There have been several start-ups that are coming to conquer the education industry. Technology and innovation are the major weapons of these start-ups and the enthusiasm of country’s youth to learn more is the biggest support to them. The start-ups are aimed at developing a nation where each child is a digital literate, can have access to education even when he is not able to enrol himself in a school for the same and get instant answers to all the career related queries. These start-ups are not just bringing innovation in India, but are impacting millions of lives. These start-ups have been appreciated by several educational institutes and some have collaborated with them to provide better educational alternatives to the students.
The good thing is Edu-tech sector is being increasingly getting attention of the investor community. In the year 2014, there were only 20-25 deals in the Edu-tech sector for investment which increased to 61 in 2015. This is expected to further increase in this year. This will increase the expectations from the Edu-tech start-ups while they provide better innovative ideas to the students and young population of the country. The positive point about these start-ups is that they are not only improving the start-up industry of the country but enhancing the human life index by having a great social impact on the lives of millions of students.
In recent times, many start-ups have come forward and start-up community has brought several ideas that could enrich the lives of numerous students. They have started working in different segments of education industry. Some start-ups have gained momentum by providing online study material or approaches that can help the students gain more certifications and trainings. The start-ups in this arena are although lesser than the e-learning platforms, however, with the rise in popularity of Edx, Coursera and Udacity, there is an ever increasing urge among the Indian diaspora to give chance to indigenous start-ups. One of the up-coming start-up in this segment is that of Get Buddy. The company provides training on over 145, 400 courses, 3420 subjects and 12 domains. The company has already set up more than 500 training institutes as well to accomplish the mission of educating students through technology.
Another emerging sector in this education industry is that of career counselling. Earlier, it was thought that career counselling needs physical presence of the student and the counsellor. However, with the evolving technologies, many start-ups such as Career Clinic are now providing career counselling virtually by connecting counsellors and the students. There is an extensive use of technology in connecting students with the correct counsellor. Now, more students are becoming aware of the service. One major step that has been taken by the start-ups is to aware the students and their parents. Career counselling platform has made many students aware to seek guidance in planning their careers. It is supposed to gain mainstream in coming few years since many NGOs are supporting the initiative. Also, several corporates have come up to support the cause through their CSR funding.
Noteworthy, these start-ups have come up in the recent times and have already gained momentum with Indian masses. Also these have been successful in connecting to thousands of students and it is to be acknowledged that they have made a great usage of technology. These start-ups speak for the arrival of Internet in the Indian education system. These start-ups definitely have many miles to go before they achieve their aim to educate and connect all the children to the technology.
This article is written by Aakanksha Aggarwal, Founder, Craft Driven Research for The Startup Journal
