Lockdown measures and forced school closures during 2020 led to an explosive growth of the UK's EdTech sector, according to global recruiter Robert Walters and data provider Vacancysoft.
Despite a 11% shrinking of the whole economy, the EdTech sector grew by more than 71%, significantly more than the year-on-year growth of the industry globally.
The report suggests the UK's EdTech market is now worth nearly £3.5 billion, with exports rising to £292 million.
Tom Chambers, senior manager of technology at Robert Walters, said: "In the UK, the EdTech market is still very much in its infancy - whilst a surge in demand was forecast for 2020, the reality exceeded all expectations due to the impact of Covid-19 and the need to continue education remotely, whilst simultaneously breaking down the barriers that prevent marginalised groups from accessing it.
"The requirement for both online courses and virtual classes are permanent academic fixtures will dramatically increase the scale of the sector over the next 12 months."
David Roberts, CEO of EdTech at KidsLoop, said: "Unlike many other sectors, the pandemic acted as a 'hyper accelerator' for the EdTech market. Overnight educational institutions were expected to take their classroom delivery entirely remote, with technology being the only enabler of this.
"In the UK, the biggest barrier to the uptake of EdTech has primarily been around the cost and time associated with teacher retaining. However, during lockdown, teachers had no choice but to become accustomed to EdTech tool and, by and large, learned on the job.
"On the whole, the UK is early its journey of embedding technology into its education system. But now that the doors have been opened, we move increasingly closer to hybrid classrooms with the help of optimised learning platforms."
Vacanies in EdTech grew by 56% in 20202, compared to a 40% increase in vacancies across the tech sector as a whole. The UK attracts almost half (41%) of all EdTech investment in Europe, with growth of 91% compared with just 8% in Europe.
The report found augmented reality to be the key driving force of the UK's EdTech market, growing by 119% in the past year alone. Globally, augmented reality for EdTech is forecast to reach more than $5.3bn in value by 2023.
