Propagate Education Team Revolutionizes College and Career Counseling Services 

Propagate Education is an all-in-one platform that unites education, career, and personal development resources, and fully personalized college/career counseling online sessions. Propagate helps Georgian students in navigating higher education opportunities around the world and develop skills to compete on an international level.

Propagate was born during a conversation between childhood friends Ana Kervalishvili, Dzerassa Sanakoeva, and Nata Khatiashvili, as they were recalling the challenges they faced on their journey from high school to early careers and said they wished there was someone who would prepare, guide, or even warn them of these challenges ahead - and that's how the friends decided to be that someone for Georgia's young people.

The founders of Propagate Education answered CBW’s questions and shared their ideas and goals:  

 We all had different backgrounds and chosen paths when we began our student journey in different parts of Europe, but we were all faced with the same realization that we were underprepared for logistical, academic, or mental challenges we were faced with - despite satisfying all university admission criteria. Most importantly, we did not know how to make the most of our student experience and maximize the opportunities that our circumstances offered us.

Since the concept of Propagate Education was born based on our first-hand experience, we have come a long way and learned a lot, and identified the most pertinent needs for young people in Georgia to overcome the barriers they face on their career journeys. Paired with our passion for improving access to higher education for young people and increasing their competitive advantage in the global job market, making the concept of Propagate Education a reality was our only option.

 What’s the most noteworthy service you are planning to introduce on your platform?

Propagate Education is an all-in-one service that unites an online platform offering education, career and personal development resources and fully personalized college/career counseling online sessions. By providing support during the whole life-cycle of higher education, we are revolutionizing college counseling services, and offering a novel product that is readily accessible, easily digestible, and customized to each of our clients, to overcome the inequalities when it comes to accessing education.

To expand on this further, we meticulously select and proof-check every available opportunity online and bring it all to one place, saving young people time and energy on doing their own research.

We offer resources on the following topics: fully-funded higher education programs, personal development, career and volunteering opportunities, internships, fellowships and international conferences, short-term courses/ programs, and personalized guides to help young people achieve their academic and professional goals.

The college counseling offered is also fully online to improve accessibility and both students in their final years of school and those already enrolled in university (abroad or in Georgia) can benefit.

What's the main goal you try to achieve with Propagate Education?

Our main goal is to make higher education accessible to young people of various backgrounds and career aspirations and support them during their years at university to make the most of the opportunities they are offered, so they can graduate with a high competitive advantage in the global job market and become the versions of themselves they aspire to be.

One of the core missions of Propagate is to popularize informal education and redefine the approach to education in general, by offering experience-based services and human-centered practices. We recognize that the socio-economic and environmental challenges we are facing today on both local and global levels need a generation of new leaders, with the ability of critical and systems thinking, a people-oriented mindset, and exceptional industry-specific expertise. Combining holistic approaches with innovative digital solutions is our vision for reimagining the existing mechanisms and equipping the youth with the necessary skills for adjusting to the current needs of the academic and labor markets, and eventually becoming the changemakers in their respective fields.

This way we aim to not only benefit the young people on a personal level but also benefit the Georgian economy which is in a dire need of a highly competent, young workforce.

Congratulations on becoming a finalist in the Social Impact Awards! What opportunities does this program give to your startup?

Thank you! We are very honored to become finalists in Social Impact Award! This is a great acknowledgment of our efforts and we are indeed very excited about the opportunities this program offers.

As part of this program, we will receive an invaluable 2-month-long incubation, with a successful and experienced founder, as well as various lectures and workshops on social entrepreneurship. As we are just starting our journey in this field, it is important we validate and prototype our business and impact models, to help young people on a larger scale. SIA’s focus on making impact-driven initiatives scalable is a unique opportunity for Propagate to reach its aspirations and long-term strategy for development.

Furthermore, this is an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded young people, and other start-up professionals and bring these connections to Propagate Education clients! Young people are striving for interconnectivity more than ever now, and we believe that we can offer them exactly that through our approach to partnerships and vision for making the Georgian startup ecosystem more accessible and well represented both online and offline.  

What is the platform's current stage of development, and what's ahead?

At this stage, we’re refining our resources and databases to ensure that we cover all the pain points of our target audience in the most effective way possible. The platform will be fully operating by the end of July, and in the meantime, we’re gathering insights from  young people to build a meaningful presence on several communication channels.

We are also refining our business model and strategy to give us a competitive advantage on similar programs and attract partners, collaborators, and investors to improve the accessibility of our service and afford more social/charitable projects, and we feel lucky that SIA is acting us our first experience with this and giving us guidance for future endeavors on the way.

As for our future plans, we are building a network of young people that have received education abroad and are willing to share their expertise and experience with others in the framework of our consultation services. This way, we are aiming to offer in-depth resource databases on countries all around the world. We believe that long-term sustainable development and well-being are created through strengthening local economies and communities, and Propagate is planning to launch both onsite and online initiatives in the regions of Georgia on a regular basis, where the local youth will be engaged in a wide array of informal education programs tailored for their needs. The end goal is to create hubs in each region and create an environment for youth, where they will be able to serve their communities in the most effective ways.