ABOUT 8BILLIONIDEAS

We believe education should prepare students for the world they're actually going into

We're a team of educators, creators and people who care deeply about what happens to young people beyond the classroom, and everything we build comes back to giving them more of the skills, confidence and experiences they'll need to shape whatever comes next.

Colleagues smiling and working together around a table in a bright, plant-filled office

OUR MISSION

Give every student on the planet the skills, belief and values to change the world.

WHY WE CARE

We care about the parts of education
that are hardest to measure

Young people spend years learning what they need to know, but we believe being ready for the world takes more than knowledge. It takes confidence to speak up, judgement to make decisions, resilience when things go wrong and the belief that you can make something happen.

Those things can be harder to teach, harder to timetable and harder to measure, which means they can too easily be treated as extras. We've never believed they are. For us, they are a fundamental part of what education should give every young person.

A member of the 8billionideas team leading a lesson with young students sitting on the classroom floor
A member of the 8billionideas team presenting on stage at a school event
A member of the 8billionideas team presenting the Tech Toolkit to a class
8billionideas founder David Harkin speaking to secondary students in a school theatre

We want students to leave school not just knowing more but believing they can do more with what they know

OUR STORY

We started because we thought education
could do more

Two members of the 8billionideas team presenting the Waldegrave MBA programme to a school

01 · WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

It all started with a slightly crazy idea.

It was 2021. The world had gone a bit mad, everyone was stuck at home, and Joe Wicks was getting half the country doing star jumps in their living rooms. And somewhere in the middle of all that, we started thinking... if you can get people excited about PE through a screen, why couldn’t we do something similar for education?

So we got a few people together in Surbiton, put together a couple of entrepreneurship programmes and thought, why not give it a go? We didn’t have a big team, a fancy office or all the answers. But we did have a lot of belief in what we were trying to do. And looking back, that’s probably all we really needed to get started.

Secondary students working in groups in a school hall during an 8billionideas workshop

02 · THE FIRST REACTIONS

Then something happened that none of us will forget.

We started taking little entrepreneurship programmes into schools, and honestly, the reaction completely blew us away. Students were getting stuck in, coming up with ideas, asking questions and showing a side of themselves that even their teachers hadn’t always seen before.

But it was the parents that really got us. At the end of those first experiences, we’d have parents coming up to us, genuinely emotional about what their children had achieved. And we’d keep hearing the same question: “Why hasn’t anyone done this before?”

That was the moment we knew we weren’t just putting on a fun day at school. We were doing something that actually mattered. And once we’d seen that, there was no way we were stopping.

A member of the 8billionideas team taking a selfie with school staff in a corridor

03 · THE BIGGER PICTURE

We realised one day just wasn’t enough.

There was just one problem. We’d go into a school, have the most incredible day with the students, see them absolutely buzzing with excitement... and then we’d leave. And that was it. We’d got them thinking differently, trying new things and believing in themselves, but what happened the next day? Or the week after that?

The more we spoke to our schools, the more we realised we were only scratching the surface. They were telling us they needed more, and that we needed to start younger too. Why wait until secondary school to build confidence, creativity and all these other skills? Why not start right at the beginning and keep building on them as students grow up?

So that’s exactly what we started doing. We went from a handful of entrepreneurship experiences to building lessons across careers, wellbeing and beyond, all the way from Year 1 to Year 13. It was a pretty big undertaking for our team, but the schools believed in it, we believed in it, and suddenly we were building something much bigger than we’d ever delivered before.

The entrance to Dubai International Airport Terminal 3

04 · THE BIG LEAP

We were spending more time at Heathrow than at home.

Things were really starting to take off. Schools outside the UK were getting in touch, particularly from the Middle East, and before we knew it, some of us were becoming a little too familiar with Heathrow Terminal 5. Early flights, late nights, living out of suitcases... at one point, we probably knew the airport better than our own neighbourhoods.

But we didn’t want to be one of those businesses that flies in, delivers something and disappears again. If we were going to work with schools on the other side of the world, we wanted to do it properly. We wanted to be there, understand the culture, get to know the people and become part of their school communities. So we made a pretty big decision. We packed our bags (again), took a bit of a leap of faith and opened an office in Dubai.

Was it a big risk? Absolutely. But looking back, it’s one of the best decisions we’ve made. What started with three people on the ground has grown into a proper team, some brilliant school partnerships and a whole new part of the world that now feels like home. And as it turns out, Dubai has been a pretty wonderful place from which to keep exploring the rest of the world too.

A member of the 8billionideas team shaking hands with a colleague at the AQA office

05 · A BIG MILESTONE

Five years of hard work. And a pretty special moment.

If you’d told us back in those early days in Surbiton that we’d one day be helping schools deliver an internationally recognised qualification in Global Skills, we’d have been absolutely over the moon. The funny thing is, deep down, this was always what we were working towards. We just knew there was an awful lot to do before we could get there.

Years of creating lessons, trying things out, getting things wrong, making them better, listening to teachers, listening to students, and occasionally going back to the drawing board. None of it happened overnight. And none of it would have happened without the schools and people who believed in us, stuck with us and helped shape what we were building.

So, when we became the teaching and learning partner for the OxfordAQA International GCSE Global Skills Projects, it was a pretty emotional moment. Not because we’d suddenly finished what we set out to do, but because something we’d believed in for so long had taken another huge step forward. And knowing that students could now work towards a recognised qualification through the kind of learning we’re so passionate about? Well, that made all those years of hard work feel pretty special.

The 8billionideas team together in the office in front of a green wall with the company logo

06 · THE NEXT CHAPTER

And the crazy thing? We’re only getting started.

When we look back at where we started, it’s hard not to smile. A few people in Surbiton, a couple of entrepreneurship programmes and an idea that seemed a little bit mad at the time. Fast-forward to today and we’re working with schools around the world, helping students learn things we wish we’d had the chance to learn when we were younger. And somehow, it still feels like we’ve barely scratched the surface.

There are new countries we’re excited to explore, more lessons we’re itching to create and some really exciting conversations happening about where future-focused learning could go next. But we’ve never wanted to change education by standing on the sidelines telling schools what they should be doing. We want to be right there with them, listening, learning, trying things out and figuring out how we can make things better together.

Because at the end of the day, this was never really about building a big business. It was about giving young people more opportunities, more confidence and more belief in what they’re capable of. And if we can keep doing that, alongside schools who care just as much as we do, then who knows where this little idea might take us next?

We've changed a lot since 2021.What we're trying to achieve hasn't.

THE TRUST SCHOOLS PLACE IN US

We're proud of the trust
schools place in us

Schools don't choose partners lightly, and we've never taken that trust for granted. Every partnership, every student reached and every school that chooses to keep working with us matters because it tells us that what we're building is making a difference where it counts.

350+

schools

Working with schools and organisations around the world

1 million+

students

Young people who have experienced 8billionideas learning

OxfordAQA International Qualifications

Teaching and learning partner

Supporting schools to deliver Global Skills Projects

Trusted by schools and organisations including

  • Sotogrande International School logo
  • Wellington College International School Bangkok logo
  • Dubai British School Mira logo
  • Cranleigh Abu Dhabi logo
  • King's College School Panama logo
  • Queen's Qatar logo
  • Dukes Education logo
  • The British College of Gavà logo
  • British School Lisbon logo
  • Dubai British School Emirates Hills logo
  • North Gate British School logo
  • Noya British School logo
  • King's College School Cascais logo
  • King's College School Wimbledon logo
Ewell Castle School logo

We have been an 8billionideas Partner School for over five years. 8billionideas has energised our enterprise work and helped us broaden its scope to our Prep/ Primary School as well as our Senior School. Parents love our week-long Prep School summer enterprise projects with content delivered by 8billionideas, culminating in our children presenting to their peers and parents.

Silas Edmonds

Principal, Ewell Castle School

WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WORK WITH US

We want working with us
to feel easy

We know schools have enough complexity already, so we try to be the opposite of that. We stay close, communicate clearly and make sure there is always a real person who knows your school and what you’re trying to achieve.

  • 01

    We stay close

    You’ll know who you’re working with and you won’t disappear into a support queue when you need something.

    Named contact · Clear answers · Regular check-ins

  • 02

    We keep things practical

    We listen first, work around what already exists and focus on making things easier to deliver in the real world.

    Listen first · Fit around your school · Solve what matters

  • 03

    We always care

    For us, a partnership should feel like people working towards the same thing, not a contract that gets handed over once it’s signed.

    Real people · Long-term support · Shared goals

We want schools to feel like we’re part of their team

REQUEST A DEMO

Book a demonstration

Tell us a little about your school and our team will be in touch to arrange a time to show you around 8billionideas.

Secondary students working at laptops in a classroom while a teacher helps a group