India’s higher education system ranks the third-largest in the world, next to the United States and China.
While, 993 universities, 39931 colleges and 10, 725 stand-alone institutions(data:2019) for 25 billion students seems a nice folio on the surface, yet there lie many pain points that make the path to disrupt higher education, puzzled.
India is at the urgency to reform its higher education model which have been prevalent for the last 20 years. But how?
Apart from the highly recognized institutions like IITs, IIMs and AIIMs, most colleges and universities lack the basic high-end research facilities including the significant mismatch between professional skills required and those that are available.
At the skyrocketing expense of getting higher education, students are getting less knowledge for more.
There is so much to improve and implement and that’s where Trans Neuron Technologies Pvt Ltd.’s transformational approach is helping the students to learn and mould their future.
Founded in the year 2015, Trans Neuron Technologies Pvt. Ltd. has emerged as a leading skills tech and EdTech company that focuses on transforming students & job seekers into industry-ready professionals.
In an interview with Corporate Review Magazine, the man behind the brand, Trans Neuro’s Founder & CEO, Shivaam Sharma speaks on how this Learn to Launch(L2L) company, is backing & bracing the next generation for their corporate journey.
IN TALK WITH THE LEADER SHIVAAM SHARMA
A first-generation entrepreneur, Shivaam’s story starts from a small town in Uttar Pradesh.
Although Shivaam was not fluent in English during his early days of struggle, his knit determination and passion reconstructed him to one of the most transformed entrepreneurs.
His professional journey started during his final year engineering project which lasted only for a month.
Later, he joined a company in Bangalore, in the sales department to learn how to speak English and build his network.
After working there for about 3 months and winning the best salesperson award and getting Pager (mobile device before cell phone) as a reward, he left the company and sold the Pager for Rs.10,000 to raise capital to start his business.
Shivaam started assembling computers and then entered into the software development arena with his startup- Net Point.
It was among the first few companies in India to develop a Software Product on Linux way back in 1999 – 2000.
The product was Net Office-a Google Office type product for Intranets.
Net Office was nominated for Global Excellence Awards in San Francis co. in 2000.
Experiencing ill-fated times and rising again, with trans neuron technologies
Shivaam’s dreams came crashing with the 9/11 incident in the US. He sold his startup and moved to a completely unrelated field of healthcare.
Having run the Healthcare business successfully for a decade, he then sold the business to start Trans Neuron Technologies, to solve the problems in Vocational Skilling and Higher Education.
The Inception Of Trans Neuron Technologies
“I always wanted to do something for the not so fortunate students in Higher education segment those students who, for some reason, couldn’t make it to IITs or other premium institutes but have that spark and ambition in them. After analyzing the huge gap of what’s being offered in premium colleges to being missed in other colleges, we came up with the idea of iTrack – Industry-Academia Collaborative eLearning Platform especially for students in T2 – T1 (Tier 2 city & Tier 1 college).”
What Were The Industrial Challenges That You Observed?
If I have to list the top 4 challenges of students in Higher education, those will be;
- Hands-on Experience
- Industry Aligned Affordable Courses
- Jobs + Internships
- Infrastructure (24 x 7 support)
TRANS NEURON’S INNOVATIVE APPROACH – Ekaushal
Trans Neuron’s eKaushal (www.ekaushal.com) powers the Skill Initiative of Govt. of India under NSDC.
A first of its kind Skills Ecosystem Management Platform (a B2B Marketplace), eKaushal connects various stakeholders of an independent skill ecosystem and brings multiple skill ecosystem together to benefit from each other.
Stakeholders like Funding Agencies (Government Schemes or CSR Funds from Corporate), Sector Skill Councils (SSC), Assessment Agencies, Training Providers, Employers and most importantly the Youth in the country can benefit from such an Ecosystem Platform.
The platform helps in efficiently Managing, Running and Monitoring the activities of various stakeholders; besides helping in Analyzing various aspects of skilling and Predicting future trends and Prescribe and better planning.
With over 20 million youth, 40k+ Training Centers and 73k+ Employers, the platform manages the largest Skilling Ecosystem in the world.
Itrack– World’s First Industry Academia Collaborative Elearning Platform
INDUSTRY- Academia Collaborative eLearning Platform, iTrack (www.itrackglobal.com) is the first of its kind platform which covers the 4 main pillars of Higher Education i.e., CFSI™ (College, Faculty, Students & Industry) and brings everyone together to benefit from each other. Counted among the fastest growing platforms for higher education in India, iTrack has registered 50,000+ students, 35+ Universities/ Colleges and 4000+ Jobs & Internships within 6 months of launch.
COLLEGE – iTrack is a new age eLearning Platform that is future-ready and offers almost all that a college in the real-world offers… but on the cloud.
ITrack’s offerings for colleges
- Upload courses in form of PDF, PPT, SCROM, Text, Video or animation
- Create and Schedule Sessions
- Record Attendance
- Give Assignments
- Conduct Assessments (MCQ, Drag and Drop, Quiz, Formative etc)
- AI-based Proctored Online Examination with motion sensing
- Personalised Learning
- Help Desk
- Centralised Management
FACULTY- iTrack also acts as a platform for Faculties, Tutors, Instructors & Mentors. It offers
- Virtual Classes with Recording
- Breakout Rooms
- Share Notes
- Screen Share
- Whiteboard sharing with Annotation
- Mute/ Unmute Users
- Public and Private Chat
- Upload Presentation & Video
- Polls and a lot more
STUDENTS– iTrack is the only eLearning Platform with a strong focus on Career along with Learning and works with Industry to develop students through GigWork and Internships for their Dream Career.
Students can upskill themselves through courses from top organizations worldwide, apply for Industry Projects, apply for Jobs & Internships, do coding 24 x 7 without upgrading their existing devices.
INDUSTRY– Hire the best talent after a thorough check (iTrack is the only platform that gives the full student academic and skilling profile along with a video resume for the Industry to take a more informed decision).
Industries can conduct Assessment (MCQ, Coding, Proctored etc.), Virtual Interview, Hire full time or part-time or Interns.
Read our Latest Edition Here
iTrack within 4 months of its launch has gained 50,000+ students, 4000+ Jobs & Internships, 75+
Projects, 35+ Universities/ Colleges.
Adding more stars to its sky, iTrack is trusted by Corporates like IBM, Microfocus (UK), Hitachi, PACKT (UK), Xebia, Wiley, NCELL (Largest Telco in Nepal) and Universities like ICFAI, UPES (Dehra Dun), AISECT Group (5 Universities, 1 Engineering College), Hindustan University, Presidency University, SAGE University and many more.
Did The Covid-19 Pandemic Influence Your Business Model?
COVID-19 has accelerated the speed as the world has woken up to eLearning.
We were working on iTrack for a year with a plan to launch it in 2021 but instead launched it earlier due to COVID-19.
During these unprecedented times, we have registered remarkable growth – 50,000 students and 35+ Universities/Colleges and 4000+ Jobs &Internships along with Partnerships with some of the top global organizations.
Share With Us Some Proud Moments/Milestones Of The Company?
There are many proud moments like our first University sign up UPES (Dehra Dun), our largest deal with AISECT Group, our 1st Student selected as a B2C subscriber, content partnership with PACKT publishing (UK) to bring affordable (Rs.599 course) world-class courses.
The benchmarks also count our signup with Veritas University College, Malaysia and bringing International MBA at affordable price.
Our students have brought many accolades home, one of them I specifically like to mention- our first project was completed in record 9 days (against the 30 days assigned by the company) by one of our
students and he was acknowledged with Rs.35,000 as the project money.
Continuing on its successful march, iTrack has created another benchmark.
It has been chosen by the largest telecom company of Nepal (NCELL) to offer eLearning to its large subscriber base.
We are delighted to be a part of a platform, which will bring a major eLearning and Digital Transformation in Nepal with its Vocational Skills, Technology and other courses offerings.
We are proud to deliver an eLearning platform for Education Institutions to become Digital Campus.
How Has The Pandemic Changed Classroom Learning?
Online learning can never replace the classroom experience but yes, it is a supplementary system that, when blended with classroom learning, can be the real winner.
Pandemic has shown the world that the show must go on and we have to find alternatives to everything present.
We were expecting that online learning will mature gradually but the pandemic brought the disruption much earlier.
What Is Your Outlook On The Future Of Edtech?
Higher Ed – it’s going to be blended, Online + Offline. The experience of Physical college is a must not only for practice learning but also for social learning.
What Are The Plans For The Company? Is There Any Plan To Enter New Verticals Too?
We plan to get 10% of the students in Higher Ed on iTrack in the next 3 to 4 years. We have already entered other markets outside India with clients in Malaysia, Brunei and Nepal.
We further plan to expand our reach to the Middle and Africa in 2021 and enter Australia, Europe and the US in 2022.
Words Of Wisdom
For students in higher education, I have been talking about WWH – WHAT? WHY? AND HOW?
What do I want to do? – Clearly, desire what you want.
Why do I want to do? – this is more important than the What.
How will I do? – Visualize the process.
If students can focus on WWH then the whole Universe will align itself to support them in getting all that they desire.
