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New Education Policy will open up a pool of opportunities: IntelliPaat

The new education policy seeks to restructure school curricula and pedagogy in a new '5+3+3+4' design, so that school education can be made relevant.

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Aanchal Ghatak
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top IT skills

Last year,  the Union Cabinet approved a new education policy for the 21st century. It was designed to maximize the benefits of digital and online education in India while mitigating the downsides.

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As we are again into another lockdown, it has become imperative that we should be ready with some alternative mode of education and this is where online education has come into the picture.

Intellipaat is an e-learning and professional certification company for software developers, IT administrators, and other professionals, headquartered in Bangalore, India. The training is offered in three major modes: Online instructor Led Trainings, Self-paced e-learning trainings, and Corporate Trainings.

We talked to Diwakar Chittora, CEO & Founder, IntelliPaat, about their platform. Excerpts from an interview: 

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DQ: Why are upskilling courses coming to the mainstream, especially in the corporate sector?

Diwakar Chittora: Upskilling the existing employees always carries the better worth compared to hiring any new employee for the required skillsets and here are some of the reasons to justify the same:

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Existing employee’s gives you always an edge towards their loyalty also the employer knows the value they add to their organization as well as helps in better planning and execution of projects. It takes a lot of time to hire new employees and get them adjusted to the company culture.

An interviewer spends maximum 1- 2 hours with the new candidate and the maximum evaluation is done on checking technical skills required for the job but there is always a risk about how the new candidate will perform in the organization, his attitude towards the work / company, etc.

Also it takes time its own time to get the trust built for a new employee. If required skills are niche it also becomes a costly affair by hiring a new person at a much higher package along with risk of joining delay or no show at a last moment which puts the project timelines in bad shape.

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DQ: Is there a rise in the expectance of upskilling courses among Indian Professionals and how has the pandemic giving it a nice boost?

Diwakar Chittora: Due to the pandemic, there are many ups and downs in the world, including businesses. Many sectors are majorly hit like automobile, real estate, tourism, Hotel, etc. India’s GDP went down sharply at the beginning of the lockdown and it is in a recovery phase but it will at-least a year or two to get back to normal.

Coming to the expectancy of upskilling courses, due to heavy losses by companies which resulted in mass lay off which has created a sense of insecurity everywhere. This is the main reason everyone understands that if they don’t upskill themselves or get acquainted with the new digital skills, they will be at risk of being laid off or replaced by someone else if their company business gets impacted by covid19.

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Also most of the people are working from home and have enough time to learn and invest in themselves for their future growth.

DQ; The current status of upskilling scenario in India vis-a-vis the world?

Diwakar Chittora: India and USA are the two countries dominating the global software/IT industry. While the USA has been the largest developer of IT solutions for a long time now, India has also emerged as a key player in the industry because of its demographic dividend as well as skilled workforce. A large number of MNCs are outsourcing their IT solutions and skilled knowledge from India.

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Therefore, India is not only a sweet spot as far as its demographics are concerned but also, the country has a great opportunity to supply a skilled workforce to the rest of the world. Further, the increased penetration of technology is reinforcing the demand for ‘human’ skills such as communication, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving. To ensure that the workers can move to the emerging roles with the relevant set of skills, upskilling is required. Hence, the ever-increasing demand for upskilling courses in India is self-explanatory.

Just like in the USA, the demand and availability of skilling programmes, which can help the workforce to take advantage of newly generated job opportunities and support them through transitions, are rising.

DQ: Growth story of IntelliPaat and how they have managed to provide such a wide array of upskilling courses

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Diwakar Chittora; We have been in the market for a long time and pretty much everything that we have done and continue to do is a huge learning curve. Being a start-up we are very agile in the way we proceed with emerging trends and requirements. We have quite strong and thoughtful processes in place that revolve around quick learning as well as understanding where a person is facing difficulty whether in terms of understanding the content, delivery of pedagogy, assignments, curriculum or job career services.

We keep revisiting our process every week to make sure they are aligned with the students' approach. This has helped us create a very effective process around curriculum creation as well as program delivery. We are associated with various industry leaders, highly skilled professionals including recruiters and CXO level experts who are actively engaged in understanding the emerging trends of the market as well as the ability of our workforce to serve these demands. Based on this understanding, we go on to create our courses, making sure they are in line with what students really need.

DQ; Has the recent push by the Indian Government helped to bring employee empowerment in the forefront?

Diwakar Chittora: There is a large segment of people who want to pursue higher studies, explore various career opportunities and enhance their growth prospects. However, many of them fail to fulfil their dreams due to various reasons - financial limitation, personal limitation, family commitment or sudden responsibilities.

With the New Education Policy in place, the universities are allowed to deliver online classes, online degree programs, online diploma programs etc. which will open up a pool of opportunities and a huge market space for these candidates who want to upskill, pursue a good career but were unable to do so due to some reasons as discussed above. We see a lot of attraction for some of the programs that we have.

Though it is too early to predict the upcoming trends or results of this initiative; we are hopeful of a lot of improvements, wider opportunities and better times ahead. We consider it a great initiative by the Government of India to make education accessible for everyone regardless of location.

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