One-line solution summary:
A mobile microlearning solution on WhatsApp
Pitch your solution.
Musa addresses the pressing need to upskill and reskill the Latin American workforce in an equitable manner, including people with limited access to computers and internet connectivity. Musa’s team transforms an organization’s training content to a micro-learning format and facilitates its delivery through a WhatsApp chatbot, which users can access from anywhere and at their own pace.
Musa helps organizations train their employees and other stakeholders, such as clients, suppliers, and beneficiaries, remotely and quickly (15-minute learning unit), effectively (9 out of 10 finish Musa's micro-courses) with a low learning curve from an app that they already use (WhatsApp), and more cost-efficient than other traditional solutions (the average annual cost of training per employee was USD 1,286, Training Industry Report 2019), to bring value to the productive ecosystem.
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
As a result of the pandemic, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru lost a combined 30 million jobs in the second quarter of 2020 (IMF). Almost 45% of jobs in Latin America are in contact-intensives sectors with frontline workers, such as Hospitality, Retail, Agricultural. This is much higher than the 30% and 35% for emerging markets and advanced economies, respectively (IMF, 2020). With these rapid changes, companies need to train their employees more than ever with adjusted budgets. Employees must adapt and stay updated with the digital and human skills needed for the 21st century. Evidence of this is that during 2020 the completion rate of Coursera increased to almost 10% from 3% in 2019.
However, the Latin American workforce's low levels of education make it even more difficult for them to adapt. In Peru, around 69% of the workforce is a high school graduate at most (National Survey of Household, 2019). Additionally, low access to broadband internet and technological devices puts vulnerable and lower-skilled labor at risk of falling further behind. More than 43% of the population in Peru does not have access to broadband internet, and only 26% of families have access to a computer or a laptop.
What is your solution?
We identified a global trend for shorter, relevant, and specific training through bite-size content that is conveniently accessible (2021 Skills revolution series, ManpowerGroup). However, for Latin America, we need to consider the structural characteristics, such as low access to broadband internet and low educated labor. This is how we identified an opportunity to make training accessible to everyone given the high smartphone penetration and intensive use and low cost of WhatsApp for the end-user through organizations and private companies.
Our solution is based on a methodology of mobile microlearning powered by behavioral science through a chatbot in WhatsApp; this achieves greater retention and traction because the student can learn from the palm of their hands, at their own pace, from anywhere.
Musa allows organizations to train their stakeholders remotely and quickly (5 to 15-minute learning unit), effectively (9/10 users that start a course, finish it) with a low learning curve from an app that they already use, and more cost-efficient than other traditional solutions.
Finally, our solution provides analytics on the learning process and performance at the individual and organizational levels, generating valuable information for decision-makers.
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Musa was designed to reach people who are not reached by traditional education. Providing skills and job training opportunities to people who don't hold tertiary education degrees increases their chances of accessing better jobs and higher salaries. Furthermore, organizations with better-skilled workers are usually more productive and profitable than those that don't. More productive organizations have the potential to create better economic and social impact around their area of reference.
After performing +1600 surveys and +40 in-depth interviews with potential users in Peru (Lima, Callao, Arequipa, Cuzco, Junin, and Puno), we identified a gap of access to resources for upskilling and reskilling in the region among the most vulnerable workforce members who lack access to broadband internet, access to computers, and lower education levels.
Having a 53% penetration rate of mobile internet users in Latin America, with smartphone penetration expected to increase to 79% by 2025, reaching 543 million people, we can leverage access to basic connectivity services such as WhatsApp, the most used messaging app. Additionally, in Latin America and Peru, mobile service providers often include free access to WhatsApp with a minimum top-up of $1.00.
With the approach of meeting our users where they are, we make sure that our solution can reach everyone with a basic smartphone, unlike traditional training and educational solutions that require stable connectivity, access to computers, or in-person sessions.
After deciding which technology to use to reach Musa's students, we worked closely with a behavioral science expert and firsts users to improve Musa's methodology to reduce friction during the micro-courses and motivate students to finish the learning paths they start. As a result, 9 out of 10 students that start a micro-course, finish it. This is an ongoing process as we continue to improve the methodology with feedback from users and customers.
Which dimension of the TPrize Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Design, create, and implement new educational or training models for educators and students that guarantee access to quality education in low connectivity environmentsExplain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the TPrize Challenge.
Being the challenge "How can under-resourced populations across Latin America and the Caribbean develop the necessary skills to access good jobs, better opportunities, and overall well-being?" Musa is a good fit since it was created to expand and democratize access to underserved communities, who traditionally have lower access to an internet connection, devices, and tertiary education.
Musa is a technology-enabled solution, born in Peru, that design, create, and implement a new educational or training model for students: mobile microlearning methodology powered by behavioral science through a chatbot in WhatsApp that guarantees access to quality education in low connectivity environments.
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Lima, PerúWhat is your solution’s stage of development?
Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community.Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.
Musa is in a pilot phase, we started operations in April 2021, and since then we have worked with the following organizations to test and learn from the technology, methodology, and business model.
- Agrokasa (April 2021): trained 500 workers on the field to prevent Covid-19
- United Nations Development Programme - Project: Guerrero Emprendedor in Peru. This was our first sale to provide training and collect data for impact measurement.
- (May - June 2021): provided training about entrepreneurship to 1000 traditional business owners.
- (September - October 2021): to train 3000 traditional business owners.
- Continental University (June - July 2021): provided micro-courses related to improving mental health and wellbeing to 2000 students.
- Partners in Health and Peruvian Health Ministry (September - November 2021): we are training 30,000 community health agents.
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Monica Ramos Li
If you have additional video content that explains your solution, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link here:
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new business model or process that relies on technology to be successfulWhat makes your solution innovative?
Our solution is innovative because we use technology to expand and democratize access to underserved communities, who traditionally have lower access to an internet connection, devices, and tertiary education.
In addition to the technology, we have developed a methodology based on microlearning and behavioral science to enable organizations, like private companies, government agencies, and NGOs that need to train, upskill, and reskill -in a convenient and cost-effectively way- their main stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, clients, beneficiaries, etc. including those in the last-mile and frontline, therefore increasing their impact.
The increase of widespread access to the internet and MOOCs indeed created better access to new educational resources for many people. However, those with the lowest access to education and connectivity stayed behind, increasing digital and education inequalities. Our solution is innovative not only because we use technology but also because we have the end-user at the center of our design.
Finally, Musa uses a technology stack of IBM Cloud, Watson assistant, Elasticsearch, Node-red, and WhatsApp API. We are in the first stage of development, and we plan to improve our chatbot further to make it more conversational than structured.
Our technology has tremendous potential to improve and automate other activities to positively impact social and economic development for small businesses and entrepreneurs, such as conversational commerce and customer service.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Our solution incorporates Artificial intelligence to deliver micro-courses and develop learning communities through a chatbot on WhatsApp. In the first product development phase, our chatbot is more structured than conversational. We will further train the intents of the chatbot to make it more conversational as we collect data for the second phase to be released in 2022.
Musa uses a technology stack of Elasticsearch, IBM Watson assistant, Node-red, Gupshup, and the WhatsApp API to deliver micro-courses and learning paths to our end-users through a chatbot.
Provide evidence that this technology works. Please cite your sources.
Our technology uses a technology stack of IBM Cloud, Watson assistant, Elasticsearch, Node-red, and WhatsApp API. We are in the first stage of development, and we plan to improve our chatbot further to make it more conversational than structured.
In this link, you can access three demos of our service: one micro-course about Mindfulness, one about protocols in case of earthquakes, and a tutorial on issuing invoices through the Peruvian tax administration portal. This content is delivered in Spanish.
Access to demo: bit.ly/holamusa
Tutorial about how it works: bit.ly/tutorialMusa
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
Does this technology introduce any risks? How are you addressing or mitigating these risks in your solution?
Our solution has the risk of privacy of data. We are addressing these risks by implementing internal processes and ensuring that our technology complies with standard security measures such as having an SSL certificate for the configuration of our tech stack.
Select the key characteristics of your target population.
In which countries will you be operating within the next year?
In which countries do you currently operate?
How many people does your solution currently serve? How many will it serve in one year? In five years?
2021: 40,000
By 2022: 200,000
By 2026: 5,000,000
What are your impact goals for the next year and the next five years, and -- importantly -- how will you achieve them?
Our key impact goal for our first year of operations is to reach over 40,000 active users and five million users by 2026. Our current business model is B2B, where we reach our end-users through our clients (organizations and companies). We aim to make this business unit profitable enough that it will allow us to offer learning content directly to people (B2C) with a freemium revenue model.
Also, we measure the immediate outcomes of our solution, such as completion rates and comprehension of key concepts. As of now, 90% of our users end content units they star.
The medium and long-term impact of our solution is that it contributes to achieving the organization's objectives and key results, such as increasing employee's skills, productivity, efficiencies, capabilities of small entrepreneurs, decreasing incidents, and other goals specific to their programs and organizations.
How are you measuring your progress toward your impact goals?
The key metrics we measure are:
- Number of active users
- Completion rates
- Satisfaction of the user
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
How many people work on your solution team?
Full-time staff: 3
Part-time staff: 2
Contractors: 2
How long have you been working on your solution?
1
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
We have four people on our team. Monica Ramos and Camila Haro are full-time members, and Patricia Barrios and Ian Sznak, part-time members.
Monica is an engineer with experience in technology and social entrepreneurship. She has worked directly with users on the edge of connectivity at Resto-Zero (coffee farmers) and at Sanima (peri-urban households). Since 2018, she is also a lecturer at Continental University and Emzingo-u.
Camila is an economist with expertise in strategy and finance. She has worked 4 years to make higher education more accessible at Continental University.
Patricia is a Babson College MBA and a Ph.D. candidate in Education at Harvard University. With more than 7 years of experience in higher education, she is the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of Continental University.
Ian is a communications specialist with expertise in retail, sustainability, and business development. He has experience working as a community liaison for mining projects in Peru, as a social entrepreneur at Hoseg, and in innovation at Continental University.
What is your approach to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive leadership team?
Musa values diversity as we aim to create development opportunities for diverse learners. Our team is comprised of people from different backgrounds and walks of life. An engineer, an economist, two communicators, and a lawyer. 75% of our team are women. In addition, 100% of our full-time staff are women based in different cities and leveraging the power of technology to communicate and grow Musa.
Within the team, we create safe spaces for sharing ideas and feedback. As a team, we value well-being and results, providing free time as much as a team member needs it.
Additionally, we plan to create a diverse and inclusive team scouting decentralized talent across Peru and Latam.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Organizations (B2B)Why are you applying to the 2021 TPrize Challenge?
We are applying to the 2021 TPrize Challenge in other to get access to MIT Solve's network of mentors and industry experts in education and AI, as well as a way to expand our exposure in other LATAM countries, where we look forward to scaling.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Please explain in more detail here.
In order to scale Musa, we need support in the following aspects:
Business model: we are in the process of finding the product-market fit that would allow Musa to scale.
Technology: To scale our solution, we may need to change the architecture, cloud services and add new features for users and customers to improve their experience using Musa.
Human Capital: we have had a hard time finding the right technical talent locally, and we look forward to finding it in the region. For doing this, we need support to find the right talent and cultural fit for the organization.
What organizations would you like to partner with, and how would you like to partner with them?
WhatsApp (Facebook): We believe a partnership with them would improve Musa's delivery features through this channel.
IBM: As we use IBM cloud architecture to run our chatbot, we believe a partnership with them would allow a better technological scaling of the solution.
International NGOs and governments: Partnerships with these organizations would allow our solution to reach users on a big scale.
Solution Team
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CH
Camila Haro Co-Founder, Musa -
Monica Ramos Musa
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Solution Name:
Musa