Susanna Athaide
The Economic Times (Delhi edition)
Each June, thousands of students across India line up for admission into various college or university courses. The Indian job market has undergone numerous changes over the past few years, with the services sector gaining importance over the primary and secondary sectors. This has brought about a corresponding change in the educational needs of the country.
A bachelor's degree, the main ambition of students 30 years ago, is now a basic qualification and today’s students aim much higher. According to Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, Small and Medium Business, Tata Consultancy Services, “With liberalisation, the traditional model of education became obsolete, and the need for job-oriented courses emerged.” Specialised courses, vocational courses and other skill-based programmes have taken off, and there is intense competition for seats at every level.
SMEs find their niche in education
This scenario has allowed SMEs to gain a firm foothold in the education sector, despite their financial constraints. Anand Sudarshan, MD and CEO, Manipal Education, says, “SMEs fill the gaps in the traditional education structure, providing supplementary services for students.” He notes the key role played by SMEs in providing test or exam preparation, training in specific skills and distance learning opportunities. SME institutions generally conduct short-term courses that earn participants a certificate or a diploma. Vidur Chatturvedi, Chairman, Kreating Charakters Acting Academy, says, “There has been a shift from traditional courses, which dominated the education sector for decades, to new innovative courses. The demand for these courses has increased with the advent of newer sectors, which require trained professionals.” A number of SMEs have found their niche in what could be termed as the soft skills or the lifestyle segment. Personality development, public speaking, arts, dance and music classes and workshops are being taught by an increasing number of small players.
New roles for a new system
Sudarshan sees three emerging trends in the Indian education scenario. He says, “The key trend here is choice. Middle-class India is moving away from engineering, medicine and law and opening up to a wide variety of new options. Students today have greater choice than ever before.” As information technology improves, students can compare various courses and institutions, giving rise to higher expectations.
Ramaswamy sees some fundamental changes in the education system, from the top-down centralised structure to a more community-oriented one. “In a way, good education centres will become a consortium of sorts. They will connect experts from industry, global academia and standards bodies with students,“ he says. “The model will eventually rely on a dynamic faculty, progressive course contents and multiple communication channels.” The trend towards intensive specialisation in education will give rise to new qualifications. “We could soon find generic degrees like the Bachelor of Arts splitting into niche streams such as a bachelor's degree in airline management, BPO administration and so on,” says Ramaswamy. Some universities have even partnered with SMEs to provide these courses.
Overcoming Obstacles
As educational institutions form a major public government sector in India, there are set yardsticks that SMEs have to measure up to in order to obtain entry into this sector. However, although regulatory limitations exist in this sector, the big picture reveals that opportunities outnumber the obstacles. SMEs in the education sector face the same basic challenges as SMEs in other sectors. According to Sudarshan, “SMEs face the primary challenges of sustaining and scaling up their businesses.” Ramaswamy agrees, “There are two immediate challenges: ensuring business viability and improving the quality of education.” Though these may seem contradictory at first, as investing in quality education runs counter to the profit motive, it is possible to strike a balance between the two. “The answer to this lies in the business model that makes use of modern education techniques,” says Ramaswamy.
“SMEs can address this issue through a community-based development of faculty, multi-form pedagogy such as virtual classrooms, open source and dynamic content for courseware as well as collaboration systems like online networkisng and research,” says Ramaswamy. SMEs can use IT to open multiple branches throughout the country, relying on data stored in a centralised data management system. “Distance education facilities in which the local branches are SMEs are a common phenomenon nowadays,” says Sudarshan. IT is an essential component of these management structures. According to Ramaswamy, “The IT solutions available to SMEs have changed as IT has now moved into managed services.” These services provide managed education platforms for SMEs where the solution is provided as part of the package, but the service is on a rental basis. This allows SMEs to control costs and invest in areas that generate greater revenue.
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