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SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.

Tech Reskilling in India a Necessity

• Behind the AI and data analytics boom, lies the story of a massive talent gap as workforce struggles to remain employable
• The skills’ shelf life has shortened, with technology changing exponentially over the last decade, skills that were relevant at the beginning of the career have become obsolete

By Kasmin Fernandes

While skill development gets a major chunk of CSR funding, reskilling in India isn’t a priority. Even with the third-largest developer base and a substantial tech-savvy talent pool, India lags behind its peers on major AI indicators. This is despite a thriving startup ecosystem, high-growth companies which have made a substantial investment in setting up CoEs (centres of excellence) and the Government investing in building a robust tech infrastructure.

Behind the AI and data analytics boom, lies the story of a massive talent gap as workforce struggles to remain employable. The skills’ shelf life has shortened, with technology changing exponentially over the last decade, skills that were relevant at the beginning of the career have become obsolete. In order to remain employable, the workforce needs reskilling in India.

Reskilling in India can fill gaps

The rise of edtech companies in India is not surprising, given the huge clamour for continuous learning that has taken root in the professional sphere. This is backed by the rise of emerging technologies — Artificial Intelligence, its subset Machine Learning and Data Science which has spawned a booming job market revolving around new technologies that has substantially transformed India’s IT labour market.

The changing job economy has resulted in new opportunities for the Indian workforce. As estimated by a consulting major,

AI has the potential to add 15% of India’s current gross value in 2035. The booming economy, fuelled by AI and advanced analytics requires more Indians to enter the workforce with a different skill-set. As per estimates, close to 97,000 AI positions lie vacant in India.

However, the challenges are also increasing multifold — on the one hand Indian companies are struggling with disruptions like automation that are redefining jobs and secondly, it is grappling with finding the right talent with the right skillset for AI/ machine learning and data science teams. Meanwhile, the upcoming generation that will enter the workforce soon is fed on an outdated curriculum that hasn’t kept up with the industry’s demands.

What can key players do?

In order to capitalise on these opportunities, IT companies, educators and policymakers need to develop a deeper understanding of the existing workforce, the skill-set required in the future, and the gaps that will need to be addressed. This implies that these three key players need to align the broader economic developer agenda with the shifting job market and work towards building a strong talent that has the baseline and digital skills required for current landscape.

The government’s involvement in reskilling in India is a must. A joint report by industry body NASSCOM and FICCI level says that the IT workforce will become obsolete without government involvement. Policy makers will have to assess secondary and postsecondary education and align it with the skills that are required for tomorrow. Many leading Indian IT majors have undertaken employer-training initiatives, pre-employment training and have also provided their own courseware.

Collectively, the key stakeholders can foster a workforce development ecosystem and provide domain specific training

with a job-first approach. Given this scenario — educational stakeholders have made a very strong business case for reskilling in India and have actively partnered with renowned educational institutions to launch technical certifications and degree programmes tailored to fill the skill gap.

Source: https://thecsrjournal.in/tech-reskilling-india/

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.

Education Is the New Healthcare, and Other Trends Shaping Edtech Investing

By John Rogers

• Private equity and venture funds have invested record sums into the global education sector—$30 billion in the past five years across K-12 and workplace learning
• Since 2017, investment has accelerated with $14 billion allocated, according to research firm HolonIQ.

Despite the influx of capital, employers, schools and policymakers are only just beginning to harness the sector’s advancements in the delivery, accessibility and effectiveness of education technology. As adoption of these products and services increases around the world, so too does the opportunity for investors and entrepreneurs to generate positive social and economic impact alongside financial returns.

Here are five key trends to consider as education enters a new decade:

1. In the workplace, education is the new healthcare.

In the 1940’s and ‘50s, employers seeking to attract the best workers offered healthcare benefits. In the early 2000’s, employers offered free snacks and installed foosball tables.

Those perks have lost their luster, and with help from the Affordable Care Act, even healthcare is becoming less of a differentiator. Today, leading corporations hope to drive employee engagement, retention and advancement through providing education.

In 2014, Starbucks and Arizona State University pioneered a new kind of partnership. By offering high-quality, affordable online courses and programs, coupled with tuition assistance, ASU and Starbucks enabled thousands to become degree holders—debt free. In a recent interview with CNBC, Starbuck’s CEO Kevin Johnson pointed to the College Achievement Plan as a driver for sales growth, because employee engagement yields customer engagement.

To broaden this workplace education initiative, The Rise Fund partnered with ASU and other leading online universities to launch InStride, providing valuable educational credentials to the employees of forward-thinking corporations. In bringing affordable education to the workplace, companies like InStride, Guild, Degreed and EdAssist are addressing the biggest issues in higher education: career relevance and student debt.

2. Our schools are facing a mental health crisis.

Today, 95 percent of teenagers have access to a smartphone, and the average teen is now spending more than 7 hours per day on their screens, including over 1.5 hours on social media. But the proliferation of technology does not come without concerns. These tools can amplify feelings of loneliness and serve as a platform for cyberbullying.

Mental health problems, especially among teens, increased significantly in the last decade. Seventy percent of teenagers identify mental health as a major issue, worse than drug addiction, and gangs. Suicide is now the second-leading cause of death among 10- to 24-year-olds, and the rate has tripled over the last 10 years. In a Harvard Medical School study of 67,000 college students across more than 100 institutions, 1 out of 5 students surveyed said that they had thought about suicide.

“Teachers and administrators are hungry for effective ways to teach social and emotional learning,” says former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Who will pay for these needed services? Most are paid by schools or districts, but other funding approaches are emerging. One of our portfolio investments, EverFi, finds corporate partners to fund their bullying prevention programs in schools. Other companies, like Presence Learning, are experimenting with models that may be reimbursed by health insurance, while Aperture Education helps schools to find grant funding for their services.

3. Schools spent a decade buying technology. Now they want it to work.

Education technology reached a tipping point in the last decade. Broadband penetration in K-12 schools reached over 98 percent, while low-cost computing devices like Chromebooks have proliferated in classrooms.

This has laid the infrastructure to support new instructional tools, many built by new companies that have emerged to compete with traditional print publishers. HolonIQ estimates that global spending on digital education tools surpassed $150 billion last year, and will double by 2025.

But purchasing is not proof that something works. Even more concerning: many tools may simply be gathering (digital) dust. A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania, only 30 percent of edtech licenses are actually used.

In any future economic downturn, expect technology providers who fail to show evidence of improvement—let alone usage—to get axed. Those seeking to avoid this fate would do well to invest in proving that their products work. DreamBox, (another portfolio company) invests in efficacy research led by independent third-parties including Harvard and SRI International. Lexia Learning, a subsidiary of Rosetta Stone, employs a team of PhDs who send their research out for peer review.

Recently updated federal guidelines have also raised the bar for efficacy evidence that educational services should demonstrate before public funds can be used to purchase them.

4. There is growing international demand for English-language learning.

Duolingo made headlines in December when it raised $30 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, reaching the “unicorn” milestone just seven years after the company launched. While it offers courses in several languages, a big growth driver internationally is English language learning, where it competes with online providers Babbel, Busuu and Rosetta Stone.

As businesses have expanded globally through tech and business process outsourcing, English language proficiency has become an important path to economic opportunity. According to studies by the World Bank, in India, those fluent in English earn 34 percent more on average than those who are non-fluent, while in Nigeria, the English-language wage premium is 40 percent.

In emerging markets, English language proficiency is a core component of what many parents look for as they seek high-quality schools for their children. That demand has fueled the growth of multi-billion dollar, dual-language K-12 platforms like Cognita, GEMS and Nord Anglia in markets around the world.

5. Will edtech be caught up in a backlash against ‘big tech’ over data privacy?

Rising edtech expenditures and privacy concerns have caught the eye of regulators. A group of U.S. Senators recently requested 50 technology companies—including education technology providers—to provide written responses to questions about student privacy safeguards. These inquiries come at a time when many believe the enforcement of federal education regulation is increasingly lax.

Edtech providers are as vulnerable as their peers in other industries. At a major cybersecurity conference last fall, an 18-year-old student detailed vulnerabilities he found in Blackboard, one of the most widely-used learning management systems in the country.

As U.S. edtech companies expand globally, they will also find themselves subject to stricter European data privacy laws, like GDPR. They may also find themselves at the mercy of sudden changes in national policies, such as the restrictions recently imposed in China on foreign investment in K-12 programs.

2020 and Beyond

The Rise Fund has made investments across these themes, and as we enter the next decade, the correlation between educational attainment and economic opportunity will continue to drive the demand for tools and services that bridge these two goals. For investors and entrepreneurs who choose wisely, opportunities abound for attractive returns and impact through the power of education.

Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-02-28-education-is-the-new-healthcare-and-other-trends-shaping-edtech-investing

SPONSOR:  BetterU Education Corp. aims to provide access to quality education from around the world. The company plans to bridge the prevailing gap in the education and job industry and enhance the lives of its prospective learners by developing an integrated ecosystem. Click here for more information.

Indian VC industry sees record $10 billion investment in 2019: Report

The amount was 55 per cent higher than the money invested by the industry in 2018, the report by Bain & Company’s India Venture Capital Report 2020 said. At the current exchange rate, USD 10 billion translates to over Rs 72,000 crore.

• VC exit momentum in 2019 was in line with 2018, with secondary sales leading the mode of exits in India with an average exit value of around USD 39 million

The Indian venture capital industry invested record USD 10 billion in 2019, driven by increased deal volume and larger average deal sizes, according to a report. The amount was 55 per cent higher than the money invested by the industry in 2018, the report by Bain & Company’s India Venture Capital Report 2020 said. At the current exchange rate, USD 10 billion translates to over Rs 72,000 crore.

The report, in partnership with Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA), said there has been 30 per cent increase in deal volume and 20 per cent rise in average deal size in 2019 over the previous year. “Despite substantial capital deployment, dry powder availability for VC investing in India was at an all-time high of USD 7 billion at the end of 2019, indicating likely continued investment activity in 2020,” it added.

The term ‘dry powder’ refers to cash reserves kept on hand by a company, venture capital firm or individual to cover future obligations. The VC exit momentum in 2019 was in line with 2018, with secondary sales leading the mode of exits in India with an average exit value of around USD 39 million. “Despite the global economic climate, India’s startup and VC ecosystems continue to thrive as investors take a long- term view based on the country’s growth potential. We go into 2020 with record-high levels of dry powder, counter-balanced with caution and an underlying optimism in the long-term potential for the ecosystem,” Arpan Sheth, Partner at Bain & Company, said.

About 80 per cent of the VC investments in 2019 was concentrated in four sectors — consumer tech, software/ SaaS, fintech and B2B commerce and tech. Consumer tech continued to be the largest sector, accounting for approximately 35 per cent of the total investments with several scale deals exceeding USD 150 million, the report said. Within consumer tech, verticalised e-commerce companies continued to be the largest sub-segment. In addition, there were increased investments in healthtech, foodtech and edtech as well.

“The Indian VC industry had a landmark year in 2019. However, India-focused VC investments raised less funds this year, the fundraising outlook for 2020 remains positive among both LPs and GPs (Limited Partners and General Partners),” Sriwatsan Krishnan, Partner at Bain & Company and co-author of the report, said. Following the brief moderation between 2015 and 2017, the VC industry in India has been in a renewed growth phase and that is expected to continue, Krishnan added.

The Indian startup ecosystem, one of the top five globally, continued to remain robust and grow rapidly. Between 2012 and 2019, the number of startups in India increased 17 per cent each year, while funded startups increased faster at 19 per cent CAGR in the same period, the report said. Currently, of almost 80,000 startups in India, only about 8 per cent are funded, indicating room for investments, it added. The report said India-focused VC funds raised about USD 2.1 billion in 2019, slightly lower than that in 2018.

The dip was the result of marquee funds that had already raised large sums and hence did not go to the market in 2019, it added. “There is a massive pipeline of soon to be unicorns; few of the Indian Unicorns will become decacorns by 2025. All this could not have happened without the support of the current government and the exits driven by first-generation entrepreneurs in the last couple of years,” IVCA President Rajat Tandon said.

Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/market/indian-vc-industry-sees-record-10-billion-investment-in-2019-report/1886543/