If you're (or have been) a student, you know how expensive it can be to print out your lessons... We dreamt about it, Zerocopy did it: creating a system in which copies would be free for students, as well as making education accessible... Today, let's go behind the scenes of the company and discover the different impacts of the brand, its missions and vision for the future! 🚀
What inspired the founding of Zerocopy, and what is its overarching mission?
The mission of Zerocopy is to make education affordable. Education is one of the most powerful weapons to change the world for the better. Yet, the cost of education forms a barrier to unlock all the potential of everyone. Making it for free is ensures everyone has access to quality education.
How does Zerocopy position itself regarding social and environmental impact?
We realize that goal by offering free educational services for students. It is free for the students, thanks to advertising partnerships with top brands and top employers. Our partners reach their target audience and thanks to that, students save money on their educational budgets. That’s the win-win what makes our business model flourish.
What initiatives has Zerocopy implemented so far to maximize its social and/or environmental impact?
Today we already have two services for students: a free printing service and an AI tutor. Thanks to targeted advertising in the study courses, students can print all their courses for free. Next to that, our AI tutor enables students to turn their uploaded document into flashcards to help them to study their courses.
What internal policies do you adopt to positively impact your employees (encouragement to use bicycles, provision of compost, waste sorting system, healthy snack dispenser, carpooling among colleagues, others...)?
Paper is proven to be the best way to study theoretical courses. Students who study on paper not only study faster, but their cognitive performance is also higher. Every year some research is published about this topic and every year the conclusion is that same: 90% of the students prefer to study texts on paper rather than digitally. Yet, for some students, the cost of printing is a high barrier, so they study digitally. As a result, they’ll have to study longer and their performance will be less than their financially stronger peers…. And so inequality grows. Together with all our partners, we ensure that all students in Belgium, regardless of their social and financial backgrounds, have access to the best medium to study: paper! And how cool is to let the big corporates pay for your prints?
Can you provide examples of the impact that Zerocopy has had on students' access to educational materials?
Next to paper, digital tools offer a lot of benefits too. The future of education is actually blended learning: old school mixed with new technologies. The rise of flashcards is seen everywhere in the world. Making flashcards however is either time consuming or it costs money… thanks to the Zerocopy AI tutor, we offer this service for free. This feature is only the first one of many AI powered features that we are working on.
How does Zerocopy contribute to reducing the financial burden on students for course materials?
Together with all our partners, Zerocopy already helped the Belgian students to save 2mio EUR on their educational budgets.
How does Zerocopy envision its future impact evolving and growing in the coming years?
Our ultimate vision is to create a Free University for all. Imagine a full blown online university with all the content, tools, cohort based learning, your personal AI tutor, contact with peers, … and all for free! Step by step we grow our current business models, add new services for students, and slowly but surely move in the direction of our ultimate goal.
What advice would you give to other companies or organizations looking to make a positive impact in education, based on Zerocopy's experience and success?
Today, advertisers spent billions of budget into reaching the target group 18-25 through channels that make youngsters addicted to their phones and have an overall negative impact. Why don’t we use that same budget to create free education for everyone? Makes sense, right? Is it going to be easy? Absolutely not!
So, are you convinced by Zerocopy's mission? Would you also like to play an active part in student accessibility? 📚 Find out more about them and their job vacancies here: https://www.meet-my-job.com/entreprises-impact/zerocopy