The business of education in India is a serious business indeed. With the world’s fastest growing population, the country with the fastest increasing smart phone usage and mobile network connectivity and perhaps the most number of ‘boards of education’ – the scope for ed-tech firms to make a mark in Indian education is ‘HUGE’. The past few days have seen various newspapers referring to a study commissioned by Google and conducted by KPMG India on the future of online education in India.

Key Findings as Listed in the Report

•        Current size of the online education market in India = US$247 million.
  
•          Estimated size of market by 2021 = US$1.96 billion.
  
•          Key areas of growth include – primary and secondary education, certification and re-skilling and test preparation.
  
•          The single largest growth potential lies in the primary and secondary education sector with a value of US$ 773 million by 2021.
  
•          Affordability of learning, quality of content, brand endorsement and peer reviews will play key roles in learners buying a course.
  
•          Learning will shift towards smart phones and tablet devices.
  
•          Providers who offer value-added services and not just learning content will stay ahead in the game!
  
•          Provisions for accessing learning in off-line mode and device-agnostic learning will find greater fan-following.
  
•          Customized learning content that adapts to the learners’ skills will be the game-changer.
  

You can access the full report here for your reference!

About Skillability

Skillability is a life-long learning portal that offers courses for learners in the age-group of three to 55 years. We believe that we shall stand apart from the competition in terms of the courses that we offer with a special focus on Special Education and Teacher Training programmes and career-reskilling programmes. We are building this website bit-by-bit and are actively looking to add unique courses that can make a difference. Write to us at helpdesk@skillability.in if you are keen to promote your course through Skillability.

What the Future Holds?

The push for a digital education system is quite strong; please remember the human teacher can never be replaced and every product or software that comes into the market is only a supplementary product that can help simplify education. The online education market is on a roll with loads of services free and paid are available that help learners acquire skills, certification and knowledge. What will separate the winners from the ‘also-rans’ will be the ability of providers to stay unique from various clones in the market and offer adaptive learning courses that have quality learning content at the right price. With the focus shifting on mobile, we are looking at a scenario wherein learning will be delivered by apps. Right from buying to accessing and receiving a certificate or a digital badge that can be showcased on a social profile will be on the smart phone.

Let’s make life-long learning a reality with Skillability!

The past six months have been quite painful for the Indian IT Industry. Like the proverbial golden goose that laid precious eggs, the Indian IT boom has built the careers and lives of two generations of people now. With growing costs, a hostile situation in the USA, with Trump making it clear in no uncertain terms that he wants jobs for Americans and visa rules becoming stricter, there has been a lot of hustle and bustle in the Indian IT sector.

Every single leading player, be it Infosys, TCS, Cognizant, Tech Mahindra or Wipro - are all handing out pink-slips to employees. The reason being cited is 'non-performance' based on internal performance reviews. This is a standard template text response that leading firms cite; the honest answer is that projects are drying up. At one point, the malpractice of inflating members assigned on projects, time taken and boosting billing hours to generate revenues is slowly taking its toll. 'Being on the bench' is no longer a possibility. You either have a project and a job to execute or you simply leave. Poor planning, flawed HR and recruitment practices and the greed of top management is leading to the chaos that's begun.

One needs to realize the significance of the events that are unfolding. There are a lot of specialist smaller firms that complete mini-projects and hand over to the big players. So if projects dry up for the big players; sequentially these smaller vendors will also have to shut shop - a cruel domino effect of sorts!!

One can no longer just manage to survive with one skill. As a working professional, it is imperative that you are adequately trained and competent in multiple job-roles. One honestly needs to have a 'Plan-B'. At Skillability, we offer multiple certified courses across job-roles. Invest in yourself, invest in your future; be it graphic design, web development or Android or iOS10 development; we have a specific course for you. If you wish to become a care-giver or special education needs trainer - we have courses in 'Autism Care' as well.

Don't wait any further! Sign up for a course on Skillability - right away!

Reference Link:

Business Standard

The dotcom bubble burst that created panic in the late 90s is all but forgotten. The doomsday analysts who predicted that computing and the Internet would be hit badly have eaten humble pie. Every single day, thousands of new websites are registered around the world. The Internet has connected billions of people all around the world, e-commerce and services booked through websites ranging from carpentry to books and airlines and train bookings, the dotcom bubble burst is a ghost that will not return to haunt us again!

Did you know that the UK has incorporated coding as an essential part of the primary school framework? This is a key sign of how the UK is thinking ahead to meet the growing demand of programmers and coders across the world. Traditionally in India, students were introduced to computers around class five. This has changed in the past four or five years with children in kindergarten getting to view animated rhymes on the computer. But are computers being used effectively in our education system? With the wealth of knowledge available on the Internet we are seeing students as young as 13 and 14 setting up their own app and website design companies.

See this video -- 

It is high time that we in India wake up to the infinite possibilities that learning coding offers to students. Imagine the ability to design your own games and apps? The chances of securing freelance jobs to code, even when you are in school? Or to participate in coding fests and win attractive prizes? This summer vacation as a parent or an interested student; why don’t you have a look at Skillability and sign up for the Complete Web Developer Course?

'The Complete Web Developer 2.0' course. This has been designed by renowned IT guru Rob Percival and is full of interactive lessons, live projects, demos and a step-by-step road-map for even a complete novice to turn into a skilled web developer. Priced at Rs 1495, the course is one of the most comprehensive courses of its kind and is designed to be understood by children as young as 12 to 13 years of age. By the end of this course you will be able to build fully functional websites and web apps from scratch using different programming languages and tools.

We at Skillability are honoured and proud to present the Drama for Autism Course in association with Dr. Parasuram Ramamoorthi of the Velvi Foundation. The course is scheduled to start on September 26 and we have now extended the registration date to September 23. If you live in India, the course is priced at INR 13,800 inclusive of all taxes. If you live abroad then the course is priced at US$400.

Ever since we announced the launch of the course, we have received enquiries about the course instructor and the content of the course. This blog post will give you an overview of the instructor and the course.

About Dr. Ramamoorthi

• Retired Professor of Theatre Madurai Kamaraj University.
• Vice-Chair of International Association of Theatre for Autism.
• A poet, playwright and internationally renowned director.
• One of the pioneers in the field of Applied Drama.

Prof. Ramamoorthi has been working in the field of Arts for Autism since 2003 and has conducted workshops on drama for autism in Europe/England /USA and in several parts of India.

About the Drama for Autism Course

This is a detailed course structured into 12 modules. The course is specifically designed for:

·        • Parents of children with autism

·        • Teachers working with children with autism

·        • Special educationists and care-givers

On completing this course learners will get introduced to the various concepts of drama, understand how drama can be used effectively to help children with autism and get an insight into the creativity of children with autism.

Autism is seen as a neurological disorder and it is also called Pervasive Developmental Disorder. All scientific research indicates that Autism Spectrum Disorder is a condition and not as a disease. Over the years there has been a marked increase in the number of children being diagnosed with ASD and parents of such children are finding it tough to offer them a proper education. Specialised schools are less in number and securing admission in them is quite tough. This course on Drama for Autism will be effective in helping parents discover hidden facets of their children with autism and help them communicate with their children.

Masks

Masks play a key role in this course. Children with autism rarely look at others directly or face-to-face. Their eyes are focused on something far away or look at the ground or their own hands. Masks are used in this course to demonstrate how children socialize with others when their face is covered by a mask.

The 12 modules of the programme will be interesting and extremely useful for those working with children with Autism.

Autism is used to describe the condition Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD. This term covers a number of cognitive and psychological and moto-sensory disorders that affects children. ASD is a clinically defined behavioural syndrome that manifests in early childhood.  The core symptoms of ASD include abnormal or unreciprocated interpersonal and emotional interactions, disordered language and communication, and repetitive and stereotypic behaviour.

With the May 2013 publication of the DSM-5 diagnostic manual, all autism disorders were merged into one umbrella diagnosis of ASD. Previously, they were recognized as distinct subtypes, including autistic disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome.

First things first, autism is not a mental disorder, people have to stop equating autistic children with mental patients. Despite all the progress that the country has made autistic children and their parents still undergo extreme partiality and societal stigma. Forget India, even in countries like the UK and the USA, autistic children and their parents have a tough time.

• They are gifted in a skill like music or painting
  
• Have a powerful bond with pets like dogs, cats and rabbits
  
• Can have exceptional numerical skills
  
• Tend to associate memories with specific colours
  
• Difficulty in speaking coherently
  
• Inability to perform basic actions like eating, bathing, wearing clothes on their own.
  
• Complete lack of sense of surroundings and people around them
  
• Inability to recognise people or socialise in any way
  
• Sudden mood swings punctuated by laughing and crying spells
  

This makes it very difficult for autistic children to fit into regular society and attend school with ‘neurologically normal’ children. The key factor is that regular teachers are not trained or skilled to handle the requirements of children with special education needs. It is important for parents to understand the importance of helping their children overcome autism with love, care, patience and exercises that help autistic children overcome their impediments. Special schools have sprung up in leading cities in India and there are support groups made of parents of autistic children which work for inclusive education and share their knowledge.

At Skillability, we are proud to partner with Dr Parasuram of the Velvi Foundation and bring to you the “Complete Course on Drama for Autism”. This is an award-winning programme that incorporates elements of drama and theatre and is a fun-filled way to help battle against autistm. We shall be launching this course soon.