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What Will Be The Biggest Edtech Trends In 2020?

• The focus today is more on immersive experience-based learning & vocational and skill-based training
• Digital innovation is disrupting and redefining India’s education landscape
• Interactivity has taken centre stage and data and analytics are playing a key role

By: Meha Agarwal

From the ancient to modern era, Indian education has transformed from gurukuls to digital learning platforms and from handwritten manuscripts to app-based programs on smartphones and tablets. Education technology or edtech has revolutionised the way education is consumed in the present era.

“Today, stuff you needed to know at a basic level is available for free on Khan Academy or similar platforms. This “Basics for free” is forcing a higher bar for truly quality education.  In future, a platform that provides content, or does a modicum of personalisation will not be enough. A deep understanding of how best to teach and innovation in the way one learns will lead to better learning outcomes of the future, as tech and connectivity are becoming cheaper,” said Manan Khurma, CEO and founder, CueMath.

So, how different education in the modern era is?

Learning today is not limited to books but has become more of an immersive experience. Lalit Singh, COO of Udacity believes that new-age technologies like AI/ ML are pushing boundaries of education as well as pushing the new generation to not only rethink what we learn but how we learn. A virtual journey into a lattice, touch and feel your way, or a virtual journey into Schrodinger’s box, see for yourself if the cat is dead or alive?, or walk back in history to the Indus valley civilisation and experience it. “An experience can be recalled much more easily, cross-referenced at will by our brain, making our learning grow exponentially,” added Khurma.

Virtual learning is now a global norm. Also, peer-to-peer learning apps and web portals are enabling students to connect with their peers and share knowledge, despite geographical barriers. Pearson found that 50% of learners in India use the internet for self-study. The survey also revealed that 78% of Indians believe students today have the benefit of using tech-based tools and smart devices to support their learning.

“The continued reliance on online supplementary courses, video tutorials and edtech platforms indicate a shift is taking place – from classroom learning to virtual learning,” said Arshan Vakil, founder and CEO of Enguru.

Also, the focus today is more on vocational and skill-based training. Khurma believes the rapid pace of change, powered by the immense data engines and breakthrough tech riding on massive data, will now require all of us to re-skill 2-3 times in a duration of a lifetime.

Simplilearn’s CEO and founder Krishna Kumar seconds Manan’s thoughts and believes the edtech startups are willing to encash this opportunity well. “With more learners taking to online skilling programs, the Indian Edtech sector is today going through a phase of metamorphosis. Online training programs are becoming the answer to upskilling and building a strong skill set for career growth and development as a professional,” Kumar added.

Mrinal Mohit, Chief Operating Officer, BYJU’S further emphasises that the advent of digital learning tools has pushed digital consumption of education at home. Interactivity has taken centre stage and data and analytics are playing a key role in personalisation and customisation of learning. “Importance of formative learning and early conceptual understanding has gained more acceptance. Also, edtech startups are now experimenting with vernacular languages to cater to the huge student population outside metros,” he added.

Yet India has a lot to learn from its global peers. As Shobhit Bhatnagar, cofounder and CEO Gradeup highlights, in China companies like VIPKid, Zouyebang, Yuantiku have taken a big leap in Chinese live tutoring market. With focus on student outcomes, they have successfully been able to scale and innovate their products & processes at a rapid speed, resulting in better engagement and effective results for students.

What are the key drivers of India’s edtech growth?

The educational technology sector in India has been growing rapidly. The increasing demand for tech-enabled learning solutions can be gauged by the fact that there are a total 4,450 edtech startups operating in India currently.

According to Datalabs by Inc42, 186 unique edtech startups have raised $1.73 Bn funding since 2014. Key edtech players holding a majority market share in India’s education system include Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu, Coursera, Toppr and Flintobox among others.

“Digital innovation is disrupting and redefining India’s education landscape, widening access to quality education and promoting student engagement. With the advent of EdTech platforms, video-based content, and peer-to-peer learning portals, online learning is taking over traditional, classroom-based learning,” added Enguru’s Vakil.

At the same time, there are several government programmes as well which are playing a key role in propping up edtech. This includes Skill India, SWAYAM, Sankalp (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion), STRIVE, Diksha, National Digital Library, eBasta among others.

Edtech Vision: The Biggest Edtech Trends To Follow In 2020

The industry leaders Inc42 spoke to a shared consensus on one point altogether: the Digital learning tools/aids utilising AI/ ML/ data analytics and offering personalisation and customisation will see greater adoption from teachers, students and parents.

Because of better awareness of the positive impact of digital learning, the coming year will see teachers/educators/ parents/ students increasingly adopt tech-enabled learning tools to support their students’ learning needs. This could be in a classroom or in an after-school learning setup.

Here are a few more trends shared by industry leaders for the upcoming year

“In 2020, learning will go Phygital which will bring in an effective blend of physical and digital learning. Seamless offline-online integration will add a whole new dimension to digital learning and key to delivering impactful learning programs. The environment will be conducive to a homogenous format of learning, which will translate into learners ‘learning’ while they are ‘doing’.” ~ Mrinal Mohit, COO, BYJU’S

“Personalisation is the new trend of 2020  We believe that every student is different and so is his learning needs so our focus going forward would be on providing personalised learning needs.” ~  Anil Nagar, CEO and Cofounder, Adda247

“The demolition of ‘one size fits all’ approach will be the biggest disruption in the edtech industry in 2020.  Usage of live interactive video content, emphasis on building E2Q (Emotional & Employability Quotient) along with subject matter knowledge and adoption of blockchain at the backend, will be the other emerging trends in edtech.” ~ Mayank Kumar, Cofounder and Managing Director, upGrad

“In the year 2020, technology will actually manifest itself in student’s everyday learning rather than just being in the newspapers. We will see a stronger implementation of ML and AI in the next 10 years; giving rise to truly adaptive platforms and personalized learning paths. We also expect demand for physical learning spaces for students, where students have more freedom to experiment and learn by doing.”  ~ Zishaan Hayath, CEO and Founder, Toppr

“The days ahead will witness an increase in access to online education for both students and professionals alike and more learners from non-metro cities taking to online skilling programs. This points towards the need to keep online education more experiential and engaging as well as design programs as per industry standards.” ~ Krishna Kumar, CEO and Founder, Simplilearn

“Lifelong learning has become an essential part of the job and people now understand that constantly upskilling themselves is what keeps them competitive in the job market. AI, ML and data science will continue to dominate the conversation in the workplace. In addition, employees are increasingly focused on improving their soft skills as they play an important role in their holistic development.” ~ Irwin Anand, MD, Udemy India

“Incorporation of gamification into video-based learning modules will be a trend in 2020. The Global Learner Survey released by Pearson suggests that 74-79% of Indians think that YouTube will become a primary learning tool in the near future. Capitalizing on this trend, EdTech companies are incorporating gamification elements such as points, timers and level-enhancement badges into video lessons to drive student engagement and improve knowledge acquisition.” Arshan Vakil, Founder and CEO, Enguru

“I personally feel we need to abandon the blackboard, or the digital blackboard and tech should help us deeply personalise to create the right learning path, medium, tools even for a classroom of one student,” Manan Khurma, founder and CEO, CueMath

Source: https://inc42.com/features/what-will-be-the-biggest-edtech-trends-in-2020/

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.

This Edtech Unicorn Turned Profitable After Tripling Its Revenue in FY19

• Online education market is expected to grow to $1.96 billion by 2021
• 52 per cent compounded annual growth from 2016, according to a 2017 report published by Google and research firm KPMG

By: Shreya Ganguly

Increased Internet penetration and availability of smartphones has made its way into making the world smaller. Technology is also disrupting the education market where the former is leveraged to make learning more engaging and reach students at places with poor schooling infrastructure. One of the giants in this space, BYJU’s turned profitable and recorded a revenue of INR 1,341 crore for the fiscal year which ended on March 31, 2019. This is thrice the amount of INR 490 crore in FY18.

According to the edtech Unicorn, deeper penetration of its services across India and increase in numbers of paid subscribers are the primary drivers of growth.

“We have exceeded our financial goals that we set at the beginning of the year. Expanding our base across smaller towns and cities and introducing new products have been pivotal to our growth. With 60 per cent of our students based outside the metros, the aspiration and need for quality learning has never been higher,” said Mrinal Mohit, chief operating officer, BYJU’s. 

BYJU’s Growth In Numbers

According to the company, it recorded a net profit of  INR 20 crores in FY 18-19. Its gross revenues also increased to INR 1480 crores from INR 520 crores, last fiscal.  

BYJU’s claims to have over 40 million registered users and 2.8 million paid subscribers currently. According to the company, the average number of minutes a student spends on the app has increased from 64 minutes to 71 minutes per day over the last 12 months and the annual renewal rates are as high as 85%. 

“This year, we also launched our product for young learners (Grades 1-3), which completed our learning offerings from grades 1 – 12.  We are also planning to reach out to deeper parts of India by launching programs in vernacular languages. We strongly believe that we have the capability to create a global product that can revolutionize learning for students across the world,” Mohit said. 

Future Plans

The company is now aimed at doubling its revenue to INR 3,000 crore for the current financial year. Apart from this, Mohit also revealed that the company will also soon launch BYJU’s online tutoring which will further accelerate growth and profitability for the current fiscal.

Edtech Market in India

The online education market is expected to grow to $1.96 billion by 2021, a 52 per cent compounded annual growth from 2016, according to a 2017 report published by Google and research firm KPMG.

Online disruption in the education market takes the classroom directly inside the homes of the students thereby getting wider reach. Apart from this, technological development is making education a more interactive experience for children, thereby increasing their engagement rather than one-way classroom lectures. Also, online lectures allow one-on-one attention to students to help them grow at their own pace.

Currently, apart from BYJU’s notable players such as Unacademy, Toppr, Safeducate and GradeUp are looking to disrupt the edtech market.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/344017

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.

Edtech Firm Springboard Raises $11 Mn From Reach Capital, Others To Expand Operations

• Pearson Ventures, IFC, Costanoa Ventures, Learn Capital, and Blue Fog Capital also participated in funding round
• Springboard will invest funds in expanding operations, adding more courses, hire more employees
• Springboard has also partnered with US-based tech giant Microsoft

Aman Rawat

San Francisco and Bengaluru-based online edtech startup Springboard has raised $11 Mn in a post-Series-A funding round led by Reach Capital. Venture capital companies such as Pearson Ventures, International Finance Corporation (IFC), as well as its existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Learn Capital, and Blue Fog Capital also participated in the funding round.

With the recently raised funds, Springboard will expand its operations, add more courses, and bring more talent to the company. “We will use this funding to grow our Indian presence with more courses in design and software engineering and continue our expansion into additional geographies,” said Vivek Kumar, Springboard India’s managing director.

Though the current employee strength of the company stands at 130, Springboard plans to increase the headcount to over 200 in the next few quarters.

Springboard has also partnered with US-based tech giant Microsoft to train and provide jobs to 5,000 students in the analytics profession over the next three years through its new Data Analytics Career Track platform, which is co-developed by the tech company.

Further, in this partnership, Microsoft will provide educational content and access to its tools. On the other hand, Springboard will provide mentorship, support and career services.

Founded in 2013 by Gautam Tambay and Parul Gupta, Springboard is a workforce upskilling edtech startup that offers online courses and extensive mentor-based learning for early and mid-level professionals in data science, UX design, digital marketing, and other technology areas. The company has so far raised $20 Mn in funding.

Highlighting the need for upskilling of developers which comes in every three to five years, Kumar said that the company’s industry-designed programmes, combined with in-depth, one-on-one mentorship and career guidance, enable people to achieve their full potential.

The company claims to have enrolled over 14K students for its programmes worldwide. Notably, in 2019, the company has launched three new programmes for tech learners in India. “Springboard plans to grow its Indian presence with more courses in design and software engineering,” Kumar was quoted as saying.

Kumar further claimed that for its skilling courses, the company has so far maintained a 99.9% success rate in job guarantee programmes.

According to a report by Google and KPMG, the edtech market is expected to have a significant impact on the online education sector, which has the potential to touch $1.96 Bn by 2021 from $247 Mn at present.

The Indian education market is vast, complex, and has innumerable existing gaps. So, despite the proliferation of both Indian and foreign edtech companies, there is still enough scope to leverage the upskilling game.

In India, Springboard competes with startups such as Udacity, Coursera, Udemy, and Progate which are also leveraging their online platforms in helping tech employees upskill their skills and remain relevant to the changing times.

Source: https://inc42.com/buzz/springboard-raises-11-mn-from-reach-capital-others-to-expand-operations/

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.

Can Better Internet Connectivity in India Give Education a Push?

• Leveraging internet connectivity, edtech apps are personalising practice sessions for millions of children
• Using advanced technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning, edtech apps study individual student behaviour

By: Zisshan Hayath

Let’s go back to the time when Facebook first made its entrance in India. Most people didn’t have computers at home – and they would end up travelling a few kilometres just to reach a cyber cafe and access social networks. Instant messages and emails received slower replies and even owning a mobile phone was a luxury for the youth. Cheap mobile data was unheard of.

In just a little over a decade, the scene in India is completely different. Every other person, especially in urban areas, has access to mobile phones and laptops. India has one of the cheapest mobile data plans in the world. This has revolutionised the way mobile phones are used, even perceived.

Today, mobile devices have gone beyond their primary role of interpersonal connectivity. Today, mobile devices are a mode of convenience, entertainment, consumerism and education.

Initially, the term e-learning was only used in the context of large scale MNCs helping their employees learn on the go by eliminating classrooms. In the span of a few years, of the 300 million school going students, several million have registered themselves on e-learning apps.

So how is internet connectivity helping Indian students learn better for better results?

Accessibility:

In a traditional learning setup, quality teachers, books, and infrastructure are only concentrated in metros and education hubs. With the internet becoming easily affordable, eLearning apps leverage this connectivity to ensure that every child in in the country has access to high-quality teachers. Using live classes, children can watch India’s best teachers explain complex concepts, ask questions, and get them answered in real-time.

Personalisation:

The teacher-student ratio in Indian classrooms is extremely skewed, with one teacher for about 30-35 students on average. This number gets worse in tier II and III cities. Due to this, teachers cannot give students any personal attention. They use a one-size-fits-all approach for every child, without considering their aptitude, grasping power, strengths, and weaknesses. Due to India’s vast population and weak infrastructure, it is a mammoth task to improve this.

However, this can be easily resolved using edtech. Leveraging internet connectivity, edtech apps are personalising practice sessions for millions of children. Using advanced technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning, edtech apps study individual student behaviour.

Using this data, they start every student’s practice at a level that they’re comfortable with. The difficulty of questions is then increased until the student meets their individual learning goals.

24×7 Instant Doubt Resolution:

One of the key hindrances in every student’s learning journey is doubts. In a classroom set up, students end up waiting for weeks, if not months until the teacher completes the syllabus and then organises doubt-solving sessions. The end result is that the student’s learning journey is affected and so is their understanding of not just the topic in question, but other topics as well. They end up rote learning these topics, but this does not help when they appear for national level board or competitive exams.

Using internet connectivity, learning apps have created a chat platform where students can ask their questions. They are instantly connected to an expert who resolves their doubt for them in under a minute.

In fact, this platform, often called Live Doubts or Doubts on Chat has become so popular, that edtech apps are using natural language processing to create a bot that can answer student doubts instantly, based on the millions of questions asked earlier. If the bot cannot find an answer, or if the student has any further questions, the student can choose to chat with a live expert. As of now, over 25 percent of all doubts are solved using this bot.

Internet is bringing a revolution in every industry across India. From booking a cab to movie tickets, groceries, and games – every industry has undergone a major shift for the better. It’s now time for parents to embrace edtech and help their children learn better.

(Zishaan Hayath is the Founder and CEO of Toppr, a learning app that provides personalised learning for students studying for boards, Olympiads, and various engineering and medical competitive exams.) Chennai: In little over 3 months since video platform Tiktok ..

Read more at:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/72553189.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

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.

EdTech Platform Vedantu Raises $11M Led by Omidyar Network with Participation from Accel & Others

Round led by Omidyar Network with participation from Accel & overseas Education conglomerate

• Vedantu, an EdTech platform and pioneer of the ‘live online, interactive’ class has raised funds of $11 million (INR 79 crores)
• company’s proprietary technology platform allows interaction between the student and the teacher via an online whiteboard and an audio and video environment.

By: inventiva

Vedantu, an EdTech platform and pioneer of the ‘live online, interactive’ class has raised funds of $11 million (INR 79 crores). The company’s proprietary technology platform allows interaction between the student and the teacher via an online whiteboard and an audio and video environment. Students also access content, take assessments and get their learning report on the platform. Vedantu aims to deploy the majority of these funds for further technology development to create a more personalized LIVE learning experience for students and to develop its Student App.

Vedantu started operations in 2015 and has currently completed 800,000 hours of LIVE classes with a student base of 40,000 from grades 4 to 12 (for CBSE & ICSE Boards) and works with 500 teachers. The teachers who are chosen after a rigorous selection process are spread over 80 cities. Each tutor must maintain a high rating from students to continue teaching.

According to a report by Google and KPMG, the online education industry in India is poised to grow eight times to become a $1.96 billion industry by 2021 as an increasing number of students consume content through e-routes. In this segment, primary, secondary and supplemental education is likely to see the highest uptake and paid user base is estimated to touch 9.6 Mn users in 2021.

According to Vamsi Krishna, Vedantu CEO and Co-Founder, “Our aim at Vedantu has always been to reimagine and improve the way teaching and learning have been happening for decades. Today on Vedantu, thousands of students from all across the world study virtually with teachers, who are located far away from them. By using technology tools, data and AI, we are not just connecting these students to amazing teachers, but we are able to create a superior learning experience for students and aid in their outcome improvement, which is unlike any offline experience. Teaching and learning are set to transform at a rapid pace and our mission at Vedantu is to accelerate these transformations.”

Siddharth Nautiyal, investment partner, Omidyar Network said, “The lowering data costs and availability of high speed internet is making the online teaching model a reality. Vedantu’s one-to-many live classes  are disrupting the market while providing students a meaningful learning experience through ‘star’ teachers and an AI-powered platform to students in over 400 cities. We are excited about our partnership with Vedantu as they build a solution for the next half billion Indians who are coming online for the first time.”

“As one of the early starters, Vedantu is a category defining company in online LIVE tutoring. Their constantly evolving tech platform combines the best of teaching & learning experience making education accessible, affordable and impactful. We are committed to Vedantu’s vision & excited to be a catalyst in this journey”, added Anand Daniel, Accel Partners.

Source: https://www.inventiva.co.in/stories/inventiva/edtech-platform-vedantu-raises-11m-led-by-omidyar-network-with-participation-from-accel-others/

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.

How to address India’s unemployability problem?

• According to a report by KPMG and Google, the Indian edtech market is pegged to touch $1.96 billion by 2021.

Neernidhi Samtani

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”– Nelson Mandela

But how is one supposed to change the world if provided with outdated education?
How is one supposed to even progress if not provided with the platform to change the world after taking the education?

This is the state youth find themselves rather consistently. No, I’m not talking about Senegal or Syria. I’m talking about India which is not just largely unemployed but unemployable.

The unemployability problem

Let’s understand the difference first. Unemployability essentially means that even if there were available jobs, companies wouldn’t hire the student because he is largely substandard and lack skills worth paying for. Unemployability emerges from a wide gap between the level of student’s skills and knowledge resulting from his college education and in the level of what market demands.

The distressing growing number of educated youth (age 15-29) who are “Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)” had increased to 115 million in 2017-18 from 70 million in 2004-5 points to growing “unemployability” depicting a significant problem with education in India.

From my experience in educating students over the past 8 years I have gathered, after graduating most students from Tier 2 & Tier 3 colleges wander in metro cities learning about the market realizing the massive gap in their knowledge and market demand, taking a few short-term courses (computer & communication skills), going for some walk-in interviews and finally settle for anything they can find. This period ranges approximately from 1.5 to 2 years after college.

The “National Employability Report – Engineers 2016” (NERE), by Aspiring Minds, an employment assessment organization found out that nearly 80% of the graduating engineers are unemployable. The above figures reinforce the fact that only 20 per cent of the five million students who graduate every year get employed in India according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

CP Gurnani, CEO & MD of Tech Mahindra resonates with the above findings in an interview given to TOI, “The top 10 IT companies take only 6% of the engineering graduates. What happens to the remaining 94%? If you come to Tech Mahindra, I have created a five-acre tech & learning center. For learnability, skill development and being ready for the market, the onus is now shifting onto the industry.”

Reasons behind unemployability

During all the razzmatazz in the post-liberalisation era while the “mass recruiters” propelled the service economy at the rate of 9% annually, AICTE approved engineering institutes grew to 10,396 in 2018 from a mere 337 in 1991.

But as with every fairy tale, bubbles burst, realities change and supply becomes more than the demand.

Careers started going for a toss and unemployability becomes a two-fold problem in India:

1. Student Mindset: Many are living a myth: getting into a college is the door to a great career.

They fail to seek meaningful advice from the right stakeholders and not just with peers who still believe in the myth of “engineering royalty”.

Only 3.84 per cent of engineers in the country have the technical, cognitive and linguistic skills required for software-related jobs in startups. A recent study by the University of Exeter in the UK listed skills like communication, problem-solving, being self-motivated, organizational, team spirit, adaptability, negotiation as inevitable to the hiring process. Students from Tier 2 & Tier 3 fall short in these parameters in a considerable way and rarely strive to learn these.

Apart from a lack of internships, engineers also have low employability because only 36 per cent do projects beyond their curriculum.

2. Outdated Curriculum and Reluctant Colleges: Student attendance writing assignments are given a priority rather than acquiring expert faculty.

Colleges are not able to upgrade and keep up with the pace of advancement in the market in terms of curriculum and expert faculty. The jobs of the glorified past are becoming redundant. Though the demand for skills like artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, digital marketing and mobile development has been shooting up, only 3 per cent of engineers have these new-age technological skills.

Only 40 per cent of engineering graduates do an internship, while a mere 7 per cent of students do multiple internships and colleges play little or no part in the procurement.

The subjects are taught in a very theoretical manner. Whereas 60 per cent of faculty doesn’t talk about the application of concepts in the industry, only 47 per cent of the engineers attend any industry talk.

Employability vs Employment (NERE)

Employable	Got an Interview Opportunity	Reached Final Round	Employed	Average Salary
19.11 %	72.64 %	51.66 %	19.91 %	3,13,000

Possible solutions

After the IT services and engineering institutes revolution, India saw a third revolution- Start-ups.

According to a report by KPMG and Google, the Indian edtech market is pegged to touch $1.96 billion by 2021.

The best possible solutions to the unemployability problem can be obtained through strategic partnerships and collaborations between Startups, Institutes and Industry.

Startups have a better chance of solving these challenges simply because they have the ability to aggregate and accelerate. When all these stakeholders work as a team with a focus on employability to offer industry-oriented quality education, which can advance as quickly as the technology it can bring about a paradigm shift in mainstream education:

Student Awareness: Students need to learn that one-time education (degrees) will neither guarantee them jobs nor will last through entire working career. Companies are shifting from hiring based on credentials to hiring based on a candidate’s portfolio/projects and experience.

Institute collaborations EdTech startups can collaborate with institutes which provide infrastructure and accreditations keeping the business models “asset light”. Startups can either take the on-campus “Bootcamps” way (E.g. PESTO) providing 2-6 months- coding, soft skills, mock interviews, workshops, industry talks and new age technology courses along with placements in internships or the full take-over way (E.g. Sunstone Eduversity) where the responsibilities for admissions, academics (program design, curriculum, and pedagogy), and placements are presided completely by the startup.

Industry collaborations Startups can diligently make industry collaborations with industry experts and stalwarts for helping prepare a better curriculum in resonance with current market scenario and bringing industry leaders as expert faculty on-board(can be a mix of online-offline lectures) which would help students understand market demands. Collaborations should focus on providing hands-on experience in terms of internships. Placing these students is easier because of trust due to industry collaborations.

Certification Collaborations Institutes or startups can collaborate with other strategic partners like foreign universities and renowned private education companies using their industry-oriented curriculums and opening up new avenues like digital marketing, AI & ML, big data, cloud computing, etc.

We need change. We need it now. We need it at a pace which can only be achieved through strategic collaborations. We need dozens of such startups to keep with the pace of technology advancements. DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author’s own.   Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/the-growth-catalyst/how-to-address-indias-unemployability-problem/