COLUMN-Big funds circle EdTech as post-pandemic mega-trend :Mike Dolan

 In the race to pick mega-trends amplified by this year's pandemic, education, or at least new technology within that market, is being circled by asset managers seeking alternatives to the already super-expensive tech and pharma sectors.

EdTech -- which has been growing since universities moved to provide open-access Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, more than a decade ago -- is one sector expected to be supercharged by the COVID-19 shock. And the story goes well beyond emergency home-schooling and online teaching during lockdowns.

The investment case computer engineering salary on two areas of education whose expansion the pandemic is expected to accelerate.

First is the private provision of tertiary or lifelong training as governments struggle to keep funding rising demand, mainly from developing countries. And second is a need for career-long reskilling of workers due to disruptions wrought by automation and digitisation of workplaces.

What has caught the eye of investors -- many of whom are also involved in 'sustainable' investing, another emerging mega-trend -- is the role of EdTech companies in developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning technologies in areas like e-classrooms, virtual reality or interactive modules.