The discourse of careers has changed. Employers today care less about qualifications, and more about the value you can add. That's why skill building has become the cornerstone of employability in India. And the game changer here is the advent of institutional partnerships—where providers of industry and academia join hands to prepare learners for the world of work.

Why Partnerships Matter By themselves, most young students find it hard to apply learning in the classroom to real life. It is here that partnerships between a training centres and industry stakeholders come into play. Organisations such as Aptech play the role of a bridge, creating skill development courses that are pertinent and future-oriented. With industry players included in the learning equation, learners don't merely learn concepts; they implement it in a manner that employers truly appreciate.

The Future of Skill Development in India When we speak about India's future of skill development, three trends emerge clearly. First, education is turning more experiential, with actual projects instead of memorisation. Second, education is becoming more modular, enabling students to move up or specialise quickly as companies change. And third, there is a greater emphasis on lifelong learning—skills are no longer an up-front investment but something to continue adding to over the years. Aptech has been one step ahead of this trend, not only providing education but also continuously streamlining its curriculum as per the market requirements. This model of co-creation ensures that learners are never left in a vacuum. They are learning for jobs that are present today and will be shaping tomorrow.

What This Means for Students For a student, partnerships mean opportunity. Picture taking a course where your learning room time is connected to sector workshops, visitor lectures, and even live company projects. The effect is instant. You enter the world with a portfolio, hands-on assurance, and the confidence to bag opportunities. An industry-linked skill development centre also makes you future-proof in a much shorter span of time. Rather than waiting to "learn on the job," you enter a position with a head start. That's why employers prize candidates who graduate from structured, partnership-based programs as they know these professionals can perform from day one.

The Aptech Approach Aptech has built its legacy on this very mindset. Spanning decades, the brand has established deeply connected networks in animation, digital content creation, aviation, retail, IT & hardware, and more. Its vocational training courses are not created in silos but with dialogue with industries that are currently recruiting. The future of skill development in India is being penned through collaboration. Standalone institutions might find it difficult to cope or adapt, but institutions that are open to collaboration will usher in the next set of employable, versatile professionals.

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Posted by: Ajay Singal, December 23, 2016

As faculty who has been among students for quite some time, I often feel what makes a student industry-ready (or place-able as some would call). Is it responsibility of education system right from school to professional college or student himself in creating on(off)-campus experiences? Many of us have been part of the race to do well in various competitive examinations, secure admission to top ranking colleges that will land us in secured well-paying jobs.

Anecdotal evidence reveals that current education system is geared to prepare textually and leaves too much in the hands of students to experience and learn. Colleges are to be blamed partially for it because they exercise little focus and accountability in achieving the intended student outcomes. While growing up as teens, many had several unanswered questions and ideas that called for constant guidance and nurturing. Absence of well-trained, right skilled counselors in schools/colleges made that impossible to do and achieve.

Advancement in digital technologies has provided an opportunity to take up that challenge and offer a solution to school and colleges. Digital induced disruption is happening in the education industry. TASC (technology, analytics, social media and cloud) platform is an opportunity to overcome the shortcoming of old education systems. Education providers must move faster to adopt TASC to align education processes and delivery. There are many edu-tech startups who are redefining the meaning of education and creating a whole new digital economy out of it. One such digital platform that is riding the wave to cause disruption is Unfurl Technologies.

Unfurl Technologies - a team of technocrats - deliberated and came up with an technology based alternative, UnfurlMinds, to address some of the issues faced by current education system. It imbibed a vision of creating a knowledge ecosystem of participants (students) joining hands with other participants to make learning easier, fun-filled and relevant to future careers. It is a semi-structured networking platform in the sense that it is neither a formal professional network nor a wispy social media. UnfurlMinds operates both on the web and as a mobile based app to provide an integrated, user-friendly platform for students, teachers, employers and parents to connect.

Students get a non-fee based platform to showcase their talents that are not easier to get noticed. They can write blogs share ideas, notes and get connected with alumni who are also on this knowledge sharing network. It makes a student industry-ready by providing an opportunity to connect with the professionals in a right away. The importance of good CV is known to all, the good CV can be built by gaining practical experience and demonstrable skills. Therefore, connecting to the prospective employers to get short term projects, internships and freelance jobs is the key.

It is a widely accepted knowledge that companies prefer good communicators. If a student flunks due to poor communication skills, it is embarrassment to both sides. UnfurlMinds gives a chance to employers to know beforehand, hobbies, interests, skills of prospective employees. They can even organize regular events to attract the candidates possessing the required skill sets.

Teachers can administer assignments, take attendance online and hence, the student don't get a chance to excuse the class. Such features are of a great help in terms of managing the school/college system. Many colleges were left behind in putting proper ERP systems to use. With the app, college can virtually connect to teachers, students , classrooms and the classes.Using analytics colleges can profile the skill needs to identify the gaps and keep their students industry relevant.