Dream Icon Experience initiative
The Internshala has launched the initiative — The Dream Icon Experience — to bring opportunities for students wherein they’ll get to interact with and learn from their icons. The interested students can apply for the opportunities from June 9, 2021 to June 11, 2021.
Students from any level of education, be it school, undergraduation, or post graduation and any educational background are eligible to apply to the opportunities under this initiative. There will be three kinds of opportunities in the initiative consisting of one-two hours long interactive sessions with the icons, one-two hours long workshops, and short term internships. All the opportunities in the initiative will be work-from-home in nature.
Sarvesh Agrawal, founder-CEO, Internshala said: “Taking this mission a step ahead, we are constantly striving to bring out-of-the-box opportunities for them. This initiative is one such attempt to connect the students with once in a lifetime opportunities to interact, get inspiration, and learn about the hard work which goes behind in becoming an icon from accomplished personalities.”
For more information or to apply for the opportunities, visit: http://bit.ly/DreamIcon.
upskill 1 lakh women under wisdom
The upGrad for Business is in talks with corporates to train over one lakh women in Data Science, Technology and Management roles as part of their Women in Science, Data, Organisational behaviour and Management (WISDOM) initiative. This will enable organisations to enhance gender diversity in these fields which are typically seen as male dominated.
MBA programme for working executives
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Amritsar has introduced new two-year executive MBA programme in a non-residential hybrid mode with an intake of 40 working professionals.
Professor Nagarajan Ramamoorthy, Director, IIM Amritsar, said: “The institution will ensure that business leaders as well as accomplished alumni endow the executives with expertise that would substantively benefit their current organisations.”
All programmes are focused on learner-centric pedagogy to groom socially conscious leaders of tomorrow.
Lectures on education after COVID
The 10th edition of the University Distinguished Lecture (UDL) Series, organised by SRM University-AP, expounded on a pertinent problem of the current time, “Higher Education in India in the Post-COVID-19”. Prof Anil Sahasrabudhe, Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), delivered the Distinguished Lecture, and Satish Chandra, IAS, Special Chief Secretary, Higher Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh, gave a special address.
In his welcome address, Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of SRM University-AP, set the context of the event, emphasising on how the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis has resulted in the temporary closure of about 1000 universities and about 40,000 colleges in the country, severely disrupting the teaching and learning process and research activities.
The transition to Learn From Anywhere happened overnight and people had to get used to it. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 recognises the importance of leveraging the advantages of technology while acknowledging its potential risks and dangers.
Online education calls for carefully designing and appropriately scaled studies to determine how the benefits of online/digital education can be reaped while addressing or mitigating the downsides. There is a need to establish a “Digital and Online Wing” in the Departments of Education in different States.
Prof Sahasrabudhe in his Distinguished Lecture, delineated that the use of technology in the education environment has been initiated in the pre-COVID days. Platforms such as Swayam, National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) came into existence to digitally bring quality education to everyone. Digital education carries a boon that no one can ignore, i.e. making physical distance irrelevant in education. Digital education has the ability to reach students anywhere and everywhere provided they are equipped with gadgets and internet connectivity. Thus, the Government has undertaken a nationwide project under, Bharat Net, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan to connect every corner of India through the internet.
Prof Sahasrabudhe accepted that all subjects cannot be taught online, especially lab-based practical courses that will have the need to attend physical classes. Moreover, a digital class can never replace the bonding humans tend to develop while working in close proximity. However, it cannot be debated that the education system has changed. The future of education comes with a blended environment.
Fortunately, NEP 2020 envisioned the change long ago and introduced a relevant policy to ensure the educational growth of the country. Multidisciplinary Education and Research Universities (MERU), Academic Bank of Credits, National Academic Depository are some of the revolutionary changes that are going to benefit the next generations in the post COVID days.
The Government has already established National Research Foundations to support mega research projects, which may need several crores of rupees.
Prof Sahasrabudhe emphasised that studying in one’s native language is an essential requirement that NEP looks into. He asserted that proper administration, governance and autonomy are some of the deciding factors for the education sector in the coming days.
