Zenius Education Startup Releases Services Targeting MSMEs and Professionals

Education startup Zenius has launched a new service called ZenPro. This service targets the capacity development or up-skilling of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and professionals.

Zenius Chief Executive Officer, Rohan Monga said that for MSME players, ZenPro services are able to provide a foundation of skills in starting their own business.

As for professionals, ZenPro services are able to encourage sharpening of skills and the addition of new skills.

“ZenPro is able to encourage its users to become individuals who continue to grow and lifelong learners,” said Rohan in a press release, Friday (12/3).

Can be used by MSMEs and Professionals

For MSMEs, ZenPro in collaboration with the e-commerce enabler company Sirclo held a business development training program called Merdeka Jualan Online (MaJOe). 

In this program, ZenPro will become a facilitator platform to conduct classes, modules, exercises, and quizzes. For professionals, ZenPro can be used by high school or high school graduates, college graduates, young employees or first jobbers, to experienced professionals. 

Currently, ZenPro offers 48 training classes in 12 main categories. The training materials at ZenPro are delivered by Zenius master tutors, as well as practitioners and experts in their respective competencies. 

The training classes are divided into several fields, such as business, finance, English, analytics, entrepreneurship, digital marketing, technology, content creation and others.

Rohan said the reason the company made the ZenPro service was because it saw its great potential. Currently, there are 64 million MSMEs in Indonesia, of which almost 16 million MSMEs have been recorded to have gone digital.

Meanwhile, ZenPro is also targeting professionals to increase the bargaining power of its users in looking for work. Because, the number of unemployed during the pandemic continues to increase. 

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) noted that the number of unemployed in Indonesia was 9.1 million people in August 2021. This number is up from 8.7 million people in February 2021. 

“This service is what we believe can help professionals out there to compete in the world of work,” said Rohan. Over the past year, Zenius had 15.7 users. The number of users grew more than 10 times from March to December 2020. 

The user retention reached more than 90%. Zenius targets to attract 30 million users in the country. To achieve that target, the company focuses on improving service quality.

“Zenius will continue to innovate in presenting innovative services and products to overcome the challenges of education in Indonesia,” said Zenius Education Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer Sabda PS, last year (21/7/2020).

The educational startup received pre-series B funding from OpenSpace Ventures and Alpha JWC Ventures earlier this year. The fresh funds are used by Zenius to develop services and applications.

Collaboration with SIRCLO, Focus on Upskilling for MSME 

To have a direct impact on its users, Zenius through ZenPro collaborates with e-commerce enabler company SIRCLO to hold the Merdeka Jualan Online (MaJOe) program, business development training for MSME players. 

SIRCLO will provide technology solutions and online sales modules for MSMEs, and ZenPro will be one of the facilitator platforms for holding classes, modules, exercises, and quizzes.

“We are pleased to partner with ZenPro to run the MaJOe program, which is a form of our support for the Proud Made Indonesia program launched by the government,” said Christian Jeremia, Senior Strategic Acquisition SIRCLO.

The company hopes that after participating in this training, MSME actors can be more skilled in selling online, mastering marketing techniques through social media, and using the right tools to advance their business.

Until now, ZenPro’s training classes can be accessed through the official website or several digital platforms such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Pintaria, and Karier.mu by Sekolahmu, with prices ranging from IDR 99,000 to IDR 800,000.

Since it was first launched, ZenPro has been accessed by more than 230,000 users, with the most popular classes being on the topic of business development.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower as of August 2020, the top jobs most needed by post-pandemic companies are: sales, marketing, public relations; and IT operations technician.