Edsanta Education plans to bridge the skill gap in India

After the Government of India rolled-out NEP 2020, it has offered multiple exit options and appropriate certification within undergraduate education period. An academic bank of credit can now be established for digitally storing academic credits earned from different institutes.

Indian education system is multifold and one of the largest in the world with more than 271 million students enrolled in more than 1.5 million schools and 37.2 million students in under graduate and post graduate colleges across India, as per RBSA report.

In a recent interview with Rohan Krishna, CEO and Co-Founder, Edsanta Education, he talks about the rise in edtech companies and the growing competition.

What were your dreams and passions while growing up?

Being an MBA in Business Strategy from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, my career spans many roles. I always had a zest and vision to change the way the world learns. In just a few years, I was able to crystalize my vision into reality with two edtech brands under the EdSanta umbrella – Get me a Course and Elite.

Both these brands are in line with EdSanta Education's vision to build easy-to-use technology platforms that would empower learners in all facets of their life.

What are your views on the industry competition and does Edsanta stand?

A plethora of Edtech brands emerged to make the most of the market condition, making the sector highly fragmented. While there are many edtech brands to choose from, our offering through Elite is quite deep and solves the pain points of e-learning; attention span, completion rate, and individual approach. It is alarming that the course completion rates are very low, with poor user engagement on upskilling, and all these are just not adding to cost but deeply frothing the capabilities of organizations.

Over 90% of startups close within the first three years not just because of the failed product idea but majorly due to incompetent teams with huge skill gaps. Globally, skill gaps are increasing. Companies are ready to pay a 200% increment, offer fancy perks to poach and retain talent, why?

There already have been so many companies in the market but why are we still standing at the edge of the skill crisis? To a great extent, we all have been doing the old way and it's time to enhance the way we are bridging the gaps and that’s the core foundation of Elite.

How did you adopt tech at your company?

We are SaaS-based service providers, data and technology-driven aggregators connecting the lifetime needs of an individual from learning, employment, and mentorship. The core premise is to make sure that a user gets content right in the time they need to learn or solve a problem.

What is your business model like?

We work across three different verticals i.e., for campus, enterprise, and individuals. The business model is of course the SaaS-based subscription but it depends on the product, number of users, and features needed by a partner. As of today, we work with enterprises and campuses of all sizes.

What are your opinions on this industry?

The pandemic emphasized the skill gaps in the existing workforce. In today’s market we are there to inspire, engage, and delight our users by directing them to finely tailored solutions for every learning and career growth needs. At the same time, we are creating a layer in the ecosystem between the employers and training/degrees that actually verifies and certifies the skills of every individual.

Undoubtedly there had been many fly-by-night players in the edtech all trying to use the pandemic as a boat to get big. We all have seen many acquisitions, success stories, failures, free product access, but the fact remains that India is not just high on demand but also on supply-side in edtech. Very few are actually working on solving industry problems.

Is there anything you would like to change?

The corporate sector has been following the traditional top-down approach of skilling but it is high time that we reverse it and divide responsibility through a bottom-up approach. It allows individuals to stay competitive and keep developing top talent.

The problem can be solved through skill-boosting and re-developing the approach by empowering individuals through contextual learning. Similarly, on campuses, students need more digital empowerment.

Despite the pandemic has pushed the global institutions to take the digital route of teaching and learning still, it is highly misunderstood and misused. Digital transformation of campuses means more than just using Zoom for delivery but it is sad that still, it is not of priority for many campuses. Our students using Elite outstand any digital solution.