What would you say if we tell you that you have a chance to visit Egypt? Awesome, right? But what if we say, you won't just be visiting, you will have an immersive adventure and get to really experience the culture of the country. That is exactly what BrainGain Academy (BGA), in association with the American University in Cairo (AUC) is offering to students. The ten-day winter programme titled Discover Egypt: A Historical and Cultural Learning Adventure will not only give you the opportunity to attend specialised guest lectures but will also allow you to learn Arabic calligraphy and so much more, With, of course, must-have experiences like dining by the river Nile and visiting the pyramids of Giza. Harjiv Singh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, BrainGain Global tells what else to expect from this exciting programme. Excerpts:
Tell us about who was responsible to develop the agenda of the tour and what is the mission that the agenda aims to achieve?
American University in Cairo (AUC) has exclusively collaborated with BrainGain Academy (BGA) for its short-term winter programme in January 2020. We have jointly developed and curated the program on Discover Egypt: A Historical and Cultural Learning Adventure and helped design the curriculum based on our prior experience with other programmes that we have conducted with university partners. We are also supporting AUC with recruitment and logistics for the programme.
The objective is to provide participants with a valuable historical and archaeological academic experience while immersing participants in an authentic learning environment in the magical city of Cairo in Egypt.
While you have organised several such experiences, what do you do to ensure that every experience is unique? What is unique about this particular experience?
We ensure that each of our short-term courses is curated learning experiences that do not just include run-of-the-mill lectures. There’s a mix of interactive learning sessions and workshops as well as extra-curricular activities and excursions. BrainGain Academy ensures that an international cohort of students participates to ensure more cultural exposure. We make sure that our university partners provide a learning experience to students that is unique and out of the box.
This particular programme in Egypt will provide a very nuanced learning experience to students interested in archaeology, ancient civilizations and the Arabic language. The programme is holistic in the sense that it balances extra-curricular activities with hands-on learning in the classroom. AUC also has a very interesting project at the end of the session, wherein, the participants will get an opportunity to showcase their work in a ground-breaking documentary.
How long has the partnership been in the works? Can we expect more such programmes with AUC in the future?
This is the first programme we are doing with AUC and we finalised our partnership in October 2019. We look forward to collaborating with them for other programmes as well.
Since students will spend a short time in Cairo and the schedule is loaded, what is being done to ensure that knowledge absorption levels remain optimum?
AUC and BGA have worked closely on the agenda to ensure that students are not saturated with the information given to them. The classes have been scheduled with an optimum number of breaks and excursions and activities outside the classroom are planned almost daily, to ensure the perfect balance. Even the classes have been designed to be as interactive as possible.
What can students do to have the best shot at getting selected for this programme? Since this programme is for international students too, is there a certain number of seats reserved for Indian students? How many applications will you accept?
The university and BrainGain Academy encourage all students interested in the subject to apply for the programme. If the applicant is passionate about the subject and willing to learn then they will be the right fit for the programme. No prior experience or knowledge in the field is required to apply. Seats are open for all nationalities. We try to ensure that there’s a good international mix as that helps expose people to more cultures and cohorts. We consider applications on a first-come-first-serve basis. 20 students will be accepted to attend the programme.
What other such partnerships can we expect in the future? And going forward, how else do you want to diversify your programmes?
We are actively working on collaborating with universities for programmes across various geographies, areas of interest and for participants of all ages. These programs will focus on a diverse range of topics including medicine, technology, AI, data sciences, journalism, sports, gaming and music, to name a few. We want to work on diversifying the portfolio of our short-term curated experiential courses to ensure more and more learning experiences that help expand the skillsets of participants. Currently, we have partnered with Cambridge for a Leadership Program on Global Challenges, Dutch Academy for Film and Photography for Filmmaking in Amsterdam, Arizona State University for Robotics, Technology and Innovation. We will continue to bring on board a variety of programmes with global universities like these.
What else would you like to tell us about the programme?
I would like to emphasise on the need to inculcate a culture of short-term experiential and continual learning to ensure that the workforce acquires new skillsets to keep pace with the increasingly changing requirements of organisations worldwide.
