India is set to become the ed-tech capital of the world, with the industry’s value rising from $750 million in 2020 to $4 billion by 2025 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39.77 per cent, according to an India Brand Equity Foundation report of November 2021. One of the drivers of this change will be startups and other companies that are disrupting the traditional educational market of the country by leveraging technology to create solutions.
Pune-based RISE was founded in April 2021 and designs and delivers programmes with an eye on industry requirements. It collaborates with Maharashtra Institute of Technology World Peace University and industry leaders such as KPMG, Grant Thornton, Aeon Research, ThriveDX SaaS, and Germany’s SRH Mobile University.
The courses include PG in Business Analytics and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and Cybersecurity. The ed-tech platform has recently launched courses in Business Management, Finance and Accounting, and Marketing Research. FinTech is another subject in the pipeline for RISE as “there are enough job opportunities in these fields that most people are not aware of”.
“We have seen that one in five graduates in India does not find employment. This is because the skills that they have do not match what the industry is looking for. The problem is mainstream and not limited to Tier II and Tier III institutions. Even good institutions sometimes struggle to find placement for their entire classrooms, and this is because there is a skill gap in the delivery of education,” says Gaurav Bhatia, chief business officer, RISE. The company will start placement of its first batch of students – from the Data Science and Business Analytics streams – in June.
The syllabus includes industry projects with leading firms and is geared to enable students to adapt to an evolving workspace. At present, around 60 per cent of RISE’s student base comprises working professionals looking to up-skill and have found the online model convenient. They are able to balance work with their studies since classes are held on weekends while gaining insights and getting to network and connect with industry professionals and mentors over the week.
“When it comes to executive education, the model will always be outside the working hours and this has worked for us,” says Bhatia. The remaining are students, who come on board as part of the company’s partnership with universities. “We ensure that our content is available to the faculty. We train the faculty to take the programme forward or, in some cases, we get our faculty to take the programme, so there are multiple models,” says Bhatia.
The company envisions growth in the cybersecurity domain in India in the near future, with “millions of job opportunities available”. “If you look at our higher education system, many colleges offer a computer science degree yet few are currently producing cybersecurity professionals. There is very little awareness about the growth in the sector,” says Khyaati Jain, head of Partnerships and Operations at RISE.
Last year, RISE launched a pilot project for Public Policy. “We had a very good response — 200 students enrolled in the last six months. That’s another area we want to expand into,” adds Jain. The company is also venturing into the medical education field with the aim of re-skilling and up-skilling public health professionals, such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists, to mention a few. “This area is underplayed in the country but there are enough avenues for them,” she says.
Source: indianexpress.com
