Addressing India’s Reskilling Challenge – A Report By AIM
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 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 to reskill to take advantage of new opportunities. 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 US$957 billion, or 15 percent 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 our estimate, close to 97,000 AI positions lie vacant
in India.
But,
the challenges are also increasing multifold — on the one hand India
Inc is 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/ML 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outdated curriculum that hasn’t kept up with the industry’s demands.In
our report, we dig into the educational stakeholder landscape to see how
they are transforming the skills market by developing training courses
and certification programmes that correspond to in-demand skills
required today. We look at the type of educational institutions offering
data and analytics programs; how the educational landscape is changing
in response to the heightened demand for analytics skills and what needs
to be done to fill the skill gap.
The second half of the report looks at our last three years ranking
data to find out the winning attributes that have helped analytics
institutes rank on top consistently and how other training institutes
have fared over the last three years.Key Highlights
The online reskilling market is estimated to be $93 million and is expected to grow at a rate of 38%.
As compared to other educational categories (secondary supplemental
education providers and GMAT/ GRE/GATE test preparation providers) the
reskilling market is more mature
Current market is largely B2C driven but educational stakeholders are also actively catering to the B2B segment
Reskilling market in India is driven by the needs of a large working population looking for industry-relevant skills
Online key players are also moving towards blended educational
solutions by creating offline touchpoints to provide peer interaction
Emphasis on personalised learning has led to mentorship and offline
touchpoints that helps students gain handson experience for particular
concepts
Business Analytics course was the starting point, besides this,
other courses that are gaining traction are Artificial Intelligence,
Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics & Data Engineering
Partnerships between analytics education providers and universities in offering niche courses
Higher demand for short-term diploma courses in in-demand areas such as Blockchain, Data Science and Machine Learning
Virtual classroom concept that began in 2014 has brought high quality analytics education more accessible
Key tools learnt are R, SAS, Python, on big data end Hive, Pig, Hadoop and in AI/ML end Tensorflow and Keras
Key Players In The Reskilling Market
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. At the
Government level, 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 the
workforce and have actively partnered with renowned educational
institutions to launch technical certifications and degree programmes
tailored to fill the skill gap.
Analytics Education Landscape
The nature of analytics education has evolved over the last few years
and a mix of models have emerged in the online and offline space to
accommodate the changing requirements of students. Learners seek a
career-focused analytics education augmented by classroom setting that
prepare them for job functions in data analytics space.
• In cases where learning is delivered purely online, participants
look for realtime learning in a format that allows learners to pursue it
at their own pace
• Candidates look for course content created by top instructors, with
industry and university collaboration to provide a well-rounded
analytics education
• Executive programs are also in high demand as these are intended
for senior professionals who want to renew their skillset and understand
how data can be helpful in managerial decision making
• In case of executive analytics courses, technical skills such as
data management are augmented by soft skills such as business
understanding and communication
• Analytics education providers in India mostly offer Business
Analytics (BA) and Business Intelligence (BI) programs that combine
analytical number crunching, reporting and visualization techniques
Learning Formats
The learning formats can be broadly put under 4 categories:
Self-paced learning delivered via recorded video content
Instructor-Led live classroom sessions delivered online
Blended learning format with classroom and online delivery
Bootcamps for intensive, in-person learning that provides a hands-on experience
Around 87 percent of analytics courses from private training institutes are delivered in the self-paced learning models
6 percent are delivered in the hybrid (Self-paced and Instructor-Led
online) format and 4 percent in Instructor Led weekend and self-paced
format
There’s only a 3 percent uptake for weekend classroom format
On average, analytics courses by private institutes offer 105 hours of instructor contact hours
The hybrid model of self-paced + online Instructor-Led courses has the highest number of contact hours at 157.
The blended learning opportunity allows learners to get continuous feedback and participate in real-time assessment
Weekend-only model has the least contact hours at 75
For those looking for face-to-face learning environment, weekend model is the best fit
Digging Deeper: India’s ed-tech space is more than Byju’s
While trying to understand India’s edtech space, it is worth remembering what a huge market it is.
A joint study by Google and KPMG had estimated that the online education sector in India would grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52% to $1.96 billion by 2021.
Due to acute disparity in learning levels caused by social, economic,
geographic and other factors, India may be in the danger of
under-utilising or losing out on the untapped capital of human
potential. Education technology (edu-tech/edtech) could play a vital
role in meeting the learning needs of underserved sections of the
populace. In this space, the name we hear loudest is Byju’s, the
Bangalore-based company valued at over four billion dollars (or five,
according to some estimates), which raised $540 million from Naspers and
others just last year. It is the fourth most valued startup in the
country. Unacademy, which much like Byju’s also offers online tutoring
to students, has raised 38.5 million dollars to date. Last year in
December, Toppr, another edtech startup which claims to have six million
users, had raised $35 million led by education-focused investor Kaizen
Private Equity. CollegeDekho has raised upwards of 13 millions dollars
to date. Even Mukesh Ambani seems to want a slice of the Indian edtech
pie considering he bought a 38.5% stake in Noida-based startup
Extramarks. Byju’s might have put Indian edtech on the global map, but
increasingly, the space is more than just Byju’s.
India’s education market, estimated to grow to $5.7 billion by 2020,
has emerged as a lucrative opportunity for edtech startups and VCs
alike. On this edition of Digging Deeper with Moneycontrol, we will try
to understand both the potential of edtech startups and the reasons why
some of them have succeeded spectacularly in what was, just a few years
ago, a relatively unexplored field.
Growing interest
A recent Financial Express report cited a study by Karthik
Muralidharan of the University of California at San Diego, Abhijeet
Singh of the Stockholm School of Economics and Alejandro J Ganimian of
the NYU Steinhardt School, according to which, incorporation of
educational technology can help accurately assess learning levels and
customise pedagogical support to bridge intra-classroom gaps.
Andhra Pradesh, we are told, is pioneering tech-enabled pedagogy, and
as an early-bird adopter of edu-tech, it will be leagues ahead of other
states. The piece said, “The state, from the current academic year,
will be using Personalised Adaptive Learning (PAL), or software-based
assessment of the academic standing of the students in a classroom. PAL
will first assess the student’s comprehension levels and then prescribe
targeted learning. Students will take the test online, and based on
their individual reports, remedial coaching will be provided. Apart from
facilitating tailored learning, PAL will also ease monitoring of impact
of remedial classes via dashboards for individual students where
teachers can track progress.â€
PAL is being rolled out in over 2,600 schools in Andhra Pradesh.
After tests in 56 schools proved successful, many schools will engage
with PAL via laptop but others will do so over tablets.
The initiative, as per a report in The New Indian Express, will
involve intensive training of teachers, school administration and
bureaucrats, and is expected to impact over 2.5 million children. Andhra
Pradesh is, in fact, experimenting with edtech in a big way.
According to the piece, after introducing QR codes in non-language
subject textbooks, the state is now doing the same for language
textbooks for classes VI-X.
The NIE said, “Scanning the QR codes assigned to different chapters,
students can access supplementary video lectures or tutorials. They can
also use the QR codes to take quick, online assessment tests that will
help them, their parents and teachers measure their actual levels of
comprehension.
Such an ecosystem surely makes addressing gaps in learning levels
easier than the conventional method, of remedial classes. Also, given
boards like CBSE are now increasing reliance on schools’ own assessment
of learning levels, by mandating compulsory internal assessment for
boards, pedagogy propped by technology can be made to deliver more
efficiently.â€
At another level, edtech start ups are benefitting from growing interest not just in India but also from overseas markets.
Big numbers
The News Minute carried a report recently which spoke about how New
Delhi-based edtech startup XploraBox raised an undisclosed amount in
funding from SucSEED Venture partners. The four founders of XploraBox
include Rishi and Shweta Das, Dhirendra Meena and Rishabh Gupta. The
startup was founded in 2015. The funds will be used to scale up and
establish overseas presence beginning with North America and GCC
countries as it targets a revenue of Rs 100 crore in 3 years. The other
investors to have participated in this round include Green Shoots
Capital, Metaform Ventures LLC, JITO Angel Network, SWAN Angel Network
etc.
And what has Xplorabox been up to? Well, it has come up with a
business model that has a subscription box for learning through play in
children. We quote, “The basic objective is to try and wean away the
kids, aged between two and twelve, from TV and mobile and channelise
their attention to other constructive activities. Learning through fun’
is their mantra, with fun stories and educational activities which are
offered through their boxes. The company has served more than 50,000
customers and dispatching kits to over 500 cities every month.â€
According to Rishi, on an average, children are spending over 3 hours
every day in front of screens and that is impacting their brain
development. Xplorabox provides modules to boost essential developmental
skills of the children. The startup believes that the 50,000 customers
they have serviced so far have reported excellent response and more
products could get launched in the coming months.
The aim is to provide learning aids that can enhance various
developmental skills like motor skills, cognitive skills etc in children
to counter issues like Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), unhealthy
posture, and increasing cases of myopia (shortsightedness).
The startup is looking at prospects running into billions with the
large population of kids in the target age group and hopes to tap into
more potential markets.
Wider horizons
The edtech market keeps expanding and reinventing itself. In a recent
development, Byju’s and Disney may launch a co-branded new app
targeting kindergarten to Class 3 students. The Economic Times reported,
“The partnership is in line with Byju’s aspirations to expand beyond
India into other large English-speaking markets such as the US, UK, and
Australia.
Disney Byju’s Early Learn, as the service is called, will be a
standalone app that is likely to go live sometime next week. There have
been talks that Disney has made a financial investment into Byju’s, but
that has not come through yet, sources said. Apart from using the name
of the Burbank, California-headquartered company, the app will boast of
characters from popular Disney brands such as Cars, Toy Story and
Frozen.â€
Byju’s has entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with the media
company. While the exact terms of the deal could not be ascertained, it
is learnt to be in the range of a 10-15% revenue share that Disney
usually sets.
ET said, “While Byju’s will oversee all content created for the app,
Disney is expected to work closely with the edtech firm to ensure
stories are weaved around its characters. Kids using the app will get to
watch video-based tutorials that will feature its popular cartoon
characters. Even though the current deal with Disney is strictly a
revenue-sharing agreement, Byju’s has been in talks with the media giant
to explore an opportunity for investments as well. In March, when
Byju’s raised $25 million in funding from General Atlantic, its
valuation jumped to $5.4 billion, making it the fourth most valuable
private Internet company in India.â€
Customer acquisition and other challenges
With time, edtech companies are dealing with challenges like growing
customer acquisition costs. A recent ETtech piece addresses this very
issue. It points out how India’s fast-growing educational technology
space is now going full steam ahead to build organic user acquisition
channels.
The average cost-per-click on digital channels goes up 5-7% every
year organically, but it could be around 30% year-on-year for edtech
since it is seasonal for most players, according to industry-watchers.
Moreover, India suffers from extremely low conversion rates as courses
are often large-ticket purchases.
The report says increasing cost of user acquisition has forced
players like Edureka to acquire 60% users organically through free
YouTube videos and high-quality blogs. Still, the company spends Rs 1
crore every month on digital marketing.
Lovleen Bhatia, co-founder and CEO of Edureka says and we quote, “You
can’t win with Google and Facebook, so you need to find other channels
of acquiring customers. For us, our blog, community and YouTube videos
have worked well so far.â€
Edureka is also working on an AI chatbot that will advise users on
how to build their careers and Bhatia hopes that the counselling bot,
which they are trying to make open source, will add to customer
acquisition .
Byju’s, mentions the piece, a leader in the K12 education sector, is
looking at television as it freezes digital ad spends. The company has
begun advertising regionally, with celebrity endorsers. They have
launched campaigns with Mohanlal in Kerala and Mahesh Babu in AP and
Telangana and plan to launch many regional ads in the coming year and
their spend on TV advertising will be roughly 20% of their total
revenue. Byju’s reported Rs 1,400 crore in revenues in the previous
fiscal, and is expecting a twofold growth in the current year.
The piece also mentions Simplilearn, another e-learning platform for
tech professionals, which gets 1.5 million monthly visitors on its site,
out of which 50,000 convert into enquiries. Out of that, 10,000-12,000
end up buying its services. Krishna Kumar, CEO of Simplilearn, says in
the piece that 40% of its inbounds are from referrals and another big
chunk from free video uploads on YouTube. It would have otherwise spent
$1.5 million each month on digital channels just to sustain current
inbound traffic, he says.
Eruditus, an online executive training platform, says a majority of
its users come through ads on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest.
Ashwin Damera, CEO of Eruditus, says in the article, the cost per lead
for its course on Design Thinking, which it does in partnership with
MIT, is $15 in India versus $35 in the US. However, acquiring users in
India is more expensive as conversion rates are five times lower than in
the US.
Big players
On an earlier podcast, we had examined the boom in the e-learning
business scape in India and profiled e-learning companies like Vedantu,
which in November 2018, had managed to raise $11 million in a Series B
funding round. Vedantu, as is well-known, is an interactive online
tutoring platform where teachers provide school tuitions to students
over the internet, using a real-time virtual learning environment named
WAVE, a technology built in-house.
This brings us to the point we began with. Such technological
development initiatives push e-learning beyond regular pedagogical
methods. Companies are making learning sessions more personalized by
tracking the student’s attention span and concept understanding using
machine learning, facial recognition etc.
While trying to understand India’s edtech space, it is worth
remembering what a huge market it is. A joint study by Google and KPMG
had estimated that the online education sector in India would grow at a
compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52% to $1.96 billion by 2021.
The idea that brick and mortar structures are obsolete for expansive learning is at the core of the e-learning boom in India.
It’s not just Vedantu, but most e-learning businesses including
Byju’s and Unacademy understand the limitations of conventional teaching
and learning and the potential of technology-driven educational models
that can reinvent themselves to keep up with the evolving needs of the
students. Technology has undoubtedly a wider reach than brick and mortar
structures and content startups can reach up to 200-300 million new
internet users from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
Just to refresh your memory, Unacademy has raised a neat $21 million
in a Series C round and Byju’s unicorn status as India’s fourth most
valuable start-up behind Paytm, Ola, and Oyo, is only too well known.
What is a unicorn in business terms? Well, it is a privately held
startup company valued at over $1 billion. The term was coined in 2013
by venture capitalist Aileen Lee, choosing the mythical animal to
represent the statistical rarity of such successful ventures. The
brand’s success story is now a Harvard Business School case study no
less.
What are the factors contributing to this boom?
The upsurge in e-learning enterprises could partly be attributed to
inexpensive data costs and the increased access to high-speed internet,
and with half a billion more Indians expected to be online for the first
time in the near future, there is no reason to think small.
Some other big dreamers in this space are Meritnation, Cuemath and Toppr and Byju’s is a success story to emulate for many.
Mint has reported and we quote, “Byju’s is part of a small but
growing number of tech startups that have rapidly grown their businesses
and consistently attracted blue-chip investors. In July 2017, Byju’s
raised about $40 million from Tencent Holdings Ltd, months after raising
$30 million from Verlinvest. Since starting out in 2008, Byju’s has
raised over $240 million from Tencent, Verlinvest, Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Aarin
Capital, among others.â€
Quality education is not equally dispersed in India and that has
fuelled the need for e-learning modules. Roman Saini, co-Âfounder and
chief educator of Unacademy had written in Hindustan Times on November
8, 2018 and we quote, “The education divide in India with respect to
quality and accessibility has existed for far too long. It is difficult
for the existing physical infrastructure to meet the learning needs of
the burgeoning population of our country which will touch 1.5B by 2030
and 1.7B by 2050 (equal to the population of China and USA combined).
Digital is gaining acceptance across numerous sectors and it is only
right that the education sector too reaps benefits of this digital
transformation.â€
There are barriers created by inadequate infrastructure, concentrated
content and language issues that prevent large numbers of
knowledge-hungry demographics from the benefits of a global education.
As he says, “It is impossible to have great teachers in each and
every village/district in India. Similarly, the best teachers should not
be restricted to certain institutes of the world. This is where
e-learning comes in. It can level the playing field for all students.
Students, in both rural and urban areas, can get access to the best
learning resources, learn at their own pace and in the comfort of their
own homes. Another key advantage with e-learning is that it is much
easier to design courses with the latest online reference material than
publishing crores of books.â€
The possibility that online education could benefit India’s youth,
that forms more than 50% of the population, is exciting for e-learning
entrepreneurs, educators and potential learners.
New methodologies
E-learning predictably expands the scope, depth and reach of
information with interactive tools, AI and technology as well as live
online interaction.
Byju Raveendran believes e-learning can develop and inculcate
personal initiative in students and that bodes well for their future
success as opposed to the “spoon feeding†that conventional education
dispenses.
He told Mint in April 2017, that even when he was not an education
entrepreneur, he was known for pre-exam hacks and shortcuts that made
him an exceptional student. After nailing a perfect score in CAT twice,
and after turning down interview calls from all the Indian Institutes of
Management (IIMs), and working abroad for a couple of years, he decided
to take six months out to see what would happen if what he had learnt
was taught with a structure.
So successful was his module, recalls Mint, that Raveendran started
conducting workshops on the weekend, with the classes growing in
popularity. When one classroom wasn’t enough to accommodate students, he
booked an auditorium with a seating capacity of 1,200. From jet setting
across India to teach, he decided to take his modules to students and a
success story was born in 2011.
At the core of his teaching module and business model is not
derivation but independence, logic and life skills. Soon he started
using a video format. As Mint informed, his high-production-value videos
and content caters to the K-12 (kindergarten-Class XII) segment, with
more than 500 members in the research and development team.
Mint also reported that there are about 20 million children between
Classes VI and XII in India who have access to the Internet and take
private coaching classes, which translates to an addressable market
opportunity of about $2.5 billion, according to research by consulting
firm RedSeer Consulting. Not surprising then that since launching in
2015, the Byju’s app has had more than six million downloads. The number
of people who buy its premium service is growing every month, claims
the firm.
What also benefits the company is that a student starting young with
Byju’s will possibly continue with the company and it is then looking at
a four-year or seven-year timeline with the same user.
Byju’s has also designed personalized learning through what it calls a
“knowledge graph.†The app learns which concepts a student may need
more practice at, and adjusts learning plans accordingly.
Raveendran also told Mint and we quote, “Our product and go-to-market
are both targeted at students. B2C is our only channel. We’re not
trying to change the system. It can easily coexist with the system. It’s
not a replacement of teachers.â€
Byju’s dream is to take education deeper and try and bridge India’s
rural and urban divide and to create a learning culture where students
learn and not just memorize. And develop a life-long thirst for
knowledge that was earlier restricted by the fear of exams. The Byju’s
smartphone app—and portal apart from offering study material for classes
4-12, also offers help to succeed at competitive exams like JEE, NEET,
CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT.
The positively disruptive force of e-learning
A Sunday Guardian piece by Priya Singh about just how digital
technology has proved to be a disruptive force for the education sector
in India and has changed the old paradigms of teaching.
She wrote, “According to this new model of education, driven for the
most part by digital technology, the teacher is sidelined, as content—as
learning—takes centre stage.â€
She also cites Byju’s success to prove her point, and mentions the
numbers that deserve to be repeated here. The platform now has over 22
million registered users, 1.4 million paid subscribers, an addition of
1.5 million registered users every month, more than 100% growth and the
pride of becoming the first Asian company to get investment from the
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic organisation founded by
Facebook’s boss Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. And all
this was achieved in just three years.
The possibilities of learning online are inexhaustible and Coursera, a
California-based online learning platform that offers certified courses
from the world’s best universities—including Yale, Princeton and
Stanford—has been adding rapidly to its subscriber base in India.
Raghav Gupta, Director, India and APAC, Coursera told Sunday
Guardian, “India has a lot to gain from online learning. About one
million people enter the workforce every month with no guarantee that
they will have the competencies to succeed in jobs of the future. Even
as technology renders many skills obsolete, online learning will be the
transformative force that empowers millions to acquire new skills. We
see this trend reflected in our growth in India. We now have 3.3 million
Indian learners on the platform, while adding 60,000 new users every
month. Our platform is giving employers and professionals the
much-needed opportunity to access the best and most relevant content the
world has to offer and learn the skills needed to compete in the new
economy.â€
Another big player, says the piece, is edX, a “massive open online
course†(MOOC) platform, founded by the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology and Harvard University. It offers courses on subjects like
artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, business and
management, leadership, soft skills, and so on.
And not just students but teachers can benefit from e-learning by
referring to online courses taught by world-class professors and adopt
flip-learning pedagogy.
Observers and most e-learning businesses agree though that classroom learning cannot be replaced but it can surely be updated.
The piece quotes Divya Gokulnath of Byju’s, “Technology has played a
key role in disrupting this sector and will continue to shape the
teacher-student relationship by offering better accessibility,
distribution and formats of delivery.â€
The dream of learning from a Harvard professor in a small Indian town,
no longer seems impossible and the chalk and talk module may be in for a
long-term overhaul. The world is becoming a smaller place each day, and
with it, the dreams of children everywhere in the world are becoming
bigger. And edtech is helping them realizing these dreams.
Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/podcast/digging-deeper-indias-ed-tech-space-is-more-than-byjus-4053471.html
EdTech Start-up Business: Scope & Opportunity in India
The start-up of EdTech or Educational Technology was quite simple. Computers helped in teaching arithmetic and some grammar to young school students. The concept was elementary. And it happened long before the internet had invaded our home. With the internet, modern devices and highly sophisticated software available at every nook & corner
The start-up of EdTech or Educational Technology was quite simple.
Computers helped in teaching arithmetic and some grammar to young school
students. The concept was elementary. And it happened long before the
internet had invaded our home.
With the internet, modern devices and highly sophisticated software
available at every nook & corner of even the semi-developed cities
in India. Now, the scope of reach of education has widened like never
before. The impact of Edtech on education, society in general, is
amazing. And this sector as a business opportunity is within the grasp
of all aspiring start-ups.
What is EdTech?
“A picture is worth a Thousand words.â€
With technology being introduced in the field of education, you would
find audios, videos and 3D animation, instead of that Picture. This has
made learning far more dynamic and interactive.
To define simply, any technology that supports education is EdTech.
Today, we don’t imagine school as only a blackboard, a teacher and
some desks. Present day student receives and uploads homework
assignments on the school portal. The rise in EdTech start-up has meant
that they can practice Mathematics online, understand the Biology images
using 3D techniques. Quick and accurate checks help in enhancing the
performance of the students. Such has been the rise in educational
technology.
The true essence of EdTech lies in using technological advances to
improve the education system. It facilitates learning and improves
performance by creating and managing appropriate technology tools.
EdTech Start-ups have changed Learning to e-Learning.
Scope of EdTech Start-up
When every moment of our daily life is being shaped by technology,
then how can education be any different? Technology is making a huge
impact in the field of education as well.
Over the past few years, you must have noticed the immense growth of
EdTech start-up. The companies which started-up in EdTech, even a few
years ago, have gained ground. They have managed to touch unfathomable
heights in business.
A leading example is BYJU’s, the EdTech and Online Tutoring Firm
started up in 2011. In March 2019, it was the world’s most valued
EdTech company at $5.4 billion (Rs 37,000 crore), according to
Wikipedia.
Due to all these developments, people are finding it worth to invest in this innovative new concept.
EdTech start-ups are transforming lives and reinventing businesses.
To provide more data and numbers:
India stands at 145 out of the 191 countries on the Education Index, as per UN,
Its rank is 168 out of 234 countries as per UNESCO with a literacy rate of 72%,
India is ranked at 72 out of the 73 countries considered by OECD.
If you are an aspiring entrepreneur, this data might mean an exciting opportunity for you.
Scope in India
“We, Indians have always had a fixation with education.â€
Any country’s education needs can be met by the government up to a
certain level. Unless innovation is introduced, all systems end up
eventually. This is where entrepreneurship comes in. To bring a
freshness of ideas into the system. India has a whole industry in
education. In waiting for entrepreneurs to take advantage of their
opportunities.
In the year 2016, the Indian Education Industry was valued at $100
billion. This is expected to almost double by 2020 to $180 billion. The
increase in literacy rate and digital learning would be instrumental in
this growth. EdTech itself was estimated at $2 billion. The School
segment consists of primary and secondary school education. This forms
52% of the education industry. This segment offers the biggest
opportunities for development.
Education, including EdTech, has seen a rise in funding. While 4-5
years ago, the annual investment was approx US$20 million. However, the
total funding has seen an extraordinary hike. It has been forecasted as
exceeding US$ 180 million for the year 2020.
Viewing this data, you won’t be surprised to know that major
investors from all over the world are paying close attention to the
developments in Indian EdTech start-up scenario. Some have already
jumped in the fray. In the private sector, Tata Consultancy Service
(TCS) has teamed up with IIM, to give you one example.
The government has also accepted its importance.
Funding for your EdTech start-up may come from both private and
government sources. For example Start-Up India. This is a program by the
Central Government. It has been set up with the objective to promote
start-ups by providing easier bank loans. Another initiative is Atal
Innovation Mission or AIM. It seeks to promote entrepreneurship. Then
there is the Swayam initiative. A program that is planned to offer about
200 e-courses and another 10,000 e-courses under the AICTE.
Some important foreign players are also entering the market. They are
investing to support EdTech start-up. They are Goldman Sachs, Times
Internet, Mark Zuckerberg’s investment fund, to name a few.
Important Factors to Consider
“Every Path to Success is riddled with Challenges.â€
Incorporating an EdTech company and making your start-up work may not
be as smooth as it seems. You may face many difficulties with
your EdTech start-up. For instance, if you are thinking of setting up an
institution supporting school education, an endorsement from school may
boost your start-up to succeed. But the question is how do you get that
necessary endorsement? For that, you may need to prove to them that you
would add value to their brand as well.
On the roadway to success, you will find yourself faced with many
such challenges and mistakes. And you would need to encounter those.
You must strategise your entrance into the EdTech Start-up market. You would need to team up with some technology specialists. You can choose to collaborate with educators. You may follow tips from experts. Of course, a great way to start will be thinking up a new and unique idea.
Below we suggest some strategies and ideas that you may want to
follow to succeed in this highly competitive world of EdTech Start-ups:
Identify your Niche: The first step will be to identify
what exact problem your EdTech Start-up will be solving. This Solution
Statement will clearly suggest your niche. What field do you want to
cater to the education sector?
The Hierarchy for your EdTech Start-up: Before getting company registration
for your business, each promoter/founder must be clear about their
roles, authorities, responsibilities and respective share in the
business. Deciding on these unavoidable and awkward topics first hand
would give each one of you a sense of security. It leads to better
involvement. And avoid many complications in future.
Learn from Others: Join some community of entrepreneurs
from the same field. Get exposed to the work style of other EdTech
directors. More the number, better the exposure and learning. Evaluate
which one is suitable for yourself. Which one would be easiest for you
to adapt to? Develop a mix and refined to suit your business. You may
also make friends. So they would share their personal experiences. The
challenges they must have faced and how they could overcome them.
Proximity to the Audience: You should place yourself
near to a good educational institution. A university would be best. You
can take help of the university students to help you would in project
completions, undertake researches and other initial tasks. With their
innovative ideas, you can test your concept on them.
Testing: The product or service get tested by real
testing. Presenting your product in the real market is the actual test.
No matter how good your team is, some mistakes do slip by. The Beta
Testing will check what errors have been ignored. It will also test the
viability of your product.
Quality: The quality of the services you would be
providing is a key factor to consider. Even if the technology you use is
cutting edge, it would still be very difficult for your EdTech Start-up
to succeed if you do not support it with great educational content.
Building the Team: The core of an EdTech Start-up is
technology. It needs to be kept up-to-date. Regular upkeep is an
important factor for success. To serve this purpose you would need a
strong and stable technology team. The team should not only be hired on
the basis of their existing skill set and qualifications. They must also
have the eagerness to learn and improve themselves. They should be
proactive enough to work out solutions to problems. The work culture of a
start-up is different from that of the corporates that have been
running for some time. You are responsible to hire responsible persons
for the success of your EdTech Start-up. They should be willing
to adjust according to the demands.
Keep Room to Upgrade: All innovative ideas are a work
in progress. No product is final. There is always room for improvement
and upgrade. Once your course has been launched, try to listen to the
customers. Later you can incorporate those new ideas, features and needs
into your course. This way your course will get better. Therefore, it
is advisable not to spend too much time in going live with your product.
Keep improving it periodically to keep it up-to-date with the current
latest technology.
Sales & Marketing: The sales of your product must
reach the required level as anticipated at the start. You need to spread
the word about your new EdTech Start-up on various media platforms. You
may need to keep a separate fund out of the budget for the marketing.
Keep evaluating the sales numbers frequently. Keep revising and
improving on the sales and marketing plans.
Keep on learning: Knowledge and education keep
evolving. And because you have decided to start your business as an
educational institution, you must never get tired of learning. This will
keep you updated with the latest trends in technology. Many sources are
available online as well. The technology gets upgraded almost daily. So
try to use the best and the latest one for your business.
“Learning is a Continuous Process.â€
Make adjustments: You may have planned very carefully
the operations and growth of your business. But some circumstances may
come up causing you to change or drop out. You may get faced with
certain situations right at the time when you feel all has been set and
your business is ready to fly. be adaptable. The EdTech practices keep
changing and you may need to adjust accordingly. It may be financial,
strategic, legal or a change in the business model.
“Change is inevitable.â€
Funding: Funding is the primary concern for all
enterprises. Many great ideas have not taken shape because they didn’t
have the backing of sufficient funds. To incorporate an innovative idea
in your EdTech Start-up, you should try to connect with various sources.
The single funding source can put restrictions on some of the workable
ideas. Sometimes, the source may not be able to provide financial help,
as frequently as required.
Don’t lose sight of your Goal: You have decided to
start a business in the sector which shapes the future. Be it the
student, her family, those who are connected to her. Those who will
connect to her in the future. Remember to keep the values of teaching
intact. The virtuosity will also give a boost to your business. Because
you are adding not only qualifications to a resume but moulding a
person.
Work on the Feedbacks: You must keep a way of receiving
feedback open in your product. You can invite other educators to try
out your products, apps, tools. You can also provide teachers with
Professional Development courses. This will assist them in using your
technology. Their feedback may prove to be invaluable to the survival of
your start-up. You should work to take regular feedback from the
students and the teacher. And work to improve your product. If users are
satisfied then they’ll be encouraged to use and recommend your product.
Indian government is reportedly
planning a national policy for skilling and reskilling of the nation’s
youth in advanced technologies such as machine learning, artificial
intelligence, and internet of things (IoT).
“Reskilling and upskilling is big on
the incoming government’s agenda. There will be renewed focus on
reskilling,†a government official told ET.
The idea behind such a policy is to create a workforce that can tap
into new emerging opportunities and help prevent technological shocks to
the country’s technological infrastructure.
“We would like to ensure that
individuals have access to economic opportunities by remaining
competitive in the new world of work and that businesses have access to
the talent they need for the jobs of the future,†the official added.
The government is said to have
identified six sectors for which a dedicated reskilling curriculum will
be developed based on sector’s demand. These selected sectors might
include financial services, Information technology, manufacturing, ecommerce, logistics, healthcare, and telecommunications.
The official also noted that
government might incentivise youth to undergo reskilling programmes and
might also introduce a dedicated annual allocation for this.
Earlier this year, IIT Kanpur professor had told Inc42 that
“Blockchain and data science are the most sought skills in jobs today.
However, over 99% of the Indian universities and conventional institutes
don’t have blockchain in their curriculum.â€
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“Although there is increased
awareness, the educational curriculum in our universities at large does
not fulfil the job demands.†he added.
Post the launch of 2019 interim finance budget, edtech startups have also emphasised on the need to focus on job-oriented reskilling
in education. Ishan Gupta, MD of edtech startup Udacity India had said
at the time, reskilling has become a necessity for people to hold
gainful employment in the face of the automation revolution.
According to World Economic Forum, over half of the workers in India will need reskilling by 2022, to meet the future talent demands.
Narendra Modi government has launched
Skill India initiative in 2015. The programme had aimed to train more
than 400 Mn people in different skills by 2022. However till June 2018,
only 40 Mn people were trained, wherein 25 Mn people were trained under
the skill development and entrepreneurship ministry. In the 2019
election manifesto, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had proposed the use of deeptech to aid the development of the agricultural sector.
Technology continues widespread disruption of education industry
EdTech (education technology) is the latest and greatest innovation to hit the academic field, and it is changing the industry from the inside out, from every possible angle.
In short, it is a complete digital revitalisation.
The entire world has faced its many challenges in the form of technological evolution and advanced digitalisation. For example, education is
an inherently traditional faction all around, but the weight of global
evolution in the gravitational shift towards complete digitalisation
around the world, has forced education to rethink its approach, to
rewire itself to realign with the way of the modern world. It took some
time (and a lot of apprehension on the academic industry’s part), but we
are finally beginning to see the start of technological disruption in
the education industry.
EdTech (education
technology) is the latest and greatest innovation to hit the academic
field, and it is changing the industry from the inside out, from every
possible angle. In short, it is a complete digital revitalisation.
Education today is more efficient, more easily accessible, and faster
than ever. It has not been an easy road, and there are still challenges
that lurk around hidden bends in the road, but this is the beginning of
an exciting journey for education and its future in the wake of
widespread digitalisation and technological advancement.
Breaking down geographical barriers in global academics
One of the most
consistently ongoing problems in traditional education has always been
the lack of inclusivity in terms of access to education in general.
Traditional academic institutions operated mostly (if not solely) on the
basis of students having to have access to the campuses, as well as the
time to dedicate to the studies that those campuses were obviously
there to serve for. EdTech has introduced online learning, a modern
function in education that allows students to study from anywhere in the
world – all they need is a stable internet connection and a reliable
device to use to complete their studies. That is the power of EdTech in
vivid, brilliantly vibrant motion.
Taking EdTech to all-new heights
EdTech is so exciting because it opens students and educators alike
to a whole new frontier in learning and teaching, making it easier than
ever for everyone to have complete and exciting reach. Not only is
learning itself available online now as well as traditionally, but so
are the learning materials and the course information. Students can
literally do it all, from anywhere in the world, on their own time and
their own terms. Additionally, EdTech is bringing in personalised
learning on an unprecedented scale, making it easier than ever for
students to absorb content at their own pace. This ensures no student is
left behind, or forgotten, in what can be a chaotic environment for
anyone.
Finally, EdTech
introduces a whole new facet to the education industry for potential
career trajectory later in life. A new faction in education inevitably
introduces new jobs, and the generations currently experiencing EdTech
will have a strong grasp on its potential and its depth by the time it
comes to their own career decisions. These days, students can study a
whole new league of course offerings, as well as traditional courses, as
part of their own professional trajectory. Whether that means studying
courses in PGP in AI and Machine Learning,
or going to arts schools to obtain a degree in the arts, modern
learners can have it all, thanks to EdTech development and further
advancement.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 1:42 PM on Friday, May 24th, 2019
4 weeks ago we interviewed BetterU (BTRU:TSXV) CEO Brad Loiselle from his head office in Ottawa with the title “BetterU On The Move In India With Partnerships, Products and Personnel†Â
2 weeks ago we interviewed him again from India where he and Gurmit Singh were on a whirlwind tour of meetings with large potential customers
Today, we finished our BTRU tour with Brad in London and, specifically, in the back seat of a good old black cab as he raced for the airport after his final meeting. He simply couldn’t wait to be back in Ottawa on Monday because – as you can see from his energy – it appears the trip went exceedingly well from a customer acquisition point of view as Brad expects to be closing meaningful deals in the very near future. Moreover, the London meetings were tied to financing pitches with VERY big family offices. Â
This last few weeks has put a new light on BTRU, with significant advances in product and personnel, which appear to be preparing for highly anticipated new customers. Only time will tell but how many CEO’s would be speaking with their shareholders from 3 different countries over the last 4 weeks if they weren’t feeling pretty confident? Â
Grab a coffee, watch this great interview with Brad Loiselle and let us know what you think.
Education in India has improved dramatically over the last three
decades. Schools have become accessible to most children; both student
enrollment and attendance are at the highest level.
The RTE Act guarantees a quality education to a wider range of
students than ever before. However, challenges in teaching and learning
outcomes across all regional, cultural and socioeconomic subsets prevent
us from harnessing the true potential of vast human resource and keep
the country educationally backward.
One of the biggest concerns is to make the present generation
learners future-ready. India is relatively young as a nation with around
28 million youth population being added every year. In 2020, the
average age of an Indian is expected to be 29 years, while it will be 37
for China and 48 for Japan.
However, India’s high youth population won’t be of help to the economy if universal education is not achieved all over India.
Improving education is a critical area of investment and can be a game changer to achieve sustained economic growth by tap into its young workforce. The weak foundation in primary education derails the lives, careers, and productivity of millions of our citizens. With 65 per cent of the population residing in rural India, education in rural belt truly deserves much more attention.
Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) shows that even though the
number of rural students attending schools is rising, but more than half
of the students in fifth grade are unable to read a second grade text
book and are not able to solve simple mathematical problems. Not only
this, the level of math and reading is further declining. Some of the
major problems that plague the rural education system in India are
related to both quality and access of teaching learning facilities and
basic infrastructure. While dearth of teachers, teacher absenteeism and
poor quality of teaching are directly affecting the learning outcomes,
poor and inadequate infrastructural facilities in terms of classrooms
and benches, blackboards, playgrounds, toilets, water, etc, also hamper
the delivery of quality education and make the school unattractive to a
child.
The foundation to turn India into a strong nation has to be laid down
at primary and rural levels and so the quality of education right from
the beginning should be excellent. A complete reform in education system
is required which should start from policies which promote talent in
teaching system. Teachers are the backbone of education.
All efforts should be made to hire the best teachers, keep them
engaged and motivated, reduce their absenteeism by making them more
accountable and provide regular in-service training and capacity
building to upgrade their skills. To improve the student’s attendance
in the schools, especially in villages, the school curriculum should
involve extracurricular activities and fun-learning exercises. Education
and text books should be made interesting. Textbooks related to their
culture, their traditions and values should also be there so as to
create their interest in studies.
The reasons behind so many drop-outs in spite of free education should be found out as this is a hurdle on the road to progress. Sensitizing
parents to make them understand the importance of education would
certainly be helpful. This can be done through skits, street plays and
holding meetings with the parents on a quarterly basis to make a student
excel in his life. Emphasis should be given to educating a girl.
Though girl education has improved in our country a lot has to be done in this sector. In
this digital era when technology is touching every aspect of society
and changing it dramatically, rural education can also greatly benefit
from appropriate use of technology. Smart Classrooms which facilitate
online teaching create extended classrooms for interactions and
discussions. An expanded option is to record classroom courses in a real
time and use it for teaching the students who cannot attend the
classes. Rural education needs e-learning technologies. Apart from this,
audio and video conferencing should be made part of the education
system in rural India.
Teachers at the schools are not well equipped with the gadgets. So
teachers should be given printers, laptops, for giving notes and notices
to the students. By using technology the problem of unqualified
teachers can also be solved. Dropout rates have reduced to a great
extent wherever digital and computer-aided education has been introduced
in rural schools.
Several initiatives in public private partnerships are playing
significant role in making rural India tech savvy and in providing
better education. These efforts have given positive results. We have to
take proper remedial measures with a sense of urgency and create better
learning environments for rural children so that they are able to
participate in nation building process and reap the full potential of
our demographic divided.
Authored article by Dr Neelam Gupta President and CEO AROH Foundation
Edtech startup Cialfo raises USD 3 million Series A round
By Robin Moh
College application platform Cialfo raised USD 3 million in a Series A funding round led by DLF Ventures
Other participants include Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital, YK Capital, and some angel investors.
Singapore-based college application platform Cialfo raised USD 3 million in a Series A funding round led by DLF Ventures. Other participants include Enterprise Singapore’s investment arm SEEDS Capital, YK Capital, and some angel investors.
According to Cialfo’s press statement, the startup has raised more
than USD 5 million to date; a figure which Cialfo thinks makes it
Singapore’s best-funded education technology startup. Proceeds of this
round will be used to support the company’s expansion in the US.
Stanley Chia, Rohan Pasari and William Hund founded Cialfo in 2012.
The Singaporean company provides a technology platform that combines the
functionalities of social messaging, task management, and Dropbox to
simplify university applications by allowing for quick communication and
sharing of documents among consultants, teachers, and students. Parents
can also receive automated responses from the system.
The education technology company began by charging for
personalization and consultation services; the platform is free to use.
However, when the three co-founders later added a software-as-a-service
(SaaS) business model, where Cialfo sells tech-enabled services to
customers from countries such as India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and
Mongolia.
The company has since sold its consultancy arm to another Singapore-based provider, ChangedEdu, in 2017.
Today, Caiflo has offices across the globe in Singapore, New York,
Beijing, and New Delhi. Some of the company’s clients include
India’s Oberoi International School, Singapore’s Hwa Chong Institution,
China’s Beijing No. 4/BHSF, Poland’s American School of Warsaw, and
Netherlands’ School of The Hague.
The company’s current plan is to increase students’ access to quality
American education opportunities regardless of their background.
Posted by AGORACOM-JC
at 11:36 AM on Tuesday, May 14th, 2019
2 weeks ago we interviewed BetterU (BTRU:TSXV) CEO Brad Loiselle from his head office in Ottawa with the title “BetterU On The Move In India With Partnerships, Products and Personnel”
Today, he’s literally on the move as we interview him directly from India where he and Gurmit Singh, the company’s newest addition and Former Managing Director of Yahoo India and CEO Forbes India, are on a whirlwind tour of meetings throughout India where they are presenting BetterU to some very (VERY) large companies and organizations. As you will soon see for yourself, reaction and response to the BetterU Education Marketplace has been excellent, with the company expecting to generate meaningful agreements in the very near future.
The great thing about interviews is that CEO’s can’t hide behind text based corporate jargon. Rather, investors are given a great opportunity to read body language, facial expressions and voice fluctuations to gauge just how confident (or lack thereof) the CEO actually is. I know I do …. and I told Brad on-air that his confidence and happiness was bursting through the screen. Adding to this is the fact that Gurmit Singh was sitting right beside him, without a mic, chiming in some answers, which leads viewers to believe things are going really well.
Naturally, we’ll let you be the final judge. Grab a coffee, watch this great interview with Company CEO, Brad Loiselle and let us know what you think.
“Reskilling and upskilling cannot happen in a classroom. Scaling up education only happens digitally,†Raghav says, adding that lifelong learning is the “keyâ€.
India sees thousands of students graduate from engineering colleges
every year, but very few are trained in the skills that employers
actually need. More than 12 million students graduate every year, and
1.2 million of these are engineers.
According to a March 2019 report by employability assessment company Aspiring Minds, over 80 percent of these engineering graduates are “unemployable for any job in the knowledge economyâ€. The report was based on research conducted in India, China, and the US.
The reasons could be many: theoretical teaching in colleges; lack of
technical, cognitive, and linguistic skills; dearth of skills to work in
new-age jobs, and the absence of proper internships. However, the
proliferation of edtech platforms is slowly bridging the gap of availability of skilled talent.
The many online learning platforms include Mountain View,
California-based Coursera, which sees India as its second largest market
after the US.
“Unfortunately, gross enrolment in higher education in India
is not very good. According to government statistics, 25 percent
children enrol for higher education,†says Raghav Gupta, Director, India
and APAC, Coursera.
But with technology changing the way the world works and this gig
economy here to stay, it’s imperative for India to ensure that students
and graduates have the right skills, and for the workforce to stay up to
speed with modern tools and techniques.
“India is one of the largest regions, in terms of users in the world.
We have four million users and all this happened without any
marketing,†Raghav says.
In a candid interview with YourStory, Raghav Gupta discusses
how Indians are learning, why reskilling is important to stay relevant,
and why AI and Blockchain courses are popular.
“Reskilling and upskilling cannot happen in a classroom.
Scaling up education only happens digitally,†Raghav says, adding that
lifelong learning is the “keyâ€.
One of the most popular courses on Coursera today is data science, which teaches how to mine, analyse, and use data in creative ways to generate business value.
Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain are no longer buzzwords, and the
platform is also working on training students in these modern
technologies. Founder Andrew NG teaches students about AI and technology experts like Don Tapscott teach Blockchain.
Globally, the company works with 1,800 companies that are part of the
Coursera platform. In India, it works with 50 companies, including Axis
Bank, Yes Bank, Infosys, Wipro, Airtel, and Tata Communications. It is
also working with the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Corporation to
skill 5,000 students, and with 150 colleges in the State. The online
education platform has also tied up with Manipal University.
At present, India has 800 universities, 40,000 colleges, and 30 million students attending college.
A KPMG-Google report released in May 2017 said the online higher
education market is expected to touch $1.96 billion by 2021. Reskilling
and online certification courses currently account for a majority (38
percent) of the online higher education market, the report added.
Raghav Gupta
There are plenty of startups working to help professionals remain
relevant in their industry, including AEON Learning, Udemy, Edureka,
Udacity, and SimpliLearn.
Coursera believes that it is only by reskilling that several Indians
can join industries like banking and telecom, which are going digital as
they traverse into the future. Across the world, 100 million people
have upskilled on the platform. And Coursera is keen to ride this online
learning wave in India as well.