India has the world’s largest population of about 500 million in the age bracket of 5-24 years and this provides a great opportunity for the education sector. The country has become the second largest market for e-learning after the US.
Most students today don’t have access to the right counselling & guidance when it comes to their higher education needs and career goals. More often than not, students make crucial decisions regarding courses, degrees and colleges based on hearsay, only to repent later when they are unable to cope with the academic pressure or find a good job. CollegeDekho.com provides an end to end solution to students, andCareer360, Shiksha.com & Collegeduniya.com are some of the players in the education space currently.
In conversation with Franchise India, Ruchir Arora, co-founder and CEO, CollegeDekho.com, shares his invaluable inputs on growth and future of the industry, need for right counselling and much more.
The Need for Right Counselling for a Student from an Early Age
The path to a successful career needs to be defined at a young age. This will ensure a smooth run in the later years. Therefore, it is very important for young students to plan their future based on their interest and skills.
“They need to understand their capabilities so that they can give it their best. This is where education counselling can help children discover their true potential, and guide them in their career journey from a young age. They can get clarity on the career options that are available to them and guide them to make informed decisions rather than based on what others say,” said Arora.
The Current and Future Growth in the Education sector
Arora shares, “The education sector in India was estimated at US$ 91.7 billion in FY18 and is expected to reach US$ 101.1 billion in FY19. A number of colleges and universities in India reached 39,050 and 903, respectively in 2017-18. India had 36.64 million students enrolled in higher education in 2017-18. Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education reached 25.8 per cent in 2017-18. The sector is expected to reach US$ 1.96 billion by 2021 with around 9.5 million users.”
Bridging the Gap
There is a huge gap between content seekers and providers in the education industry today. The current market is full of new opportunities and jobs are being created every day according to the market demands. But, it is sad to see students repeat the same mistakes, resulting in unemployment. Hence, there is an innate need to break through the traditional mindset and educate young minds on the new age options available.
“CollegeDekho has a multi-thronged approach to counselling. Apart from counselling services on phone, School Connect, an outreach programme of CollegeDekhoconducts student-counselling and related engagement activities regularly for the entire session. This is facilitated using the Holland Psychometric Test, which is used to profile students on the basis of their academic performance, traits and interests. After profiling the student, our expert counsellors guide each one in choosing the right college & career,” commented, Arora.
“CollegeDekho.com has guided more than 12 lakh students across India since inception and has emerged as a leading online platform for providing guidance in the education sector. In addition to this, CollegeDekhouses advanced technology to crowdsource opinions based on former and present students,” added, Arora.
CollegeDekho has partnerships with more than 400 colleges and universities. The key benefits of this partnership being:
- CollegeDekho provides video tours and personalised videos for their college partners.
- Partnering with CollegeDekho also gives institutes high visibility compared to other colleges listed on the platform.
- CollegeDekho provides Android app solutions to educational institutions across the country as well, enabling them to connect with the students in a better way on their mobile phones.
