Over the past 2 decades, India has stabilized its position in the world as a operations-based economy.
We are great at execution, be it BPOs, KPOs, software or manufacturing. This was important for us to do, as India has 1/6th of the world’s population and less than 1/20th of the world’s economy. Further, as almost 30% of our population will enter the workforce over the next 10-15 years. We currently need to start becoming one of the largest exporters of Human Capital to the world. We need to be preparing people to work all over the world.
Further, in a country where 25% of the population with the highest IQ is greater than the entire population of the United States and a country which has more honors students than the total number of students in the US, in 2014 the US was the origin for over 90% of the patents filed while India was less than 1%. India produces as many engineers as the entire population of Switzerland. We are ranked 76th in the global innovation index. Switzerland is ranked 1st.
India needs to evolve into both – a knowledge-based economy based on a platform of capable, flexible and qualified human capital as well as the world’s repository of educated and trained professionals who are qualified to work all over the world.
A modified teaching methodology and integrating skills within the higher education holds the key. The current education system largely does not focus on training young people in employable skills that can provide them with employment opportunities but focuses on the ‘degree’ instead. In 2014, over 80% of graduate MBAs were not employed in any management position. Further, nearly every survey undertaken in India indicates that between 70-80% of India’s graduate engineers are not employable.
Today, a large section of India’s labour force has outdated skills. The quantum of information in the world is doubling every 5 years. The global top-10 in-demand careers of 2014 did not exist in 2004. What will the situation will be in 2024 or 2034? A student who enrolls for a degree in 2016 at the age of 18 will be at the peak of his / her career in 2034, at age 35. What career will he / she be working in, in which country?
We currently need to be preparing students for jobs that do not exist, using technologies that haven’t been invented to solve problems that are not yet known.
How do we do that?
The Government is therefore strongly focusing their attention on upgrading people’s skills by providing vocational education and training to them. It has formulated the National Policy on Skill Development and set a target of providing skills to 50 crore (500 million) people by 2022.
The country is turning into a fast emerging economy where digital evolution is on the rise. Technology is the main catalyst for this. Tech is expensive but also progressively important. Advanced technologies benefit the students and prepare them for the industry. Many institutions happen to lose out on making the most of this catalyst due to financial constraints.
How does one get around this financial hurdle and ensure that the country’s goals at large are met. The way is to ‘inspire’ the eventual benefactors of this economy to backward integrate into education by showing them the large benefit they can derive by the small steps that we are asking them to take.
Whistling Woods has partnered with several such global brands: Apple, Sony, YouTube, Red, Entertainment Partners, Red Cameras and more.
All these associations have the end goal of empowering India’s next generation through education & training in the latest technology / workflows out there. Through these partnerships, WWI has been able to ensure that our students are working / using technology that is on par with the industry and in some cases, 6-12 months AHEAD of the industry.
This is one of the reasons why a 100% of our students are gainfully employed / self-employed and WWI has been rated as one of the ten best film schools in the world.
WWI is happy to share case studies of some of these partnerships with global brands. One example is the partnership with YouTube through which the YouTube Space Mumbai has been set up at the campus which will help digital content creators and WWI students to learn, connect, and create new-age content, by giving them access to fantastic studios and latest training, education and audio-visual equipment.
Happy to share more details if you are interested. Let me know in the comment box.
