Sriram Subramanian, an economics graduate from Brown University, worked in the US politics, got a postgraduate degree in Transport Modelling from UCL and spent three years with PwC consulting on the UK taxes before returning to India to work in education sector.

His venture Callido Learning is a Mumbai-based tech startup which develops online skill development programme. Talking about the education scenario the world over Sriram thinks, “The best universities around the world expect students to solve problems, write effectively and think critically. Employers expect the same skills at a higher level.” Sriram is one of three co-founders of Callido Learning.

Chinmaya Kulkarni and Madhu Agrawal, Sriram’s co-founders at Callido Learning also embody these transferable skills. Chinmaya is a geologist turned energy consultant turned automotive researcher while Madhu is a UK qualified solicitor who quit her job at a Magic Circle law firm to become an educationist.

“Sometime in 2013, we asked ourselves what the biggest challenge was and why we weren’t already working on it”, says Madhu. “It became glaringly obvious that the greatest challenge was the gap between our content-driven education system and real-world demands.

A survey by the Economist confirms this view: business leaders ranked ‘problem-solving’, ‘team-work’, ‘communication’ and ‘critical thinking’ as the skills are essential to workplace success.

To address this challenge, the Callido team developed an interactive online programme called ‘Basecamp’ which simulates a research project. “Students in Basecamp develop critical skills through immersive scenarios and challenging exercises. The online platform makes it flexible – take it anywhere, anytime. The data analytics and personalised reports allow parents and teachers to track progress,” says Chinmaya, who takes pride in teaching 21st century skills with 21st century tools.

The initial version of Basecamp is aimed at students of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. By popular request, a version of the programme for a wider audience will be released later this year.

The World Education Summit 2015 awards saw a gamut of innovations being recognised and those schools who had initiated optimal usage of ICT in learning. The awards were categorised under School Education, Higher Education, Private Sector, Government Sector, Non-Government, Start-Ups, Skill Development

Vocational Education in Economic Development

With the country having a tough time in the employment sector, and universities rolling out desirable candidates, a gap to enable vocational jobs to the youth and not being suitable for the market has been prevalent. Policy makers should buckle up to engage educational institutions in carrying out courses to meet the demand inux in the employment sector

Prof (Dr) Satish C Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director, Maharaja Group of Colleges

Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, “Our youth are our strength, let the youth get those skills that contribute towards a string nation.” Since we start our education just by taking knowledge, nothing is taught in terms of jobs. If you really look at vocational education, we don’t have a single university offering vocational courses.

Usage of Big Data & Cloud Computing

Rapid advancement of technology and the development of emerging technologies such as cloud computing, the issues of reach and quality are addressed by enabling low cost implementation of IT tools

MANEESH SHARMA, CRO, WizIQ

Cloud is helping the educational organisations and institutions to look at applications on a standalone basis. The other thing to be looked at is the concept of mobile. With the help of Cloud applications, one is being able to deliver information from various applications to mobile devices. It is now possible to deliver nuggets of information to learners, which is also called micro learning. Looking at the usage of mobile phone, it’s pre-dominantly notification-based. So, with the Cloud application, one is able to push information to students, thereby increasing the interaction between the teacher and the student. It helps bring in the concept of flip classrooms. However, looking at the consequences of Cloud, because of the proliferation of applications, the amount of data which is created is anonymous.

POINTS TO PONDER:

• Digital learning empowers to accelerate educational growth
• Big Data and Cloud will be essential keys for Internet of Things
• Cloud helps in developing micro learning skills
• Cloud promotes flipped classrooms trend to a great extent
• Find apt skills required for computer science and engineering

Bridging the Skills Gap

The industry academia in India has been mostly on the go to obtain a premium learning in its schools and ensuring the students garner niche education to meet the rising demands of employment sector. In the present times of knowledge economy, a productive interface between academia and industry is a critical requirement. Failure to recognise each other’s role will reduce the import of interface between institutes and industry and this can potentially give rise to mismatch between demand and supply of quality manpower. The session on Bridging the Skills Gap showcases how the void can be filled

GURMEET SINGH DHALIWAL, Chairman, Baba Farid Group of Institutions

India and Canada have similar issues in the higher education domain including ensuring access, quality, establishing effective relationship with countries, maintaining academic independence and of course skills gap

In an industry where there is a plethora of opportunities to look forward to, what is left is searching for the right candidate. It should be clear what we look in a prospective employee. An employee will provide the necessary attitude and skills if correct guidance is initiated. You give them attitude, we will teach them skills, you can’t teach a horse to climb a tree. It takes time to generate the right amount of skills. It should be harnessed during the employment. Agar kuch nahi kar sakte toh skills karlo (If nothing works, then one should do skill education). This is what comprehended from skill learning, but it is a different picture altogether. The National Skills Quality Framework has some key aspects: Quality of training, infrastructure assessment, adequate compensation, in short, the universe of skill development is doing fine. The current government has ensured to practice National Skills Day, for skilling the abilities. The basic thing which an employer should keep in mind is developing the curriculum, make them understand their future of the job. Apprentice opportunities like skill slab opens the gate to teach, participate in assessment, encourages the employer to recognise the skills. But there is a gap, not much is explored yet for retiring employers. These should be used as trainers, we should hire them, pursue them or request them to train, working professionals, industry should move into hiring certified candidates. We should make skilling aspirational for both boys and girls. Academia should set skill lab to provide simulation to the students and generate in them the real time look and feel. Academia is a far away thing for college dropouts, plenty of things needs to be done, and this is just a drop in the ocean. 70 per cent haven’t even seen college. We should not get overwhelmed by skill development, a much larger role is required. HARSH MEHROTRA, Head Trainings, Mahendra Skills Training & Development Pvt Ltd

In today’s time ensuring the right vocation to the right resource is very necessary. Today, a business magnate tells me how to teach or train teachers, where an industry expert comes and tells me, I will teach you the assessment process, how to create a curriculum. My core profession is been taken by somebody, that is the issue that needs to be taken care of. Doctors, bureaucrats and engineers acquire basic skills that are common to all professions. The university can provide them the right choice, the right market, mandatory basic human competence, professional and business combined together. PROF MITHILESH DIXIT, Vice Chancellor, Career Point University, Kota

POINTS TO PONDER: An employee will provide the necessary attitude and skills if correct guidance is initiated Right vocation should be given to the right resource Don’t ignore the responsibility for the people of the unorganised sector Experiential learning cannot replace any form of learning

The topic regarding skill development is very interesting. I have done my engineering in automobile as I was interested in working with cars. But after four years, I ended up not having a job. My only option was to work in a garage and gain experience. I sensed that my degree was not good enough for my practical skills and unable to relate with the physical components of the car. We developed two elements in partnership with institutions and set up an automotive lab to help students feel the different components, simulation exercises, etc. We also want to partner with skill development firms. A conventional way of learning or experiential learning cannot replace any form of learning. VARUN SURI, Senior Manager,Automotive Aftermarket, Robert Bosch Engineering and BusinessSolutions Private Limited

After years of research, to bridge the skills gap, we at BFGI (Baba Farid Group of Institutions) have come up with a unique model for skilling India, the solution side of it. India by far has the largest higher education institutes in the world. The engineering colleges here are growing at 20 per cent per annum and the Bschools are growing at 60 per cent per annum. The academia is not getting sufficient placements, and the industry is not getting good employees, quality side needs to be looked upon. There is a lack of quality supply, and there could be multiple reasons for it: lack of regular industry academia interface, lack of job oriented and skilled based curriculum, lack of evaluation and solutions of practical skills and lack of internship and apprenticeship opportunities in the academic world.

A person having knowledge cannot ensure that he has skills too. We expect our teachers to have a different set of skills. As per our society, we perceive the person taught in the class to be at a lower, we have engrained certain misconceptions in our mindset like creating a hierarchy. Some things have to be changed. We cannot ignore our responsibility we have for our society. We should think about the people employed in the unorganised sector. And working on a methodology through equipments must be taken care of as human resources are free resources in the country. For the research labs, the government recruits best of talent and trained them for two years. It is an investment for their training, and personalities are generated for the industry we cater to. There’s time for us from industry side to reflect upon. PROF SWAPAN BHATTACHARYA, Director, National Institute of Technology, Surathka

Education sector witnessing improvement everyday, quality has become a major factor to treat it right. Kalthoom Al Balooshi, Executive Director, Education Development, Knowledge and Human Development Authority, Dubai talks to Prathiba Raju of Elets News Network (ENN) about Dubai’s perspective of Indian education

There are a lot of opportunities for the Indian education sector to explore in Dubai. Can you please elaborate on it?

Over the past seven years, Dubai has seen a growth rate of five to seven per cent in the education sector. Moreover, in the Indian community itself, there is a need for 40 per cent curriculum schools after the new expansion. So, there are huge opportunities for quality Indian curriculum schools to come and expand in Dubai and for the expertise who understand the Indian curriculum to come and be a part of the education sector in Dubai.

What expectations do you have from the primary and higher education in India. How do you see the Indian education sector from Dubai’s perspective?

Back in Dubai, we have a definition for quality, which is defined by the inspection rating, national agenda and our resultant terms and conditions. So, that is our expectation when it comes to quality and we also understand that it’s all about having students who are able to achieve and do something different, who are ready for the future. This is the type of quality we are looking for, things that are focussed on the students’ achievements.

How many Indian students schools are there in Dubai? How do you think it will develop by 2020?

There are almost 80,000 students with 31 Indian curriculum schools in Dubai and we are expecting around 40 per cent more students in the Indian curriculum schools. That’s what the numbers tell us and we understand that there might be some different numbers coming up too because this is the general growth rate and it might be much more in the future. Looking at the latest statement, the Prime Minister of India, on his visit to Dubai, said, “We undersatnd that there are few government schools and we will be working as well on increasing the Indian curriculum schools in Dubai.”

How do you see the Indian education sector from Dubai as a whole in graphs?

The Indian education sector is attracting different nationalities and is actually addressing the need of the market because of the population of the Indian community. It’s growing very fast, attracting the needs, and working hard towards the quality education.

What differences do you see in the Indian education sector when compared to the UK and US-based education system?

We have two of the Indian curriculm schools, which are rated as outstanding when compared to US, UK and others. In terms of rating, to get outstanding is quite high but they are actually addressing the whole need.

So, it’s not the curriculum, it’s how they are delivering the curriculum. If a curriculum is able to reach outstanding, it covers all the requirements from achievement of the student to his well-being. We can expect more schools which will be under the outstanding rating.

Dubai has some 200 million dollar revenue for Indian curriculum. Can you just elaborate on it how it is right now and how it will be in the next five years?

Depending on the capacity, it could be doubled or tripled.