Sunita Sharma, Founder and CEO of Young Scholarz, discusses how the Singapore-based education company is bringing its personalised approach to academic support across the IB, IGCSE and American curriculums to families, schools and universities in Dubai 

Dubai, Sept 29, 2026: What began with a single student in Singapore in 2008 has grown into Young Scholarz, an online education company with more than 1,500 alumni and a faculty of 100 plus teachers and examiners. Founded by Sunita Sharma, the organisation specialises in the IB, IGCSE and American Curriculum, combining specialist academic support with a deliberately personalised, founder-led approach. 

Eighteen years on, the company is bringing that model to Dubai. Its online-first model has enabled Young Scholarz to build a global faculty rather than depend on a local teacher pool, while its experience supporting students through transitions between schools, countries and curricula has become an important part of its proposition. 

Ahead of its participation in the UAE Global Education Fair, Sunita Sharma, Founder and CEO, Young Scholarz, discusses the company’s Singapore journey, its approach to personalised academic support and why Dubai represents a natural next step for an education model built around specialist expertise, continuity and long-term student outcomes. 

For readers who don’t know Young Scholarz yet, introduce us to your company and how you got here. 

I founded Young Scholarz as an online education company in Singapore back in 2008, starting out with just one student. We specialise in the IB, IGCSE and American Curriculum, and 18 years on, we’ve grown into an organisation with more than 1,500 alumni, and 100% of Young Scholarz students have been admitted to their university of choice. Being online from the start meant we were never boxed in by geography; we’ve built a global faculty of examiners and teachers rather than relying on whoever happened to be local. Today, 98% of our IGCSE students achieve As and A*s, and 95% of our IB students achieve 6s and 7s. 

What can students and parents expect to learn about your organisation at your booth during the UAE Global Education Fair? 

At the booth, families will get a genuine feel for the trust and credibility we’ve built over 18 years within Singapore’s education system — one of the most consistently top-ranked in the world, known for its rigour, discipline and unrelenting focus on outcomes. Those same qualities sit behind everything we do with our students. 

One thing that separates us from most tuition providers is that we’ve deliberately never chased a mass-production model. Staying founder-led means I personally, carefully select every teacher; nobody is simply hired to fill a slot. At the booth, families will also meet our team in person and see first-hand the kind of holistic support we build around a student, not just exam prep. 

We’ve always taken the view that education shouldn’t stop at the next exam. Yes, students need strong subject knowledge, but they also need the confidence, skills and guidance to link that knowledge to where they want to go next, at university and beyond. 

“One of the highlights will be a live, interactive seminar, where I’ll personally explain how Young Scholarz can support students and introduce BOUNCE, our proprietary six-step teaching methodology (Brainstorming, Organising, Understanding, Nuancing, Consolidating and becoming Exam Ready), developed through more than 18 years of teaching, coaching and mentoring students.”

Trust sits at the centre of everything we do. When a parent hands us their child’s education, I believe that comes with a real obligation to genuinely understand that child. It takes a village to raise a child, and we see ourselves as part of that village, alongside parents and schools, which is also why we’re using this fair to open new partnerships with schools and counsellors here who share that same outlook. 

What services will you be showcasing at the event? 

For schools, university counsellors and education professionals, we’ll be demonstrating how our work goes well beyond one-on-one tuition — exam preparation workshops, tailored academic programmes, and other support built around a school’s own learners. We view ourselves as complementary to schools and counsellors rather than competitors, part of the same pipeline carrying a student from where they stand today to the right university outcome, and this is exactly the kind of collaboration we hope to build across the UAE. 

For families, our offering spans personalised academic support delivered entirely online across IB, IGCSE and American Curriculum — English, Mathematics, Sciences, Economics, Business, Psychology, Computer Science and the Arts, including subjects like Global Politics and Film Studies, where strong teaching is genuinely hard to come by. Being an online provider means we are never limited to a local teacher pool — every student is matched to the right specialist from our global faculty, wherever they are. 

Everything about what we do is premium and bespoke by design; we’ve never been a volume business. Keeping the model founder-led and hands-on is precisely what lets every student’s programme be built around them, rather than dropped into a standard package. 

We understand just how stressful this stage has become for students — overwhelmed by choice and expectation, and increasingly by the disruption of moving between schools, cities and curricula as families relocate. What we offer, above all, is the same stability that’s earned families’ trust in Singapore for 18 years: a consistent, experienced presence through all that change, especially in Grades 11 and 12, the true gateway years to a student’s future in an increasingly competitive world. 

We’ll also run on-the-spot diagnostic assessments for IB and A Level students at the fair, giving families a clear, honest sense of where their child currently stands and where extra support could help. 

Why have you chosen to participate in the UAE Global Education Fair this year? 

Choosing Dubai was very deliberate. Singapore and the UAE share a real affinity — both nations built on ambition, progress and a growth mindset, both societies that prize hard work, entrepreneurship and continuous improvement, and both places where families see education as the foundation for opportunity. They are also both global hubs shaped by large, diverse expat communities, where a child might sit beside classmates from a dozen different countries, and where an international education is chosen precisely because it needs to travel wherever the family goes next. 

What we bring from Singapore is that same rigour, discipline and relentless focus on outcomes its system is known for, applied fully within IB, IGCSE and the other international curricula we specialise in. I believe that translates naturally to Emirati and expat families here, who are thinking about their children’s futures in much the same way Singaporean families do, and who are often already navigating the very same international curricula. 

Singapore’s expat population is also highly transient, with families constantly moving between countries and curricula. We’ve built real, specific expertise helping students through those transitions — including moving from Indian CBSE or local O Level systems into the IB — expertise that speaks directly to the UAE’s own large, mobile expat community facing the same shifts. 

Dubai isn’t simply another market for us. It’s a natural next step for a company whose credibility was built in Singapore and now travels with us here, and this fair is where we hope to begin the partnerships that carry that forward. 

What do you hope to achieve by engaging with students and counsellors at the fair? 

We’re looking to build relationships, not transactions — the same long-term trust that’s defined Young Scholarz in Singapore for 18 years. With students and parents, we want to understand the challenges they are actually facing and show how our expertise complements what they are already getting at school. With school and university counsellors, we are after genuine, ongoing professional partnerships, sitting alongside schools as part of the same pipeline supporting a student’s journey. 

We are also focused on the complete learning journey — where a student needs opportunities or specialist support beyond our core academic offering, we can connect them with carefully selected partners and experts. 

And for any family who’d like to meet me personally while I’m in Dubai, I’d genuinely love that. I’m offering individual consultations, so please do reach out. This isn’t just business for us; it’s about bringing the same credibility and trust we’ve earned in Singapore to families here. 

Are there any new partnerships or initiatives you will be highlighting alongside the participation? 

Our participation here is part of a broader push to build partnerships with international schools, university counsellors and education professionals across the UAE, grounded in the same trust and rigour that built our name in Singapore. We think of ourselves as one part of a student’s wider support pipeline — schools handle curriculum and pastoral care, counsellors guide the university pathway, and we bring the specialist academic depth and exam expertise that complements both. 

We began as one person. Today, Young Scholarz’s faculty has grown to more than 100 teachers and examiners, bringing real depth, expertise and global experience to every student — including native language speakers and specialists in subjects where quality teaching is genuinely scarce. Even at this size, we’ve stayed premium and bespoke rather than mass market: every teacher is carefully selected, never simply recruited to fill a gap, and we invest heavily in that selection process. We’re just as proud of the high teacher retention this creates — the same long-term relationships we build with families, many of whom stay with us across siblings and years. 

Tell us in short about your company. 

Young Scholarz is an online education company I founded in Singapore in 2008, specialising in the IB, IGCSE and American Curriculum, starting with a single student. Over 18 years, that’s grown into an established, founder-led organisation trusted by more than 1,500 alumni — trust earned largely through word of mouth, families referring other families, within one of the world’s most rigorous and highly regarded education systems. 

My own route here was never a straight line, and I think that’s exactly the point. I began teaching Maths and Science, long before I ever imagined running an education company. Along the way, I trained as a biochemist, qualified as a chartered accountant with auditing experience across Europe, and worked as a playwright and filmmaker. Each of those paths taught me something different — analytical rigour, discipline, and how to tell a story that connects with people — and each one shapes how I teach and lead today. 

I share that journey with students often, especially now, because I want them to see that paths are rarely straight, and that’s nothing to fear. What I want every Young Scholarz student to take away isn’t just subject content — it’s confidence, resilience, and the ability to find the path that’s genuinely right for them, even when it doesn’t look like the one they expected. Modelling that growth mindset matters to me as much as teaching it. 

Our teachers aren’t just instructors to us; they’re mentors, and I still personally oversee the whole programme for every student. That’s deliberate — it means parents can feel genuinely safe placing their children in our hands, knowing there’s real oversight behind every part of their child’s journey, not just a name on a website. 

I head our English faculty myself, alongside a wider team that includes IB Examiners and IGCSE specialists. That culture is built on collaboration and partnership — subject specialists, examiners and mentors all working together around each student, rather than in isolation. 

One of our earliest students captures this well. He joined Young Scholarz at age 12, having just moved from Mumbai and struggling to adjust to a new curriculum in a new country. With consistent academic support through that transition and beyond, he was accepted into Tufts University — one of many such journeys we’ve guided from a child’s most uncertain academic moment through to a university offer. 

We’ve now supported more than 1,500 alumni, and 100% of Young Scholarz students have been admitted to their university of choice, with 98% of our IGCSE students achieving As and A*s and 95% of our IB students achieving 6s and 7s. Operating fully online has let us build a genuinely global faculty of examiners and teachers, which is central to how we’ve been able to serve students well beyond Singapore. As we bring that to Dubai, we want Emirati and expat families to see Young Scholarz as a natural fit — a proven, globally-staffed online provider whose credibility they can trust immediately.