SimplivLearning's Shahanshah Manzoor: Focused on helping students bridge learning gaps
The fact of our country having the world’s largest student population, estimated at over 300 million-almost as many people in the US-has many of us drooling. Plus, the very large proportion of young people in our populace, which gives us what could be the highest demographic advantage we have experienced, perhaps in our entire history, makes us feel optimistic.
Encouraging as these numbers are, we cannot overlook the fact that a few traditional flaws in our education system continue to persist. Our syllabi seem set in stone. They struggle to keep up with the frenetic changes that take place by the day, especially in the areas of technology.
The New Education Policy, which seeks to bring about many changes, has just starting rolling out, but it is going to be a while before we discern if it will change our educational system qualitatively. Till that happens, the bane of our rote learning and the rigidity of our syllabi, which makes it difficult for students to learn anything that they are going to put to use in the real world, is set to continue.
It is this lacuna that has given rise to the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) industry, which has prompted many businesses to make smart moves aimed at impacting the learning scenario.
SimplivLearning is one such initiative. Shahanshah Manzoor, an entrepreneur in the education space, and Founder and Managing Director of SimplivLearning, was motivated to start his venture when he realized that there is a pressing need to close the gap between what is taught academically and what is put to use at work.
“The central reason for which I embarked on this idea is to help fill critical skill gaps that most students who come out of their education carry. Unfortunately, it is only when they step out into the real world that they realize that what they learnt all these years is not sufficient to make them sought after in the job market. It is then that they start all over again. It is this skills gap that I want to bridge with the industry-tailored courses we offer on our platform”, he says.
Given the ease and flexibility of learning, its relevance to the job market, and the value for money that this medium offers, more and more learners are looking at short online courses as a viable option for enhancing their skillsets and finding their niche. This is why most online learning platforms offer courses on almost any topic that one can think of. These teach the specific learning and skills needed to succeed at jobs.
While India is a major market for short courses, there is a global market out there ready to be explored. With the online learning market poised to make major changes into the way in which education is being imparted, companies such as SimplivLearning are set to be at the forefront of this new paradigm.
