The key to becoming a self-reliant nation and achieving a $5-trillion GDP is to have a sizeable working population that has the right skills and education to add value to the economy. The productivity of a population can only increase its per capita GDP. To that end, constant learning, and skill-based learning, can arm the workforce with the right skills to deliver increased productivity.
The Government of India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 proposes to address the skill-gap issue right from the entry level of the education system where the objective is to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) by 2030. The current GER of India is at 27 per cent, and the past 20 years of reforms in education—such as private universities and colleges—have only helped improve the percentage marginally. In the past seven years, it went up by 4 percentage points, a growth to which edtech companies contributed greatly. This clearly indicates that for a nation like India, the way to take GER to 60 per cent, which is required by a developing nation, is to take education and skilling online.
We are a nation that skipped the manufacturing revolution to go directly from agriculture to service. Similarly, for our demographics, we are today skipping the offline way of skilling and directly migrating to the online way. With the NEP along with UGC’s (University Grant Commission) recent announcement that degrees acquired through online and/or distance education will be equivalent to classroom education, one can find a clear and amalgamated approach for the future education system in the country.
The government is setting the path for constant learning, skill-based learning, and goal-oriented learning, which will accelerate economic growth. The disruptive global technology mega-trends and shifts in demographics have resulted in the loss of jobs, change of jobs and, at the same time, the creation of new opportunities. But there is a big shortfall between the available jobs and the desired skill sets. Moreover, a substantial number of future jobs will be unpredictable and will need a different set of skills than those exhibited by most graduates today. Going by recent trends, the nature of jobs will see a change every five to 10 years, owing to constant technological innovation and shifts in the way of doing business.
The World Economic Forum has also predicted that by 2025, around 85 million people will see their jobs being disrupted and displaced as digitisation continues its relentless march. At the same time, over 97 million roles will be created that will require new skills to meet the demands of the future. These will include skills in AI (artificial intelligence), ML (machine learning), data science, and other such digital technologies. Unfortunately, the current traditional higher education system as a whole is not necessarily imparting the skills that will make the youth workforce ready.
To bridge the skill gaps and to reskill workers for emerging roles, reskilling and upskilling at pace and scale is the need of the hour. This will not only help the youth retain their current jobs but also fast-track their careers and become more productive. This is where the edtech companies play an important role in reskilling and redeploying workers into the jobs of tomorrow. For example, upGrad’s online higher-education programme portfolio has crossed the mark of 25,000 active learners in a short time, which translates to 0.3 per cent of the number of individuals enrolled in university programmes in India.
In higher education, students and working professionals often consider an MBA degree as the ladder to accelerate their careers in a similar domain or seek a career transition. This is evident through the job postings in recent times that emphasise employers’ preference for MBA candidates. Before the edtech revolution, pursuing an MBA from one of the reputed B-schools was limited only to a few candidates who had the calibre and the pockets to spend. Even the top B-schools have an average intake of 400-450 seats while edtech organisations (like upGrad) have about 250,000 candidates who want to pursue an MBA every year. The remaining end up in namesake offline business schools for an MBA degree that holds no value.
This phenomenon is changing with the advent of technology and higher-education edtech companies that are propelling affordable and outcome-oriented learning for millions while also empowering them with globally recognised MBA degrees in partnership with leading B-schools in India and overseas. Such programmes are making learning seamless.
India has the world’s largest and youngest population who want access to affordable and high-quality education, but there are a limited number of great teachers and world-class curriculums that can excite and motivate students to get educated. The challenge truly is about delivering quality at scale. Higher edtech is the solution to this problem that can democratise education, making it accessible, affordable and of high quality.
NEP2020 has brought clarity on the role of edtech—as the technology, content, and outreach partner of the universities—thus paving the way to bridge India’s skill gap. This collaborative approach is sure to bring a positive delta movement in the skill gap, creating a large pool of skilled working professionals ready to contribute to the economic growth of the nation.
The author is CEO-India, upGrad. Views are personal