By Ron Chen, Bureau Chief, Asia

The leading provider of cloud-based software for K-12 education in North America, PowerSchool, has announced the expansion of its Global channel partner initiative, the PowerPartner Programme, with the program’s first channel partner in Africa, OneConnect. OneConnect is an innovative provider of turnkey technology services and solutions in South Africa and throughout the African continent.

The PowerPartner Program leverages PowerSchool’s regional channel partners to support localized marketing, sales, and customer deployment efforts. As the first channel partner in Africa, OneConnect will help grow PowerSchool’s customer base in South Africa and throughout the region and is expected to help the company serve more than 500,000 students across the continent in the next year.

“We are excited to announce our partnership with OneConnect,” said  CEO of PowerSchool, Hardeep Gulati. “We’ve seen the innovative impact of OneConnect’s technology services and solutions, and know they are the right partner to expand our support to the over 240 million students enrolled in Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.”

Through the OneConnect partnership, educators in South Africa and across the continent can access mission-critical tools, including products from PowerSchool Unified Classroom®, PowerSchool Unified Talent™, PowerSchool Unified Insights™, and PowerSchool Unified Operations™ to support even more educators, students and families and help them realize the promise of personalized education.

“OneConnect understands the unique experience, opportunities, and challenges of education leaders in South Africa and throughout the Continent,” said Managing Director: OneConnect Education, Rogers Sithole. “Education technology, like the solutions offered from PowerSchool, are key to democratizing education through improving digital access, professional development, and personalized learning across the continent.”

Currently, PowerSchool channel partners serve customers in India, the Philippines, and Uruguay, with plans to rapidly expand the program this year.

“With PowerSchool’s extensive and growing customer base in the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, exceptional partners, like OneConnect, will further support the company’s efforts for global expansion,” said Vice President for International Channel Development, Tim Russell. “PowerSchool will continue to add additional partners across the Middle East, Asia, New Zealand, and Latin America regions this year.”

The OneConnect partnership news follows the company’s recent announcement of plans to open its first Middle East & Africa (MEA) office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) in Spring 2023.