GLOW CENTRES Global Learning Opportunity on the Web

IT skills, practically prerequisites in today's job market, are often basic and straightforward to learn—but are a world away from the chronically poor. GLOW Centers teach vocational and Internet skills free of charge, delivering online education to poor young people who otherwise would remain unskilled and without prospect of employment.

Creating Opportunity for Youth. ALBERT, one of GLOW's first students, is particularly diligent and bright and comes from a family of eight children. Prior to being selected as a GLOW scholar, Albert was working about 10 hours at night, helping his mother, a widow, to support their family of nine in Tondo, one of Manila's most notoriously violent slums.

As a result of the GLOW center opportunity, Albert can now concentrate on his studies. If he had started his course at a local fee-based center, the total charges would have been enough to support his entire family of nine for six months. Albert secured a full-time job last week after sixth months of training provided free to him at GLOW's first center.

Early Successes. GLOW's prototype center in Manila is full of success stories. Just this month, 16 of its 19 students passed the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority accreditation exam—while some well-known Filipino computer schools boast pass rates of just 10-15%, GLOW's was nearly 85%. Those students are now well on their way to full-time employment in the IT sector.

And Albert isn't the only one to have secured a job thanks to GLOW's free training. 21 year-old Jennifer Anos was a shy, nervous applicant who even cried during her screening interview. She hadn't used a computer in her entire life. She now helps build the database at her on-the-job training office, and can compute the entire payroll of a company in less than a day.

Jennifer's sister Genalyn, 19, was also very shy when she first enrolled at the GLOW Center. But she studied with enthusiasm, and today she can encode and lay out a newsletter all by herself. After passing the government's accreditation exam for computer practitioners, she is now a certified data encoder. And in building her skills, GLOW has also helped her build confidence.

Ismael Aguirre, also 19, learns fast—and is quick to put what he learns into practice. He is now training in network development in his on-the-job training office. He also studies Web page design and is a government-certified data encoder.

How Does GLOW Work? "GLOW works by combining the four elements of training, technology, community, and business," explains Paul Ferris, CEO of Glow Centers Limited. "GLOW provides an outsource service to manage the digital divide from all fronts."

How is GLOW sustainable?GLOW is a different business model in the digital divide arena, as it takes a commercial approach in order to reach sustainability—this means that it will not require constant infusions of funds to grow. But how is providing free training a sustainable business model?

Paul explains that revenues will come from commercial arrangements like agency fees from recruitment of graduates, fees from companies who need personnel trained, and playing clients who outsource tasks like Web development to the centers. With a little imagination, the possibilities for strategic partnering and outsourcing using the centers are almost endless. Each center is expected to become self-funding within 15-18 months.

Enabling local ownership. Another important element of the GLOW methodology is that each center draws upon local management and ownership, says Simon Healy, Implementation Manager at GLOW. Each will be run by a local manager on a locally-appropriate salary, and once self-sufficient, the manager will be given first option to franchise the center. Soft loans, which can be repaid from the center's earnings over a two-year period, will help franchisees acquire the rights. Ferris believes that it's bottom-up initiatives like this that work best—giving the managers and their communities a major stake in the centers' success.

Stay tuned for... GLOW Centres Limited have commenced an Australian capital raising for AUD$2.65million (approx US$1.3million) to fund 20 GLOW Centers in disadvantaged areas of Australia and worldwide—especially targeting Southeast Asia, East Timor and the Philippines. Pacific Island and Papua New Guinea locations are also being considered. At the same time the company is in discussions with major technology suppliers.

The aim is to use GLOW Centers as part of corporations' business development programs—tapping into their business objectives (and budgets) and providing an efficient means of opening new markets. GLOW becomes part of the marketing mix, rather than the more usual one-off charitable funding initiative, with sustainable benefits for all involved. The full GLOW prospectus is available online.