Research and Strategy for Estonia’s Education Export Development

Background 

In 2023, the Estonian Education and Youth Board (HARNO) commissioned EduEnable to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the potential for scaling Estonia’s education export efforts. While Estonia had built a strong international reputation in digital governance and PISA-driven education performance, there was no unified strategy for leveraging this position into structured export activity. 

The objective was to provide both a system-level overview and practical guidance for EdTech companies, with a view to informing institutional planning, policy design, and enterprise support mechanisms. The assignment resulted in two complementary reports: one focused on ecosystem enablers and bottlenecks, and another on market-specific opportunities for Estonian EdTech providers. 

Challenges 

At the start of the engagement, Estonia’s education export environment showed signs of both promise and fragmentation: 

• There was no dedicated coordinating body or strategy for education export, and existing support services were general-purpose rather than sector-specific. 

• EdTech companies operated in isolation, often without clear visibility into procurement conditions abroad or alignment with national promotion efforts. 

• The Estonian brand was strong, but often disconnected from the actual product-level messaging and sales capacity of export-ready providers. 

• Public agencies lacked a consolidated evidence base for planning sector support or identifying where Estonian solutions could compete internationally. 

A dual approach was needed: one focused on strategic system-level insights for policy use, and another on actionable market intelligence for companies. 

EduEnable’s Approach 

EduEnable delivered two linked research outputs: 

Estonian EdTech Export: Enablers, Challenges and Recommendations

This report analysed the current Estonian education export landscape, identified ecosystem-level gaps, and proposed strategic recommendations.
Key elements included: 

• A typology of EdTech actors based on export readiness; 

• Mapping of support bottlenecks, including scale-up finance, localisation capacity, and partner networks; 

• International benchmarking of public-private coordination models from Finland, Ireland, and the Netherlands; 

• Recommendations for the establishment of a dedicated EdTech export function, supported by strategic funding, visibility efforts, and cross-sector coordination. 

Navigating Global Opportunities: Market Research for Estonian EdTechs

This report provided comparative insights across fifteen markets: Namibia, Kenya, India, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, the US, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Germany, the UK, Poland, Sweden, France and Ukraine. 

Each profile detailed: 

• National digitalisation trends and education policy direction; 

• Procurement dynamics and common barriers to entry; 

• Entry pathways suitable for early-stage and growth-stage Estonian companies; 

• Market-specific recommendations grounded in interviews and sector intelligence. 

Taken together, the reports supported both strategic planning and practical action by different stakeholder groups, including HARNO, Enterprise Estonia, and EdTech exporters. 

Outcomes 

The reports have since informed ongoing national dialogue around education export coordination and have been used in both government and sectoral stakeholder briefings. Concrete outcomes include: 

• Improved visibility into export bottlenecks and priority areas for public support; 

• Usable guidance for Estonian EdTech companies exploring international markets; 

• A clearer shared understanding between government and enterprise of what a future Estonian education export ecosystem could look like. 

By producing work that was both analytical and operational, EduEnable helped bridge the gap between institutional ambition and market realities. The dual-report format provided HARNO and sector stakeholders with a shared evidence base and clear options for action, supporting the groundwork for a more coordinated, export-oriented education ecosystem in Estonia.