocus into its online university Skypro, which offers vocational courses on data analytics, coding, marketing, and other information-technology (IT) professions. Refocus course programs will be adapted to the new platform, while teaching staff and teaching approaches will remain the same.
Vyas said that the sale of a share to Skyeng will help them establish faster in the Asian market, meeting state norms and needs of employers who seek able candidates.
Refocus provides students with digital skills during a complete course in the IT profession to increase the chances of students for successful employment. In line with this, the company has launched three educational directions in the Philippines: project management, digital marketing, and quality assurance engineering.
Refocus brings together 2,500 students and 35 practicing teachers, plus offers seven and soon, 10 IT professions that are in demand in the labor market.
Each course includes over 150 hours of lectures, 19 assignments, 9 months of training and certification. Enrollees will be divided into small groups for practicing new job-ready skills and networking under the supervision of curators.
“Teaming up with Skypro enables Refocus to leverage the power and tools of the online university to deliver an alternative to higher education in a faster and more practice-oriented way,” Vyas pointed out.
He believes that the future of education belongs to programs that meet global education requirements, and are locally relevant.
He said that to meet this end, the Refocus tutorial team includes Western industry-leading experts with global cases, and local top-professionals with strong sense of nationalism.
Refocus entered Asia to develop digital and IT professional skills in the burgeoning Philippine market. In the second quarter of 2021, the country’s gross domestic product grew by 11.8 percent, which drives rapid digitalization and increases demand for IT professionals. Its Philippine office is headquartered at the Enterprise Center in Makati City.
For more information, visit www.refocus.me, or follow its Facebook page: Refocus and on Instagram: refocus.education.