“Project LEARNT”, co-founded by Dr Wilbert Law, Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology of The Education University of Hong Kong, and alumnus Jack Wan, is a start-up that provides academic and financial support for underprivileged students with the integration of tutors and co-learning spaces.

Thanks to the seed money from the University’s Education and Social Entrepreneurs (EASE) Fund Scheme in 2019, the team has been running a social enterprise that makes use of the slow periods of a restaurant as a co-learning space. In addition to offering space for tutorials and other learning activities, they recruit excess teachers as tutors to support students from low-income families.

“Our business model represents a win-win-win situation for students, teachers and restaurants,” said Dr Law. “The students can have a comfortable study environment at a relatively low cost; teachers and private tutors can expand their student base in the co-learning space by instant matching; and restaurants can enjoy an extra source of income by expanding their customer base.”

To further advance their project, the team joined the idea competition “Good Seed 2020”, supported by the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund of the HKSAR government, and won an award of HK$200,000 in July. The new funding will be used to enhance their existing services, such as study workshops, mock examinations, and counselling services; use different channels to raise public awareness of their concept of co-learning space; start building an online seat booking system with information about onsite teachers; and search for more restaurants to join their network.

Wan said, “We are grateful for the comprehensive support rendered by the Knowledge Transfer Sub-office, ranging from resources, mentoring, marketing opportunities and consultation on business concepts. They also provided invaluable comments and insights for our ‘Good Seed’ application, which enabled us to realise our entrepreneurial dream and progress to where we are today.”

To learn more about “Project LEARNT”, please visit www.study-work.hk.