Talentedge is an Ed-Tech firm that believes in changing the way India learns. Being the first ones to bring ‘Live & Interactive’ anywhere learning in digital format and bring to our students’ courses jointly with world leading institutes and corporates. Talentedge also enables working professionals to plan their future course of action and fast track their careers. Giving students a chance to learn from eminent faculty through their partnerships with some of the top Indian & International institutes, including IIT, IIM, XLRI, Parsons School of Design and renowned corporates like OLX,  Viacom 18, Wizcraft, SHRM and others. Talentedge recreates the classroom type interactions in the virtual world. With over 3,00,000 individuals and corporate learners, Mr. Aditya Malik, CEO, Talentedge shares more about the startup:

THE BEGINNING- On discussions on how was the idea born, Mr. Malik shares, “Talentedge was started with the understanding that digital learning is going to play a key role in changing the status quo of education in India, allowing people to learn from anywhere at any time. Addressing some of the key loopholes in the education system of India such as flexibility, affordability, scalability, student teacher ratio, we can see education moving towards digital and being more receptive of it as a format.” He adds, “There is a gamut of audience out there that aspires to learn. Even though the advent of the digital education revolution started over 3 years ago the evolution has been gigantic. Despite the Indians being inclined towards the brick and mortar format of learning, the e-learning industry is gaining acceptance at a very fast pace.”

CHALLENGES IN THE SECTOR- When asked that what are the major Indian educational challenges today Mr. Malik shares, “Several remote areas in the country currently suffer from the lack of good quality educational infrastructure. Taking the Ed-tech route will enable students to gain knowledge from masters of the subjects from world-class institutes from even remote corners of the country and the world.”

THE INDIAN CHALLENGE: When asked why do you think it’s taking longer for the education industry to move from a more traditional approach for teaching and learning to one that’s technology-driven, Mr. Malik shares, “In spite of increasingly widespread acceptance of technologies there are significant challenges that are preventing widespread effective implementation.  Challenges like Credibility, Failure of Personalized learning exist.”

TALENTEDGE’s CONTRIBUTIONS: Mr. Malik shares, “Talentedge is the first to bring ‘Live & Interactive’ anywhere learning in digital format. Our products and services are targeted at individuals and corporates to enable learning with a purpose and instill a sense of self-belief, while showcasing a direct link to career progression and job effectiveness. Our product portfolio and delivery mechanism is unique and enables anytime, anywhere interactive learning for the learners from world leading institutes and corporates in the country. We provide live and interactive learning solutions.” He adds, “Through our USP’s such as live and interactive technology solution, high quality content, world class learning pedagogy, assessments and gamification we empower a highly social collaborative learning experience and provide progressive analytically driven learning experience. There are other players who are either in the space of skill based learning or offer management course via recorded lectures, may or may not offer certification. Our offering is wider, on a live and interactive platform, with a certification from world leading institutes and corporates.”

THE NUMBERS- When asked about what has been the most surprising insight you’ve come across so far, Mr. Malik shares, “The most important insight we gained came through a survey on demonetization and the effects of it on India’s young working professionals. We conducted it with over 1000 young professionals across 8 metros. The survey results showed that Demonetization has not affected professional expectations in 2017, as more than 49 per cent employees expect to change jobs as they are expecting the economy to catch up while over 50 per cent of them are looking forward to a substantial increment. The findings showed that more than 49% expect to change jobs as they are expecting the economy to catch up and more than 50% of them are looking forward to a substantial increment. Surprisingly the younger professionals, aging 21-24 were less likely to switch jobs than the 25-30 age group. However the tables seem to turn when we asked them about expecting promotions in the coming year. While the 25-30 age group are more realistic about the economy, the younger lot aging 21-24 still has great expectations when it comes to promotions in the year 2017”

INDIA VERSUS THE WORLD FROM ED-TECH PERSPECTIVE: Mr. Mailk shares, “The Indian higher education system is the third largest in the world, with 23 Indian universities among the global top 200. While just two decades ago India was nowhere close to being part of the landscape, by 2030, India with its population of nearly 140 million in the college-going age group is expected to have one in every four graduates in the world from the Indian higher education system.” He adds, “Recently, India has also stepped up to seize the opportunity to ride the technology wave and has made way for digital classrooms along with the development of ed-tech tools that can solve the problems of mass reach, quality and relevant education. Ed-tech players have realized the potential to harnessing India’s demographic dividend is -online education.”

TECH TRENDS IN ED-TECH IN 2017: Mr. Malik shares, “The intervention of ed-tech has brought about massive changes to the Indian higher education system and e-learning concepts, mechanisms, tools, methodologies have resulted in collaborative learning. In the coming year, India is likely to have more registrations for online higher education courses in subjects such as Digital marketing, Fin-tech, Logistics management, Strategic leadership and Business management.”

ARE INIDANS TECHNOPHOBIAC & RESISTANT TO CHANGE: Mr. Malik shares, “According to a recent study of global level online learning programme; after the United States, India has been reported to have the second highest number of online course enrollments with more than over 1,55,000 students from the country. Of a total of around 1.2 million students worldwide, 15% are from India. This is a testimony that India is on a fast-track to becoming the fastest adopters of technology in the education space. There is a massive potential for technology to be leveraged by the education sector for their employees in up country and remote locations. In fact, some of the biggest corporations in India are already leveraging the technology provided by India’s largest and leading direct-to-device Ed-tech platform to reach employees and sales persons operating in different geographies, and even across boundaries.”

LATEST COLLABORATIONS & INITIATIVES: “We recently tied up with IIM Kashipur to announce three courses for online learners - Executive Certificate Programme in Digital Marketing, Executive Certificate Programme in Marketing Analytics and Customer Valuation and Executive Certificate Programme in Entrepreneurship,” shares Mr. Malik

ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS: Always prioritize and have a never-say-die attitude. Be passionate and focus on delivering results. Have the right attitude and energy when you pursue something and make a difference to people’s lives that is well worth remembering. The new entrepreneurs in this segment need to remember that the key challenge for them will be to provide a real classroom experience to students using technology, provide all the benefit of a face to face classroom while scaling up with technology Startups who will work in this direction will be able to make significant progress.