The Buzz Around Workforce Edtech

seen since the transition of the labor force out of agriculture in the early 1900s. Employers are seeking both formal and informal learning for their people and the technology to help assist in this transition. A LearnLaunch research report to be issued September 16th shows that $2.6 billion has been invested in this market sector, with early investments primarily in informal education but with increasing investment in technology-enabled training on both hard skills and 21st-century skills.
Participants will explore:

Where investors are placing their bets in this market

What companies are seeing the most buzz and why

The gaps and the opportunities that exist for those interested in bringing a workforce product to market

This session is intended for:

Entrepreneurs seeking to understand if their product or service should address this market

Investors looking for market opportunities

Colleges seeking to grow their workforce programs

Speakers
Tetyana Astashkina, General Partner, LearnLaunch Accelerator
Michelle Dervan, Principal, ReThink Education
Dara Warn, Chief Operating Officer, PennFoster

Speaker bios
At LearnLaunch, Tetyana Astashkina is in charge of managing all aspects of day-to-day business of the Accelerator including portfolio development, fundraising, and investors relations.
Prior to LearnLaunch, she was a Principal with Europe’s most active angel network and a group of funds btov Partners. In addition to investment-related responsibilities, she led btov’s activities in international markets and co-managed fund operations. Her past investments covered a broad spectrum of themes including clean technologies (e.g. wind tech, bio tech, renewable energies) and internet-enabled consumer-facing businesses (e.g. travel, fashion, e-health).

Michelle Dervan is a Principal at ReThink Education, a venture capital firm focused on education technology.
Prior to joining Rethink Education, Michelle was a Director of Strategic Partnerships at Pearson Education where she focused on sourcing and structuring partnership deals with large and small tech companies. She previously held a number of education, edtech and economic development roles at Irish government agency, Enterprise Ireland. She is actively interested in education policy and workforce development initiatives. She volunteers as an Organizer of the NYEdtech Meetup, as a Mentor with YearUp and serves as a NextGen Board Member of NY Collaborates for Autism, a nonprofit that designs innovative programs to improve the lives of people living with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Michelle has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in European Studies, French and Russian from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

As Chief Operating Officer, Dara Warn and her team are responsible for advocating for the customer and ensuring that Penn Foster education solutions meet the needs of this diverse base of learners. Dara brings with her over 14 years of experience in direct response marketing, brand development, public relations, and integrated communications and business development programs. Prior to joining Penn Foster, Dara was Senior Vice President of Pri-Med, a leading medical education provider focused on bringing tier 1 education solutions to the primary care marketplace.
Dara received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in marketing and communications.