Edtech is a huge market. In 2018 alone, edtech startups raised over $1.45 billion. And while it may sound like the most lucrative and important market of today, edtech is hard to work in the environment. In fact, there is a very high turnover and edtech companies are constantly hiring and firing employees as they try to make the company profitable. So, why is that?

The problem with edtech

Right now, edtech sounds like a dream come true. However, it really hasn’t been implemented as well as it could have been. For one, teachers are still struggling with incorporating tech that they are unfamiliar with. When they got their teaching credentials, edtech wasn’t as large of a market, and each edtech company is different. Though teachers may be familiar with a piece of tech, like iPad, they may be unfamiliar with how to use them in relation to their students.

Plus, the most profitable edtech companies do not work with schools at all. They are home-based extracurriculars that can be taught with the help of parents. Edtech is a hard industry to implement throughout schools because it needs to be personalized to each individual district due to the rules and regulations. 

In addition to these already massive problems, there is a lack of communication between edtech developers and teachers. What may sound like a problem to teachers may not really be one. However, without speaking to the teachers on a local level, developers would never know that.

Why the market is up and down

Edtech is a relatively new industry. There have been a lot of startup companies with the hope of changing education for the better. However, most of these companies do not succeed. A few years ago, the funding was much less and spread out amongst many companies. That has now changed. There has been more funding in a year, but fewer deals made, meaning that the massive amounts of funding are only going to a few companies.

As edtech companies try to grow and make a profit, there is a high turnover rate. It should reach over $200 billion by 2020, so why the lag? Everyone is hoping to secure the next best person, and when profits are down or not where corporate wants them to be, people get laid off or replaced. This continues, which leads to more failure in the edtech industry. Without a consistent and solid employee base, companies have a hard time growing because they are constantly training new employees.

Many people want to work in edtech, but they don’t realize how volatile an industry it is. It can be a harsh market when corporate interests outweigh the ideals of changing education. Until a company turns a profit, there will always be corporate leaders pushing for a change in employees.

Concluding thoughts

Edtech is still a great industry, and the hope is that it will change the education market for good. But, until the issues within the market are solved, edtech will continue to be a volatile market to work and invest in.