If not schools, what’s new for investors in education?

There are already a number of franchise brands in preschool and K-12 education categories which are mushrooming in India. Almost every metro and tier I cities have renowned franchise schools which are shaping careers and studies of many. Likewise, vocational and supplementary brands have grown magnificently over the last few years resultantly they have become a norm today. We see students in a large number joining these institutions.

Vocational & supplementary centres are expanding not just in metros, tier- I cities but also in tier II and III cities. Of course, to expand at such a large scale they need a system which efficient and feasible. And the system is franchising which has taken the industry by a storm.             

Honing skills, franchising way

Opportunities are galore from abacus training to language schools, e-schools, fashion schools, aviation schools etc. Besides playschools and K-12 education, child development programs, supplements, drama groups and vocational education are riding high on the opportunity radar.

“Today, supplementary education is observed as an organised market, comparing to the conventional belief when coaching or tuitions were needed during board exams or engineering/medical preparations, etc. Gradually, parents have realised the importance of developing the child skills from the pre-school level, thus there is a strong need of adapting hands-on learning tools, skill development at the pre, middle, higher and vocational levels,” comments Sudhanshu Sharma, CEO at Techtronics Education India Ltd, which runs RoboGenuis Academy with a vision to augment classroom teaching with innovative teaching solutions. A research team at RoboGenius Academy developed ‘Hands-on Learning’ tools for students to bridge the gap between key theoretical concepts and their real-world applications. The brand is looking to get associated with partners who are really passionate about education and want to build tomorrow’s technology leaders in the country.

Emerging field of education

For vocational & supplementary education brands, franchising helps these brands to reach students and prospective entrepreneurs who wish to start their own venture in education sector but lacks an organised platform. The combination of franchise route and an organised brand provides the same for franchisees.

 As per the company official, CADD Centre largely expects to have franchise partners who are serious about their entrepreneurial experience/journey. “Though we do not have any part-time opportunity in our business module, but we seek housewives, ex-servicemen or businessmen or students who have just passed from colleges as our potential franchisees. We have a big list of franchise partners who are successful with a complete focus on the franchise business. We emphasise on a franchise partner devoting his fulltime on this business, and following the brand guidelines, to see the best result.”

Headquartered in Chennai, CADD Centre is the training arm of the 26 year old CADD Centre Group. The education chain boasts itself to be the only company in India to offer an end-to-end solution to CAD users, specialises in Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) with its presence across the globe.

On the opportunities available for franchisees, Dr Karan Deshmukh, Executive Vice President, Business Development, Brain Checker Techno Services, adds, “In 2014, Brain Checker started its franchise model. In the last eight months, we have reached 140+ franchise units and over 32 Master Franchisees. The company has set itself a target of having 5000 franchise centres and 500 master franchisees in India by 2019. It may seem a lot but if you compute the figures keeping in mind the Indian population, we would not even have one franchise per 1000 Students. Our objective is to provide these services to all students from across the strata of our society with an aim to create professionals who love what they do.”

Brain Checker, another revolutionary concept in career counseling has also come up with its new brand- Mid Brain Plus, which focuses on increasing performance of children. The brand believes Mid Brain Activation is the process of activating mid-brain area which is generally dormant after the age of six.

Leaders in shaping careers

·           Career launcher

·           TIME

·           Aakash Institute

·           EduComp

·           Vidyalankar

·           CADD Centre

·           Techtronics Education Ltd

·           Brain Checker

·           Learnopedia

·           NIIT

·           EduCADD

·           IBT

·           ICS

·           Master Minds

 SKILL INDIA MISSION, a boost to vocational industry

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the ambitious Skill India Mission and proposed declaring India as the 'Human Resource Capital'. The mission is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and training around 500 million Indians with appropriate skills to find jobs.

The policy named 'National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015' will be like a war against poverty, which will mainly concentrate on empowering the workforce which has been left out of the mainstream education system by incentivising skill training through financial rewards.

A target to skill 24 lakh workers for 2015 and 40.2 crore by the year 2022 has been set by the government. The mission will be led by a governing council which will be chaired by the PM and include ministers for finance, skill development and entrepreneurship, human resource development, rural development, labour and employment, overseas affairs and information technology. Through this programme, the Prime Minister wants the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to have the same power as the Indian IITs.