Xebia-Microsoft to conduct blog-a-thon
IT consultancy firm Xebia has joined hands with Microsoft for their first-ever blog-a-thon contest, which invites IT professionals, students, developers, and leaders to participate by sharing solutions on a pre-identified list of topics. The blog-a-thon will commence on February 2nd and end on February 27, 2022. The blogs will be evaluated by the Xebia-Microsoft jury and winners will be able to showcase their perspectives and win prizes along with Azure credits and mentoring sessions by Xebia and Microsoft subject matter experts. Last date to register is January 27, 2022. Register at https://pages.xebia.com/blog-a-thon
Volunteering opportunities
Internshala has launched “Volunteer for India”, an Internshala Youth Force initiative. Anyone who wants to work towards social issues can apply to the internships under this initiative. Last date to apply is January 2022. Over 10,000 volunteering internships are being offered by organisations including Team Everest, Bhumi, Food4Thought Foundation, Safecity (Red Dot Foundation), Hamari Pahchan NGO, Atypical Advantage, and India - Driving Education Empowerment And Development Foundation. For more information or to apply, visit https://bit.ly/Volunteer26Jan
Workshop on Pearson Test of English Academic
Great Learning will host a workshop on Pearson Test of English Academic in collaboration with the Pearson Group, on January 22 and 23 from 1.00 to 2.30 p.m. This free session is meant for students who wish to apply for international universities abroad and acquire more information about PTE. The interactive workshop will be conducted by master trainers from Pearson Group: Christopher Morley and Gagandeep Singh, who will talk about the application process, test formats and offer preparation tips. Register at https://bit.ly/3tBYLfO
Applications open for GET 2022
EduCLaaS Singapore and Yangpoo Education have opened the application window for the Global Employability Test 2022, an entrance exam for admissions to two flagship programmes: ‘Earn While You Learn’ PG Applied MasterCLaaS in Software Engineering, AI-Ml and PG Applied MasterCLaaS in Digital Business. Graduating students from any stream along with students awaiting results are eligible to register for GET 2022 – Digital Business. GET 2022 – Software Engineering is open to all engineering graduates with computer and software courses including final-year students. To apply visit https://yangpoo.com/global-employability-test/ For queries, call Help Desk at 1800-547-8003.
Advanced Management Programme in Financial Services and Capital Markets
IIM-Lucknow and Imarticus Learning have launched an Advanced Management Programme in Financial Services and Capital Markets, for in-depth domain exposure in Corporate Finance, Valuation and Modelling, Equity Research, Investment Banking, Risk Management, Corporate Banking, Digital Banking, Treasury Operations, and FinTech. Each course module will have live virtual teaching and learners will also be given access to the campus immersion at IIM-Lucknow twice.
KLEEE to be held in January 2022
KL Deemed-to-be University will conduct its Engineering Entrance Examination (KLEEE) for the Vijayawada and Hyderabad campuses on January 27, 28 and 29 in a remote proctored format and has also allocated Rs.100 crores for merit scholarships 2021 to assist meritorious students in their higher education journey. For details, visit www.kluniversity.in
Amit Pal Singh joins Mercer|Mettl
Mercer|Mettl has appointed Amit Pal Singh as Chief Technology Officer to lead its technology and engineering functions and drive the organisation’s technological vision to support its growth. He will work closely with business, product, and operations to align technology with the organisation’s objective and strengthen the existing foundation through the right processes, tools, and structures.
Survey reports
Ed-tech start-up Harappa released a survey, which is part of a series to gauge the growing importance of cognitive, social and behavioural skills and to give industry and academia a shared vocabulary to assess and evaluate students and professionals. The survey will also help institute India’s first Thrive Skills Index. The survey revealed that 74% of respondents agree that ‘soft skills’ is an archaic term to describe cognitive, social and behavioural skills and 67% felt that higher education isn’t enough to make graduates workplace-ready. According to respondents, skillful teamwork is the top skill professionals aim to prioritise in 2022 followed by confident public-speaking and effective communication. The top three skillsets professionals look for are efficient prioritisation, personal credibility and resilience.
TeamLease EdTech launched its latest survey, “Aligning education and skilling in the CSR agenda”, a detailed survey analysing how India Inc. is spending CSR funds within the education/skilling cohort, key challenges in the process and the aspirations of organisations while aligning CSR agenda. According to the survey, conducted with over 100 companies across India, nearly 70% expressed an intention to increase their CSR spend in education/skilling, especially towards imparting vocational skills.
Mumbai-based The Acres Foundation released a report titled ‘A systematic review of screen-time literature to inform educational policy and practice during COVID-19’. It reviewed existing screen-time literature to understand the implications of screen time (ST) on students in the context of pandemic-induced remote learning. The research was published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Educational Research.
Vaccination camps
Orchids The International School ’s Bangalore campuses conducted vaccination drives for the students of their schools, starting from January 4. Keeping in mind the guidelines issued by the government authorities, the respective campuses have taken utmost care and ensured complete sanitisation of the premises along with optimum seating arrangements for the students.
Mumbai-based Aditya Birla World Academy (ABWA) recently organised a vaccination drive for its students and staff in association with the NH SRCC Children’s Hospital on January 10 for students of Classes 9-12.
Funding news
edustoke recently raised ₹3 crores in seed funding from Indus Initiatives. Founded in 2017 by Pawas Tyagi and Rohit Malik, edustoke helps parents find the best educational institution for their child. The brand will leverage the capital infusion to scale to new cities across the country and invest in technology to bolster its platform and, strengthen its team.
The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode ’s Business incubator Laboratory for Innovation Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE) and Indian Bank signed an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to launch a start-up funding scheme, ‘IndSpring Board’ to support early stage start-ups by providing loans upto ₹50 crores. The MoU was signed by Prof. Rajesh Upadhyayula, Executive Director, IIMK LIVE and B. Vijaya, Zonal Manager, Indian Bank, Kozhikode Zone, in the presence of Prof. Debashis Chatterjee, Director IIM-K and Imran Amin Siddiqui, Executive Director of the Chennai Headquartered Indian Bank.
Ed-tech company LEAD entered the Unicorn club by raising $100 million to continue its mission of transforming schools in India. The Series E funding round was led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures. The company plans to use the proceeds towards product and curriculum innovation, growth in its footprint and hiring top talent across functions.
Educational start-up AAS Vidyalaya received an investment of ₹1.5 crores for 15% equity from Shark Tank's Peyush Bansal, Namita Thapar and Ashneer Grover. The start-up introduced the concept of ‘Education Cafes’ in rural areas, which are equipped with tablets that students can use to study on. All they need is their registered ID and password.
iCan Learning System
Kangaroo Kids is all set to launch its new iCan Learning System, which aims to instill nine future skills and 15 habits of mind in young children. The curriculum transitions from teacher-led learning to child-led learning, from learning outcomes to competencies, and from a teacher as an instructor to a teacher as a thinker. A dedicated team of educators and researchers at Kangaroo Kids have designed and upgraded this globally competent curriculum for the coming academic year.
Manipal Global partners with Tech Mahindra
Manipal Global will partner with Tech Mahindra to build a talent pool of Salesforce Trailhead certified professionals to meet their growing demand of Salesforce Professionals. Manipal Global will upskill freshers and professionals for their role at Tech Mahindra, through a Certification Program, targeting an audience with 0-4 years of experience in India. The model will cover four modules, and Manipal Global be provide an assured job at Tech Mahindra as a value add.
Codingal receives STEM.org accreditation
Ed-tech start-up Codingal has received accreditation from STEM.org for the ‘World’s Best STEM-based Coding Curriculum’ application. The partnership between Codingal and STEM.org prepares students to tackle new challenges and enhances student’s understanding of STEM subjects. The coding curriculum is built on BIDE (Broad, Inspiring, Deep & Efficient) and BLOOM methodology to ensure that the students are able to effectively remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate and create.
TN at IndiaSkills 2021
Tamil Nadu emerged as one of the top performing states at the IndiaSkills 2021 Nationals after winning two gold, eight silver, and eight bronze medals. Overall, 36 candidates participated from the state. In total, 185 candidates were declared winners in the competition and Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India felicitated them.
Skill-Lync collaborates with Altair
Ed-tech start-up Skill-Lync announced its collaboration with Altair to incorporate Altair tools and software in its curriculum to upskill aspiring engineers. Altair will offer academic licenses to all enrolled students of Skill-Lync via Altair University for 12 months that can be used for academic/learning purposes.
Amity wins at National Water Awards 2020
Amity International School, Noida, won the ‘Best School Award’ during the third National Water Awards 2020 contest, launched by the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India. The school secured the third position at the national level and the first position at the state level.
Gurucool to launch 15 new centres
Gurucool, an educational networking platform, is planning to launch 15 new centres in six cities by Q1 2022. The centres will cater to children from classes 1-10 and offer coaching in various competitive exams along with mentoring for spoken English and IELTS, for coding, commerce and more.
