Governments are prioritising STEM and AI literacy
National education policy across many countries has shifted towards STEM subjects and, more recently, AI and digital literacy as core competencies. This is observable across the markets where CIY.Club operates.
UNESCO and the OECD both track government education priorities. Their published data and policy documents confirm that STEM education — particularly technology and computing — has risen in priority across national curricula in the 2010s and 2020s. The UNESCO Education and OECD Education sites publish current data and policy analysis for those who want primary-source evidence.
Within Southeast Asia and the Gulf specifically, CIY.Club observes that government STEM prioritisation is creating awareness of technology education among parents and school administrators. This is one of the three demand drivers cited by CIY.Club across its markets.
Schools are going through digital transformation
Schools across the region are integrating technology across subjects — not only as a standalone computing class, but as a tool embedded in science, mathematics and project-based learning. This creates a student population that is increasingly comfortable with technology learning and a parent population that expects their children to have technology competence.
For extracurricular coding programmes, school digital transformation is a supporting factor. It legitimises technology education in the eyes of parents and creates students who are ready to go deeper into coding and robotics than the school curriculum typically allows.
Parents are actively searching for coding classes
Parent-driven demand is one of CIY.Club’s stated market observations. Across its network, parents are actively seeking coding, robotics and AI education as extracurricular activities — in the same category as music, language or sports programmes.
Several factors sustain this demand:
- Career preparation: parents believe coding and AI skills will be important for their children’s future employment
- School supplement: coding programmes often go further than school IT classes, satisfying parents who want more than the curriculum provides
- Competition and recognition: student competitions in coding and robotics create visible goals and milestones that maintain enrolment motivation
This demand is not uniform across all markets and all demographics. Assessing the strength of demand in your specific territory is part of the evaluation process any prospective operator should undertake.
What this means for education operators
For operators considering a coding education business, the demand context matters because it shapes how hard student acquisition will be and how sticky enrolment will be once students are in the programme.
The CIY.Club revenue model is a recurring monthly student subscription: students pay monthly, not as a one-off enrolment. This matters operationally: revenue is recurring and predictable, which makes planning easier than a business reliant on irregular one-off sales.
The low-inventory, high-margin, knowledge-based operating model means that as an operator, you are managing coaching time and student relationships rather than physical inventory. This is different from a product-based business and from many traditional education businesses that rely heavily on one-off enrolments or examination cycles.
Where the opportunity sits for new operators
For prospective partners evaluating the opportunity:
- Online-first in emerging markets — territories where coding education is less established offer early-mover positioning for online operators who can reach students without a physical centre
- Physical centres in high-demand areas — established metro markets with strong STEM parent demographics can support a physical centre, particularly where local competition is not yet concentrated
- Regional or country rights — for investors with a longer horizon, securing regional or national rights in a growing market positions the business ahead of demand maturation
For a full breakdown of available territories, see the STEM Education Business Opportunities in Southeast Asia guide. For the licence tracks available at each level, see the Coding, Robotics & AI Education Licence guide.