UK Israel EdTech Task Force launched
New education technology task force to encourage innovation and investment in the UK and Israel.
A new UK Israel EdTech Task Force was launched, bringing together knowledge and expertise from both countries to come up with recommendations on digital transformation of education systems.
The Task Force was launched in London, at a senior-level roundtable session held alongside the UK’s biggest education technologies conference, the BETT Show.
The task force initiative is a collaboration between:
- EdTech UK
- Israel’s MindCET education innovation centre
- UK Israel Tech Hub – a government venture based at the British Embassy in Tel Aviv which promotes tech collaborations between the UK and Israel
The goal of the task force is to create a joint bi-lateral ecosystem, meant to voice the industry’s key issues. It will also aim to recommend policy makers in both countries on how to encourage innovation and investment, and will share best practices in this crucial field.
Participants at EdTech Task Force launch
Twenty industry leaders, from both Israel and the UK, including investors, innovators, government representatives and educational leaders took part in the launch event.
Key attendees included:
- Lord David Puttnam, Patron of UK’s Education systems
- Joe Mitton, Special Advisor for Business and Science at the office of the Mayor of London
- Gila Ben Har, CEO of Israel’s Centre of Educational Technology.
Topics of discussion
This inaugural event discussion focused on the following subjects:
- building a culture of innovation among teachers and decision makers in education
- new models of investment and de-risking investments for capital holders
- ways of engaging teachers and students to pilot new technology solutions for learning.
- ole of regulation in encouraging or blocking innovative EdTech solutions
EdTech has been identified as a high potential area for UK-Israel collaboration and has been pursued by the UK Israel Tech Hub and other partners in recent activities.
Notably,in 2015 the Hub collaborated with MindCET at BETT Show, to present ground breaking EdTech startups from Israel to the UK ecosystem. That resulted in a number pf partnerships signed.
In November 2015, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, chose to bring a delegation of UK EdTech startups on his visit to Israel focusing on business and technology collaboration.
The UK Israel Tech Hub also works closely with major UK education publishers, in order to offer them innovation solutions from Israel.
Full list of participants at the launch of the UK Israel EdTech Task Force:
| Doron Liebshtein | Israel | Chairman & founder, Mentors Channel LTD; Founder & CEO, Coaching Interactive Endeavour |
| Tali Yariv | Israel | Director , Beracha Foundation, Israel, previously Head of Israel Educational Venture Network |
| Yaara Bar-on | Israel | Director, Oranim College |
| Yishai Pincher | Israel | Founder , CodeMonkey |
| Gil Almog | Israel | Matifico COO |
| Shai Buber | Israel | Investor and entrepreneur; VP & General Counsel, Paradigm |
| Gavin Dykes | UK | Program Director, Education World Forum |
| Prof. Rose Luckin | UK | Prof. of Learner Centre Design - London Knowledge Lab |
| Lord David Puttnam | UK | Patron of UK’s Education systems |
| Henry Warren | UK | Innovation and Product Development, Pearson |
| Joe Mitton | UK | Special Adviser for Business and Science, London Mayor’s Office, Greater London Authority |
| Erez Tocker | UK | ex- Kaplan |
| Simon Tobelem | UK | Managing Director, REALIS Investment House |
| Laurence Kaye | UK | Chair,UK Friends of the Abraham Fund Initiatives; member, International Board of the Abraham Fund; solicitor and principal, Laurence Kaye Solicitors |
| Gila Ben Harr | Israel | CEO, Centre for Educational Technologies |
| Guy Levi | Israel | Centre for Educational Technologies |
| Jennifer Schivas | UK | Partnership Project Manager, Oxford University Press |
| Ian Fordham | UK | EdTech UK |
| Avi Warshavsky | Israel | CEO, MindCET |
| Cecilia Waismann | Israel | MindCET |
| Ayelet Mavor | UK | Deputy Director, UK Israel Tech Hub, British Embassy Israel |
Contacts
Contact info@ukisraelhub.com for a copy of the full report of the session.