[PRO39] - Online Training Platform for Talents and Freelancers on Cardano ~ Udemy on Cardano

[GENERAL] Name and surname of main applicant

[GENERAL] Are you delivering this project as an individual or as an entity (whether formally incorporated or not)

[GENERAL] Please specify how many months you expect your project to last (from 2-12 months)

[GENERAL] Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated into English from another language

[GENERAL] Summarize your solution to the problem (200-character limit including spaces)

Establish a value-for-money, hands-on, flexible online learning platform so that talents and freelancers can quickly gain knowledge and apply it to their relevant job requirements.

~ Udemy on Cardano

[GENERAL] Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?

[GENERAL] If YES, please describe what the dependency is and why you believe it is essential for your project’s delivery. If NO, please write “No dependencies.”

No dependencies.

[GENERAL] Will your project’s output/s be fully open source?

[GENERAL] Please provide here more information on the open source status of your project outputs

Not yet at the moment, as per the published Privacy Policy of our platforms with the relevant stakeholders: freelancers, Job seekers, and other partners.

However, In the near future, we will consider public partially the codes under the auditing process from 3rd party auditors.

[METADATA] SDG rating

SDG rating:

The Proposal is related to SDG #4 and SDG #8

• SDG #4 Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4 
• SDG #8 Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal8

[SOLUTION] Please describe your proposed solution

◆Reasons for approaching 

1. The skills gap in the blockchain industry: According to a recent digital and IT skills report of DevSkiller based on 209,249 coding tests sent through the DevSkiller platform to candidates from 54 countries, blockchain demand increased by 552 % in 2022. However, there is a massive gap in the required skillsets, especially for the Cardano Developers. 1.1 Understand the basics of blockchain technology, including 1.2 Understanding Haskell and 1.3 Learning Plutus (• Cardano Toolchain & Binaries setup – Developer Tools. Transaction structure – Transaction Metadata – Native Tokens. Plutus Build Tools & various Forms. Plutus smart contracts – Plutus PAF, PAB, DApp connector. KEVM – Milkomeda Sidechain – Glow – IELE – K Framework)

1. Why do we choose MOCC as the suitable approach? 

Since the year of MOOC (Massive open online course) in 2012 with top universities and MOOC providers such as Coursera, Udacity and Udemy, and edX, the trend remains positive on a global adoption scale in the next decade. The CARG growth is more than 30% and remained the top learning platform recently with new reliable players such as Linkedin with LSM providers such as Cornerstone OnDemand and SAP SuccessFactors.

With the Covid impact, MOOCs keep growing faster with more innovative and interactive teaching methods.

Report: MOOCs Market by Type, Subjects, and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2023-2027 (technavio) 

1. The unfinished rate (50%) in the Catalyst proposers: Project owners in Cardano, Catalyst, and Blockchain have difficulty finding talent that fits within the budget. That affects the progress and completion of the project. One of the critical factors is the lack of skilled resources. 

LINK SOURCE:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10IPEA1JNkcSKYivKa4FfhxRvbYUae_WDEYqvzrs1ptU/edit#gid=1960419401

There could be some challenges for this for nearly 2-year incompletion ratio (fund 9 backwards)

1. The financial management of the proposal team due to the fluctuation of ADAUSD
2. The skillsgap between qualify Freelancers vs. Business demands.
3. The lack of particular hub for freelancers especially in Cardano blockchain, Plustus, Haskell programing languges, etc... while Cardano are more and more coming to Smart Contract and heading to Voltaire era.
4. dRep delaying: this also poses a thread on the quality and highly-skilled proposers to have capacity to manage project ontime (Indirect impact.)

However, positively we see a slight decreases around 5% in incompletion rates vs. first half of 2023. And we see a better rule for Proposers with max cap of number of Proposals and the latest deadline completion for past funded proposals. This will also help the Catalyst Cardano community become better.

◆Our Solution

• Set up a professional freelancer training platform.https://proskills39academy.com/ (our website is still in BETA phase for testing and taking feedbacks from community. We will follow the sprints in after the funding results.)
• On this platform, we will connect freelancers and trainers.
• Freelancers will learn the knowledge and skills necessary to become experts in the field they want to join.
• To create quality talent, and contribute to the development of Cardano, Catalyst, in this early phase, we will focus on attracting trainers and experts in the field of blockchain, Cardano, Catalyst and providing The course helps to improve skills in this area.

◆Project end-users

• Freelancers
• People who want to learn knowledge to become professional experts.
• Experienced experts and lecturers who want to participate in talent training.

◆The uniqueness of this solution

• The unique feature of this solution is that.
• Focus on training freelancers to provide talent for areas where human resources are scarce, such as blockchain, web3.
• Freelancer's achievements will be recorded and saved as a basis for promotion on the platform connecting Freelancer with project owners - ProSkills39 (details in proposal: https://cardano.ideascale.com/c/idea/111289 FUNDED since Fund 8,9 (COMPLETED)

• The courses on our platform will be compiled according to the criteria of concise, easy-to-understand, lots of practice. This helps students feel excited about learning and become passionate about their careers.

*Below is an example video for a lesson on our platform

(*) NOTE: this is a demo video of the trainer that we have partnered with, without funding. When we have secure the funding, we will develop the Training course based on Community Survey and right quality Trainers.

• The course quality will be assessed by the students who have studied and made public for future students to refer to—an utterly objective quality assessment based on community experience.

◆Project demonstrates outcomes and why this is important to Cardano

• Creating high-quality human resources that contribute to the growth of Cardano.
• Attract new freelancers/developers from other tech and blockchain industries to Cardano through training platform promotions.
• New developers are more interested in learning and coding thanks to our easy-to-understand and hands-on lessons.
• Help increase the completion rate of projects funded by Catalyst and increase the number of golive products on Cardano.

◆ We also listened to feedback from the Catalyst community to improve the platform

• We are building the Academy on this current beta domain https://proskills39academy.com/ . However, we will integrate into the freelancers training in our core business Proskills39 Service Marketplace after the project completion. https://proskills39.com/
• As we are raising fund through Project castalyst and we already established a Service Market Place platform. https://proskills39.com/
• We will have sustainable revenue streams from the matching fee 10-20% per learning course (from Trainers fee)
• In order to be suitable with Payment gateways, we have offer both payments:
• Cardano -based wallet transactions (In the future, after integrating into proskills39.com)
• and Pay Pal for market which are not legally viable for cryptocurrency transation

[IMPACT] Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community

Our proposal is aimed at attracting new talent influx to the Cardano ecosystem.

And help talents equip themselves with the proper knowledge and skills to support building projects in the Cardano ecosystem.

◆The value our proposal brings to the Cardano ecosystem

1. Create new human resources for the Cardano Ecosystem
2. Create a knowledge center for talents and freelancers

◆Main goal of the project (KPI)

• Number of website visits: 5000
• The number of registered learners: 500
• Number of certified trainers: 50
• Number of completed learners: 50
• Number of Telegram community members: Over 500 members

◆How to verify the goal has been achieved

• View live data on Google Analytics and Dashboard admin.

[CAPABILITY & FEASIBILITY] What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?

Ability and experience suitable to implement the project:

Our team possesses the necessary skills and expertise to implement this project effectively. We have amassed considerable experience in the following areas:

1. Business administration, including the setup, management, and operation of platforms.
2. Proficiency in programming technology products, platforms, and banking payment systems.
3. Financial management and cash flow management expertise.
4. In-depth knowledge in the field of Blockchain, with a particular focus on Cardano.

Financial management process:

1. Our team consists of a seasoned Financial Manager with 20 years of experience in finance and banking
2. Accountant with over ten years of expertise in revenue, expenditure management, financial reporting, and business operations.

Transparent Workflow:

1. The Financial Manager is responsible for budget planning, allocation, and management.
2. The Accountant handles revenue and expenditure operations and maintains payment vouchers.
3. The Financial Manager and Accountant present the budget management sheet, receipts, and expenditures to the Project Manager every month.

[PROJECT MILESTONES] What are the key milestones you need to achieve in order to complete your project successfully?

MASTER SOM LINK

Milestone 1

OVERAL PROJECT DETAIL MILESTONES:

We will have detailed master plan here for 7 months, all the below milestones will be updated following this Master Timeline.

◆Statement of Milestones (SOM) built in advance: With the assistance of Cardano Ambassador, Mr. Yuta, we present the SOM in advance:

• to align with Catalyst Fund 10's guidelines for plan transparency and clarity, (same in Fund 11)
• to facilitate easy reviewing for Community Reviewers (CR),
• to illustrate that our completion percentage consistently surpasses the budget percentage required for each milestone
• Final Milestones meet the MIN threshold of 25% > min level: 15%.

SOM Link: https://docs.projectcatalyst.io/fund-documentation/fund10-docs/how-to-submit-project-milestones/what-milestones-should-be-included-in-the-statement-of-milestones 

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Milestone 1 (month 1-2)

% of Project Completion 30%

% of Budget requested 25%

A: Milestone outputs

• Platform feature description table
• Figma interface
• Course content

B: Acceptance criteria:

• Figma UI/UX
• Course content framework

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Direct update on our web: https://proskills39academy.com/

Milestone 2: Month 3-4

% of Project Completion 60%

% of Budget requested 25%

A: Milestone outputs

• Feature release note sheet
• 02 Campaign marketing materials: post, video, banner

B: Acceptance criteria:

• Release note update
• Marketing campaign launch

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• a Marketing report with relevant channels of the academy

Milestone 3: Months 5-6

% of Project Completion 95%

% of Budget requested 25%

A: Milestone outputs

• Test table
• User opinion survey results
• Improvement plan

B: Acceptance criteria:

• User survey result
• Platform improvement plan

C: Evidence of milestone completion

• Direct update on our web: https://proskills39academy.com/
• User Survey result report

Final Milestone: End of Month 7

% of Project Completion 100%

% of Budget requested 25%

• Close-out report to the Catalyst Team
• Close-out report video

Evidence of milestone completion

Direct update on our youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ProSkills39

[RESOURCES] Who is in the project team and what are their roles?

Project Management Team (Executive team)

Ms. Hà Nguyễn – Project Manager

• Cardano Ambassador in Vietnam.
• Experienced entrepreneur in e-commerce and marketplace trading.
• Five years of experience in business and project management.
• Deputy head of corporate planning and new business model development at Japanese companies.
• Certified Blockchain Business Consultant from Emurgo Academy.
• Cardano Blockchain Certified Associate (CBCA) certification from the Cardano
• Roles in Catalyst: PA (91% Good, 6% Excellent), vPA, Sponsored Proposer.
• Actively connects Vietnamese and Japanese communities with the international community.
• Administrator, Moderator for:
• Vietnam ADA Cardano Community: >5000 members
• Cardano ADA Vietnam: >47,000 members
• Cardano ADA Catalyst Việt Nam - Start-ups, Job
• Twitter (X): https://twitter.com/Hahero7
• Telegram: https://t.me/hanguyen122009
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nguyen-thi-ha-45b108233/

Financial Management team

1. Mr.Iga - Finance Manager

• More than 20 years of experience in finance and credit-related companies
• Twenty years of experience in investing in financial markets: securities, forex, cryptocurrencies…
• Currently working in finance, commerce, and real estate at a Japanese corporation.

2. Ms.Dien - Accountant

• More than 12 years of experience as a financial-tax accountant
• More than 04 years of experience holding the position of chief accountant at the company
• Currently working as a chief accountant at 01 company and as an accounting-tax consultant for more than eight other companies
• Join Catalyst as a PA at Fund 9
• Have basic knowledge of Blockchain and Cardano
• Telegram: https://t.me/Dienlynguyen
• Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nguyen-dien-27a320265/

Product development Team (Programming team)

ProSkills39's programming team comes from Vknight.io - a large and professional company with extensive experience in developing software for large banks in Vietnam and extensive domestic and foreign organizations.

1. Mr.Luu Nguyen - Product Manager

• CEO of Vknight.io
• Software Engineer - Specialization:

-Analysis & Database Design.

-Data structure.

-Database Programming, Analysis & Design.

• Master of Business Administration, with full knowledge of banking, accounting, statistics, ...
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nguyen-mau-luu-0999a6238/
• Email: nguyenmauluu@gmail.com 

*Vknight.io's developer team

Vknight.io is a large and professional team. Nearly 200 members, under the close supervision and management by Mr. Luu- CEO of Vknight.

Vknight.io has successfully implemented many projects for all domestic and foreign banks such as:

Domestic banks: Viet A Commercial Joint Stock Bank, VinaSiam Bank, Lao-Viet Bank, Saigon Bank, SACOMBANK,...

Foreign banks: Far East National Bank (Vietnam), Huanan Bank (Vietnam), HSBC (Vietnam), Cambodia Public Bank (Cambodia) ), Vattanac Bank (Cambodia), Angkor Capital Bank Plc., Phongsavanh Bank ( Laos), Ayeyarwady Bank (Myanmar)…

Vknight.io is in charge of foreign markets for JITS company such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar...

Besides, Vknight.io is a co-developer and co-owner of software such as Optimal9 core banking software, Flex reporting system, software connecting peripheral channels with core banking system (HUB)...

Below are experienced leaders in charge of managing programming teams, ensuring project progress.

2. Mr. Hoang Nguyen - Technology Consultant (Tech-lead)

• Software Engineer & Information System - Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry: 

-Thematic Oracle 

-Artificial Intelligence 

-E-government 

-Computer Science

• Design and develop Autosar-based embedded software components. 
• Had participated in many projects for the company and have over six years of experience in core banking system consulting. 
• And now, he is in charge of project management for many major projects in the market Cambodia and collaborates with many clients in the field of Microfinance.
• Github: https://github.com/nguyenvuhoang
• Email: nguyenvuhoangz@gmail.com

3. Mr.Dang Ngo

• Education of Technology Can Tho University, focus on: 

-Analyze & Design Database. 

-Structure of Data. 

-Programming, Analyze & Database Design.

• Two and a half years of experience working with Oracle DB, Java, VB.Net 
•  Programming with ReactJs, C#, and MS SQL server.
• LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/ngo-dang-kane-33b917195
• Email: ngodangdt@gmail.com

Sales & Marketing Team

1. Mr.Buck Nguyen - Project Marketing & Partner Lead

• Caradno Asia Team team leader
• Founder of Cardano Asia TikTok (Funded Project Fund 9, Fund 10, Fund 11) with more than 200,000 interactions/followers https://www.tiktok.com/cardano.asia 
• Admin of the Cardano NFT (CNFT) community: https://twitter.com/AsiaCnft 
• dRep TV Hub founder.
• Cardano4good founder. http://cardano4good.net/vi
• Long-term experience in community building and online marketing.
• Joined Catalyst as PA, vPA, Funded Proposer, CR CR LV1, LV2, Challenge Team, PoL and MR since Fund 9, Fund 10, Fund 11
• Five+ years of research experience in Cardano blockchain and investment
• SPO for over 3 years.
• Telegram: https://t.me/Buck_Nguyen

Operation Team

1. Ms. Hanh Nguyen- Operations Lead

• 2 years of experience in HR - Union. Role: -Recruit; Tracking attendance, leave, resign, leave early, leave work,...; Perform duties on social insurance and health insurance.
• 2 years of experience in the field of state management of trade unions, labor - employment, and social evils prevention. Gmail: hanhnguyennnn2412@gmail.

2. Ms. Bella Pham:

• 6 years of experience in HR. Role: -Recruit;Tracking attendance, leave, resign, leave early, leave work, operational control, administrative work in real state 
• Email: pthaomic@gmail.com

[BUDGET & COSTS] Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources

Total budget proposed in this proposal: 78.747 ADA

(2% risk management of over total budget)

Budget rate: ADA USD 0.43 as per proposal written day on 15 May 2024

This already considers the risk of price fluctuation of ADA for the duration of project delivery.

Attachment: Budget calculation file

1.Budget allocation

• 50% for Product development
• 20% for core content creation
• 10% for marketing
• 18% for personnel expense.
• 2% for Risk management

2. Personnel expenses:

With the desire to have the opportunity to contribute to supporting Cardano, Catalyst to grow stronger, we will strive to work with a salary 44-57% lower than the average salary in the market. (please see salary benchmarking below)

[VALUE FOR MONEY] How does the cost of the project represent value for money for the Cardano ecosystem?

VALUE FOR MONEY- SALARY BENCHMARKING

The cost of the project is also considered low-end compared to the cost of the seniority of the engineers in the team. 

1. Salary benchmarking in the local country: We keep 44%-57% savings on personnel cost for the team member's hourly rate: Salary Benchmarking
2. Our budget Allocation mainly focused on Product development (50%), & core content creation (20%), Marketing (~10%)
3. Consider the team allocation at different levels of the project org chart
4. Cardano Ecosystem is an emerging industry, and we need to have the proper induction and training for the new members.
5. Risk management (2%)

VALUE FOR THE CARDANO ECOSYSTEM:

The cost of the ProSkills39 project represents value for money for the Cardano ecosystem through several factors:

1.  Alignment with Strategic Goals: The project's objectives and deliverables align with the strategic goals of the Cardano ecosystem and challenge setting
2. Impactful Deliverables: The project aims to deliver tangible outcomes that benefit the Cardano ecosystem, including solving the unemployment of freelancers and connecting talents for Catalyst-funded proposers.
3.  Measurement of Progress and Success: The project team has established transparent success criteria and performance indicators for each milestone. These metrics will be used to track progress, evaluate the project's success, and update the Catalyst Community. We walk the talk with the Catalyst Core Values.