HEX ramps up ‘innovation gap year’ to help close skills gap

Motivated by her own high school stress, this Melbourne founder has plans to take her education program global.

Australian edtech company HEX is ramping up its “innovation gap year” program, raising $1.25m as it moves to address the worsening tech skills gap and enter the US, Malaysia and Indian markets.

The start-up, led by CEO and founder Jeanette Cheah, a former ANZ executive, has already educated nearly 10,000 students and has now raised funding from investors including impact venture capital fund Giant Leap as it moves to teach thousands more.

Ms Cheah said HEX’s $US490 ($685) program could be thought of as a “new kind of undergraduate degree”, exposing students to alternative opportunities and career paths while teaching them skills for the real world like financial literacy, ethics and coding.

Motivated by her own stress during high school about what she wanted to do with her career, she said there continued to be a skills gap between what young people were learning at school and what they actually needed to be job-ready.

“The tech talent shortage is happening around the world and, let’s face it, the world is crying out for fresh leadership. It’s our responsibility to arm the next generation with the necessary skills and knowledge to be the leaders we need for the future economy,“ Ms Cheah said.

”We think the innovation gap year is an essential step in students’ learning journey.

“Close to one in three students are thinking about taking a gap year after high school, so we feel like we’re on-trend. And I believe it is a waste of time for a student to be just hopping around degrees, swapping things out and ending up in a career that they don’t love. What I would prefer is for them to finish high school, then take their gap year with us.”

The HEX team.

She said HEX was in a high-growth phase that would be accelerated by the funding round. It has had investment from backers including LaunchVic’s Alice Anderson Fund and angel network Scale Investors, along with Draper Startup House Ventures, Aussie Angels, and start-ups and edtech expert Wendy Bonnici. HEX previously secured a cash injection from Tractor Ventures.

The company has also partnered with tech giant Atlassian to deliver a 50-seat scholarship program, and has teamed with over 30 universities to give full or partial credits to HEX graduates.

Giant Leap partner Adam Milgrom said HEX was addressing the increasingly volatile and uncertain future for jobseekers graduating from studies.

“The skills taught by the business’s programs go beyond the traditional ‘job-readiness’ to ‘life-readiness’’ by including courses in personal finance, ethics and entrepreneurialism,” he said.

“Jeanette is a brilliant founder and has built a strong community around HEX. We’re in awe of her ability to foster partnerships with companies like Atlassian to drive better, tangible outcomes for young people.”

HEX has also partnered with the City of Melbourne to provide 20 start-up founders with the opportunity to virtually tour Southeast Asia. The five-day program will be held between February 21 and 25.

“The Melbourne economy has suffered during the pandemic and businesses everywhere have been doing it tough. Now is the time to throw all our support at businesses to help them recover and thrive by connecting them with global networks,” Ms Cheah said.

All 20 places in the program were sponsored by the City of Melbourne. The successful start-ups include crypto accounting software AEM Algorithm, AI data insights provider Player Piano Data Analytics, Asian-Australian mental health platform Shapes and Sounds, urban analytics firm Place Intelligence, Indigenous fashion house NGALI, AI-powered learning platform Lerero, matcha tea brand Matcha Bae, hospitality co-working space platform Third Place, natural toothpaste brand Gigi Life, nutritionist-designed pet food Golp, research organisation ADKL Labs, crypto educator The CryptoPlayground, and AI communication and personal development coach app Get Mee.

Supplied Editorial The HEX team. Source: Supplied.