Youth Need To Be Taught 21st Century Skills To Help Them Navigate Digital Disruption Facing All Industries: Harjiv Singh

Explain your business model and how do you differentiate it from your competitors?

BrainGain Global (BGG) is a SaaS enabled platform for higher education providing content, programs and tools to students. Our content and programs provide expertly curated learning experiences for students to explore colleges, universities and courses. Our tools, which we are currently developing, will allow students to find recommendations, scholarships, and better career and course matching for their degrees. 

Some of the universities that we have partnered with include The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Arizona State University and we are expanding with several more in the coming year. 

One Globe forum maintains that Education, skills, Technology, Innovation, smart cities, healthcare etc. are essential that will enable India to leverage their human capital, what are the challenges that have so far prevented progress?

We believe that the only challenge to progress in India is the speed to address these issues. India’s demographic dividend needs to be harnessed effectively in the coming decades. We need to implement reforms with a strong focus on providing our youth with 21st century skills as AI and robotics will disrupt lots of industries in the coming decade. 

What are the Indian students looking for when they go abroad? 

Research suggests that international education brings students many benefits in terms of personal and professional growth. Most Indian students look to study abroad to expand their horizons educationally and to gain exposure to different cultures. Studying abroad also proves to be a major boost for their career and often results in more job opportunities and higher salaries. There is a diversity of courses available in US, UK, Canada, Germany and Australia in a variety of fields, be it, social sciences, STEM, business and management or marketing degrees. In-class participation, dialogue exchange, case studies, and practical off- and on-campus experiences make learning fun and meaningful. In addition, flexibility to tailor courses as per the interest of the student and the freedom to work on a part-time basis while studying, adds to the overall appeal of earning a degree abroad. 

Which are the top countries preferred usually?

The total number of Indian students going abroad to pursue their higher education has been steadily increasing over the years. The most popular study abroad destinations for Indian students are U.S, U.K, Australia, Canada, Germany and Singapore.

What differentiates an Indian degree from a foreign degree? 

As someone who has been a product of both the Indian and American educations systems, I believe in India we focus more on the theoretical aspects of our subjects while in America the application of knowledge is an important differentiator. 

Where do you think we are leading and lagging in education? What sort of support do we need from our government?

In a country of 1.3 billion people it is imperative that we first ensure that there is 100% basic literacy if we want to be successful as an economy in the 21st century. Second, we need to create an education system that has the capacity and vision to skill the largest youth demographic the world has ever seen with the skills that will be relevant this century.