The past few months have seen some of India's large edtech unicorns announcing acquisitions at regular intervals. This has boosted the confidence of both the start-ups and their investors.
"We are giving teenagers a sneak peek inside different career options so that they are able to first-hand understand and decide if that is the right field for them," says Madhu Agrawal, Co-founder of Clever Harvey.
After targeting working professionals and executive MBA programmes with a multitude of online programmes offered at lower price points and in a range of convenient formats, edtech firms are now turning their focus to B-school students.
"While we can't paint everyone with the same brush, there are some gaps... Learning for a degree, simple and single specialisation, and fixed curriculum are all passé," says S.V. Nathan, Deloitte India's Partner and Chief Talent Officer.
Even among the top 100 in the BT-MDRA Best B-schools Survey 2021, there is a yawning gap between the average annual salary of students in the top 25 schools at Rs 19.63 lakh and the next 25 best schools' average of Rs 9.93 lakh.
Even the ePGP courses from IIMA and IIM Raipur don't offer campus placements. This means that while working executives get a leg up in their career after the course, freshers have to start job hunting.
With no rules defining blended MBAs yet, it boils down to what the institute offers. The reputed ones focus on live sessions—rather than recorded videos for self-learning—allowing students to have discussions, clear doubts and ask the faculty questions.
Universities will continue to grow, but there's no doubt that edtech firms will grow faster. What remains to be seen is if edtech platforms will leave universities behind in their wake or if their rising tide will lift universities as well.
Meanwhile, edtech companies work with top-tier universities to design curriculum that is delivered via live and recorded sessions by either their own or the university’s faculty.
The management curricula of India’s top colleges are fast acquiring a technical flavour, showcasing courses and specialisations on hot STEM topics like data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning as a new breed of executives with a blend of management (blue) and technical (red) skills have become the need of the hour.
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