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Top 4 Education Trends Which are Transforming The Industry

Top 4 Education Trends Which are Transforming The Industry

Updated on 09 January, 2024

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• 13 min read

They say change is the only constant node in life and we find it holds true at every step of the way. Let’s take a look at how our means of communication have changed from the epistolary to the digital era. Many opine that we are currently going through the Fourth Industrial revolution. Indeed technology undergoes a transformation in lightening speed and along with that vastly alters our everyday lives.

With the advent of the world wide web and its ever-changing innovations, each and every facet of our lives have evolved unrecognisably. Be it our economy where from the days of goods bartering, we have arrived at instantaneous UPI transfers or our transportation modes which have evolved from bullock carts to hybrid self-driven cars, change is palpable in every aspect of our lives. One industry which not only has undergone a change in itself but also has stimulated the change in other domains is that of education.

Come to think of it, be it our digital transformation or the developments in our economies, all are factored upon new inventions which entail extensive degrees of research and study. Therefore the pivotal arena where change is taking place and rightfully so is the education sector. We might not pay attention to the changing trends in education, but they are very much present as any trend that keeps changing with a change in technology and new concepts.

Even in the practical terms, our classrooms and modes of teaching are evolving and upgrading with every passing year to keep pace with the changing trends in the outside world. From the subject matters to the pedagogical methods, the entire process of education has marked a significant degree of progress compared to the yesteryears. Just like any trends, many argue about the outcomes of these current trends in education, whether they are right or wrong.

The educational sector has recorded positive changes in every tier of education. Right from the primary classrooms to the university levels, we see newer techniques being deployed in teachings and even reading materials have changed substantially. Within the larger education sector, professional degrees happen to one of the most prominent harbingers of changes. As the cradle of future professionals, these degrees reflect the tides of the times as well as future prospects.

With the rapidly changing industrial space, it is imperative to upgrade our courses and their applications according to the raging needs of the time. The first step to acing that would be to keep abreast of the trends of the current years as well as projected trends of the upcoming years. We have culled out some of the most prominent education trends in 2023 here.

Top Education Trends in 2024

1. Technological Upskilling across domains

Technology and human labour have been pitted against each other traditionally. This is mostly due to the fear that technology is likely to displace humans. However, technology is designed by humans for supporting human labour. So if any, both forge a symbiotic relationship with each other. Once that fear is gotten rid of, the focus must be laid on adapting to the technological developments that come our way.

In that context, technological upskilling has emerged as one of the dominant education trends in 2024. Different industries are heading towards workflow automation. But the human interface is absolutely important for a smooth workflow. Therefore, as more and more businesses adopt cloud convergence, candidates who are savvy with the latest cloud technology are more employable. Accordingly, professional courses are focusing on building cloud-based technological skills.

To match up to the expectations of employers, cloud and related technology training programmes are increasingly becoming popular among both campus-based as well as online educational endeavours.

This is precisely the reason upGrad has launched an Master of Science in Machine Learning & AI, the best engineering school in the country to create a program that teaches you not only machine learning but also the effective deployment of it using the cloud infrastructure. Our aim with this program is to open the doors of the most selective institute in the country and give learners access to amazing faculty & resources in order to master a skill that is in high & growing demand.

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2. Inclusion of soft skills training in curriculum

An important education trend in 2024

is a marked shift from the subject-based rote learning to more skills-oriented learning methods. Educationists are emphasising on the importance of building the aptitude around cognitive thinking, problem solving and management. The application-based syllabus which steers away from mere facts and figures and instead goads the students to apply the learning into real-life scenarios are surfacing more and more.

Parallelly, holistic development of leadership skills, team-building skills, communication skills is being imbued in students through classroom learnings. With the emphasis on both offline and online training, students are being prepared to face real-world challenges.

This is a drastic change from the traditional by-the-book teachings of schools. Students are acquiring the necessary skills which will not only enable them to navigate around the world of work with confidence but also facilitate a well-informed and capable workforce for the days to come.

3. Innovation in the subject matter

Detailing is extremely important in today’s day and age. In tune with that, another vital education trend in 2024 captures the variety of subjects that are being included in mainstream college and university curriculum. From applied linguistics to artificial intelligence, from food anthropology to ethical hacking, from culture studies to acabus science, the courses and subject choices available these days are indeed out of the box and revolutionary in many ways.

The course structure and assessment modules are also designed to maintain a practical outlook and take away the stress of memorisation. The acknowledgement that there is merit in studying and a need for studying non-mainstream subjects for better assessment of our current socio-political problems and deducing appropriate solutions is a far cry from the obsession with an engineering or a medical or a law degree. Newer specialisations have opened up more scope of innovations within the professional spheres.

4. Personalised and inclusive learning spaces

A heartening and long overdue education trend in 2024 has to do with more inclusive and accessible learning modules becoming increasingly widespread. Special education modules are no longer limited to only special schools but rather regular schools are adopting inclusive learning facilities for the ease of students living with disabilities. This is likely to have a remarkable impact on the employability of persons with disabilities.

This is another important step towards overcoming the biases against specially abled students. The world is finally waking up to the fact that there are countless Stephen Hawking’s whose geniuses are going underutilised just because of the lack of adequate resources and sensibilities. The inclusion of more accessible teaching tools and practices in the classrooms make it a hopeful education trend in 2024.

Apart from these four major education trends, there are also some other significant changes. One of them is the trend of virtual learning. Some might argue that this is not suitable under current trends in education as many institutions across the globe provide their students with the facility of virtual learning, but are still not predominant. After the pandemic hit hard, educational institutions were left with no choice but to embrace virtual and remote learning. Now that a huge number of people are exposed to the benefits of virtual learning, more institutes are willing to make it a norm. Needless to say, various worldwide online learning platforms like upGrad, and Google Academy also played a major role in this trend.

Another inclusion that is expected to gain massive popularity in the trends in education will be immersive learning. Even in 2024, using virtual reality and augmented reality may not be that accessible and is only used in very few areas such as medicine, architecture and engineering, but it can be expected that in the next five years, this trend will take over many more disciplines. Education trends like these have the capability to transform the idea of learning by making it extremely interactive and captivating for the students. Not only that, but immersive learning will also help the students understand critical topics way more easily. Students will get the least distracted as they will be immersed in the world of the classroom.

The current trends in education also include an interesting change which is the way in which people are preferring their lessons. Rather than sitting through a two-hour-long lecture, students are now preferring more compact and bite-size lessons that can be consumers on the go. This is termed “micro-learning”, and this might be the result of the fast-paced and multitasking lives that we are leading. Dividing a long lecture into smaller videos or interesting articles is something that is proven to be more beneficial for students as it does not pressure them to memorize and understand too many new concepts at a time.

The latter two trends in education are especially very useful as a study conducted by Microsoft state our attention span is continuously decreasing, which is why conventional learning methods may not work as efficiently as they used to. In the year 2000, the average human’s attention span was 12 seconds, which dropped to 8 seconds in 2013, after our surroundings started getting more and more digitalized. To understand the severity, even a Goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds! This number is expected to drop even more as the newer generation will evidently be more exposed to addictive technology. Now that the human brain has evolved itself to adapt to its surroundings, it is extremely necessary to alter the learning methods as well.

While the overall education trends in 2024 incline more towards technological transformation and digitisation of classrooms as well as teaching methods, the educational sector seems to have a lot more to offer and to a much diverse audience in the upcoming years. This is likely to be complementary to the developments in the professional fields as well. While this bodes well for those who are still in education, those who have already sat through the benches need not despair yet.

This is because there are numerous Upskilling courses available for even early and mid professionals to wrap their heads around and enhance their professional skills. upGrad is one such online platform which offers a wide array of highly useful upskilling courses that anyone can enrol in and pursue at their own convenience, from the comforts of their homes. As they say, there’s no end to learning so what better way to learn than to follow the tides of the times and get ahead of the others through a little help from platforms like upGrad.

Wrapping up

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You can also checkout our limited time free courses to utilize this lockdown to upgrade yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is technological upskilling?

Everything in this world needs an update, education follows the same. Knowledge and skills acquired previously become obsolete if not streamlined with the changes in the world. To do so, learning and relearning are required. Keeping up with the changes without foregoing the previous one provides an edge. This process of acquiring new skills and refurbishing the old ones is called upskilling. This can be done in the form of new educational courses, training programs, and development programs along with having room to manoeuvre the same.

2. What are soft skills and why are they important?

A person is not only defined by the knowledge and skills one possesses, but also by how one treats others. Such innate traits and behavioural reactions tell much more about a person than a resume. These interpersonal and communication skills which form part of traits and habits, are called soft skills. Being flexible at work, working in teams, communicating with both the seniors and juniors, showing model work ethics, etc. all form part of soft skills. Some jobs have specific requirements for the person with soft skills like, having good communication or leadership qualities, while others have it implied. The importance of soft skills is felt in work life as well as personal life

3. What is the importance of a personalised learning space?

Every person is different and so differs the learning method. Each one cannot be taught at the same pace or in the same manner as others, and if done, such learning would be gratuitous. The need for a mode of learning which is customised as per the personal needs of each individual is the need of the hour. This need is contented by the innovation introduced in the personalised learning space. It provides a tailored course structure as per the learner’s profile besides the flexible learning environment. Here, the length and depth of the course confirm with the needs of the person providing him ease and convenience to multitask while learning.

4. What is technological upskilling?

5. What are soft skills and why are they important?

6. What is the importance of a personalised learning space?

7. What is technological upskilling?

8. What are soft skills and why are they important?

9. What is the importance of a personalised learning space?

Every person is different and so differs the learning method. Each one cannot be taught at the same pace or in the same manner as others, and if done, such learning would be gratuitous. The need for a mode of learning which is customised as per the personal needs of each individual is the need of the hour. This need is contented by the innovation introduced in the personalised learning space. It provides a tailored course structure as per the learner’s profile besides the flexible learning environment. Here, the length and depth of the course confirm the needs of the person providing him ease and convenience to multitask while learning.

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There is really no secret sauce for success. Provided you have had the opportunity to view the exclusive online tete-e-tete sessions brought to you by UpGrad Talks. With an amazing roster of world-class speakers, some from the top 1000 companies of India such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Sky, Coca Cola, JP Morgan, JWT to start-up poster children such as RedBus, Snadeal, Ola & Zivame and many more, Upgrad Talks provides insights into their formulae for success. The talks also share deep learning from situations that didn’t work out and many valuable nuggets of honest, down-to-earth and practical advice from successful entrepreneurs, experts and industry leaders. While some lip service has been paid to new-age technologies and skill sets, and the evolution of industries because of these, a deeper understanding of what this signifies is missing. Upgrad Talks intends to fill this gap by bringing together thought-leaders from different walks of life and raising the level of discourse in this area, as they share their experiences. Here are the top reasons why you must visit talks.upgrad.com today and make it your daily source of insights and motivation: Get Inspired Inspiration can come from many different sources. You may get inspired when you see a problem that needs a solution, which you are able to ideate, or get inspired when you hear stories of adversity being overcome by sheer willpower. Rarely does the simple existence of wealth inspire us. It may motivate us to work harder, but inspiration stems from a deeper place that needs real stories. Upgrad Talks are stories from the folks who have lived these stories, first hand. Not only does hearing someone’s complete story of challenges, thought process and subsequent outcome inspire, it also gives birth to new ideas and provides impetus to grow in your own space. Moreover, inspiration also stems from well-put statements such as, ‘attitude will sail you through,’ by Harit Nagpal, CEO of Tata Sky. A key benefit of listening to industry leaders is that it also inspires us to think. ‘What we think, we become,’ is a quote by Buddha that sums up this well. Go ahead, face challenges It does not matter if you are a startup or an established financial organization; challenges, big or small, exist in every level of most businesses. Challenges faced, strategized and overcome is the rite of passage for almost everyone. Not only do Upgrad Talks cover challenges faced by leading industry veterans, it also covers it from various stages of businesses along with discussion of the solutions that helped overcome them. Upgrad Talks speakers’ discuss challenges faced by businesses in different spaces, which makes these talks an interesting listen. Furthermore, is quite motivating to hear the candid conversations of business leaders. So what is the common thought on challenges in the Upgrad Talks? No challenge is too big. It also strengthens the belief that challenges help you grow and become stronger and develops a sense of confidence to take on the next big challenge. Learn from influencers People who can motivate are great influencers. To hear success stories at Upgrad Talks, which have been driven by deep-rooted passion as well as courage of conviction can be a great influence on most people. It is likely to help you push yourself to greater heights and also follow your dreams a bit more diligently. To quote Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl, ‘ there is a fine line between stubbornness and persistence.’ Upgrad Talks is likely to help you define the lines as an excellent selection of influencers talk also about the key soft skills required to make it a significant mark on the industry that you belong to. Mentoring As you listen to entrepreneurs, business leaders and experts on models that have worked, one can also start drawing parallels to one’s one business or profession. Mentoring of this kind is both subtle and effective as it helps you choose some key takeaways from the shared experiences that are most relevant to you. Follow the series to get premium access to the best mentors in the country as they talk about education, the emerging digital age and its impact on businesses, talent shortages and advice to youngsters. A bit of crystal gazing In the series of Upgrad Talks, one is likely to come across a vast amount of business knowledge which has been converted into digestible insights that can also help you choose the next steps in your career. Speakers’ at Upgrad Talks share their business mantras and what the future is likely to be. This is crystal gazing of the finest variety and yet another reason to tune into the talks. A healthy dash of optimism One of the unique selling points of the Upgrad Talks is that they also brings out the combined optimism in business from key industry leaders. Apart from that one can learn what is next in the industry, and explore potential future opportunities in the workspace. The upbeat and positive nature of these talks makes them a must-listen. Easily available online Just in case you were wondering how far you would need to travel to listen to such a wide range of speakers, you can breath easy. Upgrad Talks are delivered online and you can listen to them at your own convenience. All you need to do is to long onto talks.upgrad.com and you can access high quality, pre-recorded sessions online. Upgrad is making content richer, bigger and better as it kicks off with 15+ talks delivered by entrepreneurs, experts & business leaders. You definitely do not want to miss out on the educational transformation that UpGrad is fuelling in partnership with some of the greatest minds. Remember, one can never stop learning. So, if you always aspired to hear great advice and insights from the top Indian business leaders on how you can grow your business, choose a career goal or get inspired, do take a look at Upgrad Talks. They are truly the voices that impact. Join us today and be a part of it at talks.upgrad.com.

by Omkar Pradhan

06 Aug'16

5.37K+

Evolving online education: Learning Together

Technologies in online learning have been making promises since early 20th century. From radio to present day MOOCs, multiple new technologies were seen as silver bullet in revolutionising education. These promises were indeed laudable, to make education accessible to everyone, affordable for everyone and more effective. Yet, the same history of unmet expectations has been repeated every time*. Although a lot has happened over the past decade in terms of growth and expansion of online education, there are many challenges yet to be solved before we can say online learning has truly arrived. We, at UpGrad, believe the following three challenges are the biggest hurdles to the success of online education. Isolation: Online learning is solitary experience Acceptability: Online learning’s validity in the Job Market Not Engaging: Interplay of distractions and motivations in learning online The dismally low completion rates and high failure rates are reflection of these challenges [1]. Our goal at UpGrad is to fight these challenges and provide an unmatched learning experience for the working professionals. We believe, with the flexibility of online learning, every working professional can “UpGrade” himself without going back to full-time formal education. Hence, we need to to make online learning mainstream. In this article we would be sharing how are setting the online learning as a ‘Social Experience’ for our students, ie the first of the three mentioned challenges. In 2000s, internet surfing was mainly an individual experience and on the other hand, in 2016 almost all of internet time is a social experience. We do not feel alone in 2016 version of internet. We believe online education will have much higher engagement and completion rates once it becomes a social experience. An average student’s e-learning journey is an individual experience making him/her feel isolated. Learners move through the course with limited interactions with both their instructor and classmates. We at UpGrad, are building a new learning platform specifically designed keeping our students and their needs in mind. We believe this would be key to provide the kind of engagement levels the students deserve. The perception of social presence (or lack of) is a big concern among students and teachers in online learning. Teachers develop courses in isolation and the students take the courses in isolation. Researchers have found strong correlation between the sense of social presence facilitated by the course and student’s perceived learning [3,4,5]. Also there is good re correlation between withdrawal in the course and student’s perceived lack of social interaction and instructor presence [3]. Lack of social interaction in e-learning increases the distraction, since a learner would look for social interaction elsewhere which is usually Twitter, Whatsapp or Facebook. If there is another learner doing the same course in my apartment building, there are limited chances that I would know about him. As learners of online courses, we are oblivious of everyone else’s presence except few replies on the discussion forum. They do form Facebook groups or Whatsapp groups organically, yet the whole online learning format ends up being mostly a solo experience. Here are the steps we are taking at UpGrad in making our online programs a social experience.: Profiles : The first step in ‘social’ e-learning is knowing your classmates. We have learner profiles with education and work history along with other details. Almost everyone is encouraged to fill in their full profile along with a descriptive ‘bio’ section. There are multiple points where learners are nudged to click on the profiles. To improve discoverability of relevant profiles we not only leverage cohort social graph but also use interest graph, performance graph, complementary skills graphs. Combined with other semi random** algorithms like who was recently online, learners bump into each other in interesting ways. In the first month of Data Analytics Program, an average engaged learner viewed peer profiles 110 times. Discussions: We have a discussion forum which is contextual and relevant to the course content. We designed it from the ground up to involve learners during the course. They help each other, solve doubts, ask questions, have healthy debates on the forum. Only when there is no consensus a Teaching Assistant gets involved in clearing the doubts. Last 3 months data shows that on a daily basis 50% of the students who are engaged on the platform, also engaged actively on the discussion forum. As most professionals have different backgrounds, sharing of experiences on the forum is much valuable to everyone in the cohort. We have seen learners fall into three buckets on the forum. First is the majority producers, the top 30% of forum content producers are responsible for around 70% of the discussions. The next 50% do the rest of 30% of the content but continue to voice their opinions through upvotes. Rest of the 20% are mere observers. These numbers are highly encouraging and we will be investing more time in finding out how student-student social interactions can help in overall engagement. Figure 1: Forum topic distribution in one of our programs. Share in the pie is (questions * votes) for each topic. Bigger share of the pie is a proxy for doubts. This lead us to start live sessions on those topics. Thought Leader AMAs: Initiating and maintaining engagement on the forum is hard. To set the ball rolling, we started the discussion forum for a new cohort with getting a thought leader to do an AMA on the platform. This way not only the students got a product onboarding experience but also the social expectation was set amongst the peers. In some months, the total content creation during AMAs ended up around 20% of the total cumulative content. We also observed a side benefit of starting the program with thought leader – that learners are more helpful, behave with more civility and show much more respect for each other. This is not very unusual because it is known that a group’s eventual social dynamics are very much impacted by behaviour in initial few days. In a way, it sets the trend which follows upto the end of the course. We also explored bringing in external motivations to see how does it impact on engagement levels. At times, there were small gifts for top forum contributors and at times we included forum participation in the grading. Our primary observations show that this is to be used cautiously. We are working on establishing a balance between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for social involvement. Facebook Groups: For all cohorts we have Facebook groups for students apart from the platform discussion forum. We were not very confident how much our forum will be used for non academic discussions and generic social sharing. However, we found more and more discussions of generic nature and sharing of articles & blogs also started happening on the forum. Hence facebook group ended up becoming redundant. We are thinking of doing away with a cohort’s facebook group with this expanded use of discussion forum In summary, having a strong sense of community within the students is a big predictor of learning outcomes. This has been researched multiple times [7, 8]. Our platform’s usage data of course progress and social interaction activity strongly confirms this research. At a time, a learner who is socially engaged on our platform has usually completed 4 times (Figure 2) course materials than a learner who does not participate in social discussions. This high correlation has been repeated across multiple cohorts. Figure 2: At a snapshot of time course completion rates for learners active on forum vs non active. Apart from the student isolation e-learning content creators and facilitators tend to work in isolation, reflecting and sharing of best practices is minimal[6]. We at UpGrad are aware of this problem, and making sure different program teams collaborate and share solutions to common problems. We do not have complete solution to isolation in learning yet. We as a company are focussed on solving this problem, we are testing out few ideas and are willing to share the results with the community. With these changes we are expecting online learning experience to be more engaging, more involving and eventually pushing up the low completion rates of online learning. These are early days of online education and we have miles to go. Bibliography [1] http://collegequarterly.ca/2007-vol10-num03-summer/rolfe.html [2] Online Social Networks as Formal Learning Environments: Learner Experiences and Activities, The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Vol 13, No 1 (2012) [3] Tello SF (2007). An analysis of student persistence in online education. International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education [4] Herbert, M. (2006). Staying the course: A study in online student satisfaction and retention. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 9(4). [5] Morris, T. A. (2009). Anytime/anywhere online learning: Does it remove barriers for adult learners. In T.Kidd (Ed.), Online education and adult learning: New frontiers for teaching practices. Hershey, PA:IGI Global. [6] Duncan, H & Barnett J (2009) Learning to teach online. [7] Kaulback, B (2015). Learning Together : Community and Network from the perspective of designers of online learning. (Doctoral dissertation) [8] Bernard, R. M., Abrami, P. C., Borokhovski, E., Wade, C. A., Tamim, R. M., Surkes, M. A., & Bethel, E. C. (2009). A meta-analysis of three types of interaction treatments in distance education. Review of Educational Research, 79(3), 1243–1289.

by Ankit Mittal

08 Aug'16

898.95K+

Skill deprivation: Education alone won’t guarantee a job, in-demand skills need of hour

If you are 25 years old, hold a degree in a traditional arts discipline from a well-regarded institute and are looking for a job, you may not be handed one on a platter any time soon. You may be cushioned within the famous Indian demographic that is supposed to yield a ‘dividend,’ but unlike what you’ve been reading everywhere, this does not guarantee you employment. Between 1980 to 2010, 90% of world labour force growth occurred in developing countries and about 500 million new workers emerged in India and China alone (workers went from 260 million to 470 million in India, between this period). India is all set to power most of global growth in labour in the coming years. Enrolment in Indian higher education is 24% right now. With India attaining almost universal elementary education, and increased retention in secondary schools, the projected demand for higher education and jobs will only escalate. India has finally been placed on the world map with a solid advantage where labour supply is concerned. Impacting Education: My Journey and UpGrad It’s not all good news though. Indian millennials are being touted as the future of jobs and the saviours of the working world. But this won’t hold true if in-demand skills are not imparted to the youth entering the workforce. The world of work is changing and industries are transforming. It’s a fact that we are moving towards a massive labour pool, but we are possibly riding a low-skill, low-wage cycle to get there. The country is on a trajectory that involves a surplus of millions of low-skill workers, whereas most nations, including India, will be demanding high-skill workers more and more. Most industries are replacing low-skill jobs with high-skill ones. Skills relating to upcoming technologies in advanced areas – think AI, robotics, data science and mining – are gaining immense relevance. Unfortunately, our education system is not preparing students well enough to enter the workforce as high-skill workers nor equipping them with skills in emerging domains. Curricula is outdated and pedagogy poorly-developed. Gone are the days when just holding a graduate degree was enough to get employers to clamour to hire you. Education is not enough. The new-age job-seeker must strive to acquire specific skill sets to be considered employable (currently only 43% of Indian youth are considered fully employable). This applies to all sectors of the economy, as most industries and businesses are adopting new-age technologies and going digital within most functions. There’ll Be A Billion-Plus Job-Seekers By 2050! The positive connotation associated with our demographic shift has been taken for granted and assigned the term ‘dividend.’ But if we don’t strategically harness this change, we could easily be faced with a demographic disaster. We don’t want to be stuck in a situation where we have too many job-seekers with inadequate skills, and therefore not enough jobs for them. India is moving workers out of farm jobs at a very fast rate, and this will only add to the burden of providing jobs in other sectors. Realising this, even the government has begun focusing on skill development and training. Creating an entirely new Ministry and launching the Skill India Mission are clear indications of this. Another sign that skill training is gaining momentum is reflected in the growth of the Indian education and skills industry at an average rate of 13% over four years. From Rs 1.21 trillion in 2008 to Rs 2.35 trillion in 2012. However, these measures have not been enough to successfully skill India’s young. Only 2% of the Indian workforce has received some kind of formal skills training so far, and 8% have received informal training. Comparatively, 47% of China’s workforce is skill trained, 52% in USA, 68% in UK, 75% in Germany, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea. Almost half of Indian employers find it difficult to fill jobs and a similar proportion of employed youth suffer from some degree of skill deprivation. By 2050, India will be home to more than a billion jobseekers. This means providing jobs for over 12 million new entrants annually. There is also the challenge of finding jobs for the backlog, which reached 60 million by 2014. The pace of accretion to the labour market will keep increasing, given our demographic profile and declining age-dependency ratio. Our working age population (15-64 years) will peak in 2050 and till then pressures for jobs will only become worse. We need a wake-up call and more concerted efforts towards large-scale skill development and training. We may have a situation of too few high-skill workers and not enough jobs for medium or low-skill workers. This needs to be rectified by adjusting the education and skilling system to ready ourselves for the jobs of tomorrow. Article Source: http://www.firstpost.com/business/skill-deprivation-education-alone-wont-guarantee-a-job-in-demand-skills-need-of-hour-3020568.html

by Apoorva Shankar

08 Nov'16

5.13K+

Why The Growth Of Higher Education In India Hinges On The Private Sector

For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that the public sector’s role in education can be identified as a three-fold one. Firstly, it is tasked with universalizing access to education. Its next responsibility would be to regulate the sector and finally, to ensure quality education for all. In the context of the access provider role, estimates show that just in terms of physical infrastructure, more than a US $100 billion spends would be required in higher education alone, to double enrollment, from where it stands today (24%). Where regulation is concerned, bodies such as the University Grants Commission (UGC) and other higher education regulators are in-charge but leave much to be desired in terms of quality checks and monitoring, accreditation, etc. In fact, the UGC merely acts as a grants disbursing body now for universities and colleges, rather than a regulator. This is despite the fact that about 16% of the Ministry’s budget (2016-17) was allocated to UGC. Regarding quality, the government struggles to set standards and measure outcomes. Accreditation in the country is irregular and sub-optimal. In addition, unlike school education, where a certain level of learning outcomes may be gauged, this is difficult to do in higher education – especially assessing employability of a student post completing such education. So is there a role the government should prioritise? Further, because the government is entrusted with these roles, does it necessarily mean that they are its exclusive mandate? Or should the government act as an enabler and allow external participation if it means better execution and a higher success rate? The education and training industry is extremely large today and has strong further growth potential. With total educational spending of $2.7 trillion, the industry accounted for about 4.25% of the world’s GDP in 2010. In India alone, the spending on education and skilling has touched approximately Rs 74,000 crore. This may seem like a daunting figure but is still not sufficient. India spends about 4% of its GDP on all of education (about 1% on higher education), whereas globally the minimum recommended expenditure on education is 6% of GDP. Most of the public expenditure on higher education is used upon salaries and maintaining existing institutions, leaving very little to be spent on curriculum, research, and technology. However, spending on education still has enormous scaling to do and this is where the private sector comes in. Private players will have opportunities from rising demand in segments not well covered by the public education system (like adult education and vocational training). They bring in additional capital and are able to make huge investments, especially when government spending is insufficient and results in substantial infrastructure and investment deficit. For instance, the government had set a target of achieving a 30% enrolment ratio in higher education by 2020. The enrolment ratio currently is 24%. Judging by historical trends, and the current pace of rising enrolments, this target seems difficult to achieve. We may need a better, plan to succeed. Plus, the demand for higher education is only set to accelerate with growing population, higher enrolment as well as retention of students in schools. The private sector could play a crucial role in plugging these gaps and matching demand. In fact, it is already capturing the market in a big way, as can be seen in the adjacent graph. Enrolment in, and share of, private higher education institutions has surpassed that of government institutions (data as on 2013). Even the online education market in India expected to grow to US $40 billion by as soon as 2017. Unlike the education sector, which is legally mandated to operate on a not-for-profit basis, for-profit skill training institutes can be set up. This, coupled with initiatives of the National Skill Development Corporation, has encouraged the private sector to set up vocational training institutes. Corporate interest has also increased in the skill development space because of the benefits that accrue to businesses themselves, in the form of adequately trained manpower as a ready pool for future hiring. Majority of institutions offering professional disciplines are now in the private sector. There is a tendency of the public sector to view the private sector’s involvement in the education space with scepticism. But the private sector is necessary because of its ability to match industry demand for superior skilled manpower. It supplements infrastructure, facilities, technology and pedagogy and has an added advantage of escaping bureaucratic control and retaining autonomy to a large extent. Private players often collaborate with reputed international universities for faculty and other benefits which can be attractive to prospective students. They are also heavily investing in research-based education. As consumers of skilled manpower as well, the private sector is in a position to understand what type of skill training is to be imparted, and eventually benefit from it. This makes skill-training more efficient and effective. All three education-related roles of the government are equally important. However, while regulation should remain outside the purview of the private sector, nothing should stop them from assisting the public sector in maximising enrolments and improving quality of education. Public needs to work with private and create a level-playing field, in order to uplift the overall quality of education. Article Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.in/mayank-kumar/why-the-growth-of-higher-education-in-india-hinges-on-the-privat/

by Apoorva Shankar

08 Nov'16