Third Space Global, a UK owned BOI approved company, opened its new regional headquarters at Orion City, Colombo 9 on 13 September 2017. The company has grown to over 200 staff since it began operations in September 2015. The new facility marks a milestone for the CEO and British-born Sri Lankan Roshan Nilaweera, who has ambitious plans to create many jobs for young Sri Lankans to engage in the global digital economy. For the opening, Roshan was joined by Tom Hooper, the Founder and CEO of Third Space Learning, the London based parent company.
Third Space Learning is building the world’s first global and scalable teaching network of highly trained online tutors supported by cutting edge technology.
It offers the largest network of one-on-one Math tuition in the UK. In the past four years, the company has worked with 16,000 children across 600 schools, delivering 200,000+ teaching hours. It achieves this by recruiting young and intelligent Sri Lankans.
Before they begin, they undergo an intensive training programme on the newest teaching techniques and how to use our Third Space technology to deliver results for children we work with.
Before joining Third Space, Roshan Nilaweera was a Math and ICT teacher who studied a MEng in Computer Science. Roshan spent most of his life living and working in the UK but chose to immigrate to Sri Lanka to set up the main regional office of Third Space Global to create employment and training opportunities for young Sri Lankans whilst helping to contribute to Sri Lanka’s economic development. Roshan believes there are many other non-resident Sri Lankans like him, who under the right conditions, would also love to return to Sri Lanka to help create jobs and contribute to economic development.
For the past six weeks Third Space has been running a free eLearing Hub programme from their office and has welcomed 800 visits by 8-16 year olds. Unlike a school or a tuition centre, young learners receive a quick orientation and then set about managing their own learning schedules as they work with free online eLearning programmes.
TSG staff is on hand to provide a helping hand but always ensure that learners develop autonomy and independent thinking and problem solving skills.
Third Space Global plans to provide a free toolkit so this eLearning Programme model can be replicated by other companies opening their offices to learners nationwide.
The company also plans to launch free teaching and learning workshops next summer to support teacher training across the nation.
They are already in discussion with potential partners but welcome others interested in partnering with them on this venture.
Third Space Learning is projected to grow 200% over the next 24 months as it expands to new markets and geographies.
This will result in, Third Space Global creating another 250 jobs and opening new offices across Sri Lanka. Roshan believes Third Space Global is an exciting statement of the innovation and development that Sri Lanka is capable of.