Robots, Rockets and Royalties: Oman’s Unusual New Franchise

By Sean Goldsmith

An Omani school has bought into an international children's engineering franchise. The interesting question is what it gets that it couldn't build itself.

Engineering For Kids has opened in Muscat through an existing private school. It sounds slightly odd: Oman wants to develop its own technology talent, yet a local educator has bought into an international franchise to help teach it. There may be a perfectly good business reason.

Oman wants more young people interested in science, technology and engineering. An existing private school in Muscat has decided one way to help achieve that is to bring in a franchise.

Engineering For Kids announced its arrival in Oman on August 20, with Innovators Private School operating the Muscat business. Children will be offered hands-on programs covering subjects including robotics, coding, aerospace and engineering design through after-school activities, workshops, camps and partnerships with schools and community organisations.

There is an obvious question behind the announcement. If Innovators Private School already knows how to educate children, why does it need an international franchise to teach them engineering?

That question matters well beyond Oman. Education franchises are selling something very different from burgers or coffee. A restaurant franchisee may need a famous recipe, supply chain, brand and operating system to reproduce a product customers already recognise. A school buying an education franchise is paying for curriculum, teaching methods, training and a system for turning lessons into a commercial extracurricular business.

Engineering For Kids now has to prove those things are worth importing.

Why Buy Lessons You Could Develop Yourself?

Engineering For Kids was founded in 2009 and says its international network has taught more than 1.5 million children. Its programs cover subjects ranging from robotics and coding to aerospace, civil engineering and other STEM disciplines.

For an established school, however, buying into somebody else's education system deserves scrutiny. Innovators Private School already has teachers, students and knowledge of the local market. In theory, it could develop its own engineering clubs, coding courses and holiday programs without putting another company's name above them.

The case for the franchise is speed and experience. Developing hundreds of lessons, testing them with children, training instructors and keeping programs interesting across different age groups takes time. Engineering For Kids says it has more than 300 lessons across 19 curriculum areas, giving the Omani operator a ready-made product rather than asking it to create one from scratch.

That is where the franchise has to earn its place. If Innovators can launch programs faster, train staff more effectively and offer better classes because somebody else has already done years of development, buying the system makes sense. If the value amounts mainly to a foreign name on activities the school could easily produce itself, the argument becomes considerably weaker.

Oman Doesn't Need Another Imported Logo

International brands have become a familiar sight across the Gulf, particularly in food, retail and fitness. Education is more sensitive because the product is supposed to improve children's skills rather than simply give consumers another choice of restaurant.

Engineering For Kids is also not introducing children's STEM education to Muscat. Other providers already offer engineering, robotics and technology activities, including Young Engineers, so the new franchise will have to compete for parents, school partnerships and children's time.

That competition is healthy because it forces the imported brand to prove its usefulness. Parents are unlikely to care that a curriculum belongs to an international franchise if their children are bored by it, while schools will have little reason to maintain partnerships if programs fail to attract enrolments.

The Muscat operator has one important advantage. Innovators Private School already works in education, which means the franchise has been placed with an organisation that understands local families and schools rather than an investor simply looking for the next international brand to bring into Oman.

For a specialist franchise, that may be more valuable than finding the wealthiest possible franchisee.

The Clever Part Is What They Haven't Built

There is another reason this deal deserves attention from franchisors. Engineering For Kids has entered Oman without first building a large education centre.

The Muscat operation is described as home-based and intends to work with schools, educational institutions and community organisations. That allows the operator to take classes to children rather than spending heavily on a permanent site and then hoping enough families travel to it.

It is a much lighter way to test a new country. Restaurants entering an international market can spend heavily on kitchens, fit-outs, leases and imported equipment before the first customer buys anything. An education franchise built around curriculum and partnerships can establish demand with far less property exposure.

The trade-off is that the business depends heavily on relationships. Innovators needs schools willing to host programs, parents prepared to pay for extracurricular learning and children who want to come back. A curriculum sitting on a laptop has little commercial value without enough students in the room.

The Franchise Has to Become Omani

The biggest test may be how much of Engineering For Kids can travel unchanged.

A lesson that works in Virginia, Toronto or Vienna is not automatically right for Muscat. Examples, teaching styles, schedules, language expectations and relationships with parents can differ. An international education franchise has to maintain enough consistency to justify its brand while allowing the local operator to make the product work for local children.

That is why Innovators Private School is an interesting choice of partner. It should know where imported material needs adjustment and where the established Engineering For Kids system is worth preserving.

If the partnership works, neither side needs to pretend Oman lacked engineering education before an international franchise arrived. Engineering For Kids can provide years of curriculum development and operating experience, while the local school supplies the knowledge needed to make those programs useful in Muscat.

Nothing is embarrassing about importing a good idea. The mistake would be paying for a foreign franchise simply because the name came from overseas.

Engineering For Kids now has the chance to show Oman is buying more than the logo.

What We Can Learn From This

Specialist franchisors entering international markets should choose partners for what they know, not simply for how much capital they have. Engineering For Kids has entered Oman through an existing school and can use local educational relationships without taking on the property costs of a large dedicated centre. Innovators Private School should now measure whether the franchise helps it launch programs faster, attract repeat enrolments and deliver courses it would have struggled to develop independently. If it can do that, Muscat could show why education franchises have a place in Gulf expansion even when the local operator already knows how to teach.

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