Okay, so you picked an EdTech platform, took a course and managed to complete it successfully. Then, what next? What do you do after the course has concluded and you have doubts or just want to bounce ideas off somebody? That's where Skillovate Learning positions itself uniquely — it's not just a portal looking to teach you subjects and skills, it wants to build a community that you can keep going back to even after your course ends.
So what they are really doing is creating a community of innovators. This community is built on Facebook Groups and includes everyone who has ever taken a course with Skillovate. The mentors of the start-up even engage with the members from time-to-time by introducing new challenges, new problem statements and so on, so that learning becomes a life-long process.
Backed by the backstory
Based out of Pune and started by an alumnus of Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad, Satyam Baranwal, Skillovate was launched three years back. They have eight courses currently which are taught through 12-14 sessions which span across one or one-and-a-half months. These courses include Scratch Programming for School Kids, Website Development for School Kids, App Development Course for School Kids, RoboScience course and so on which are taught by about 70 mentors. The curriculum was developed by Satyam himself who used to take tuitions when he was in class XII, then used to teach computer literacy via an NGO and, after six years in Reliance Power, worked as an education consultant for a chain of schools before jumping on to the entrepreneurship bandwagon in May 2017. Encompassing all his learning, the 35-year-old designed the curriculum. "We have grown by four times in the past one year even though we are bootstrapped," informs Satyam.
Though they have 60+ offline micro-learning centres, their focus now is on the self-paced online courses they offer. And because they cater to students between the ages of 6-16, they ensure that their mentors hand-hold the students through the course, if need be. “Maybe it's because of this that we have students from the US, Russia, Singapore and Dubai signing up for their practice-oriented course,” informs the entrepreneur and adds that they have about 80 to 100 paid customers per month. They are also recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India.
Stay in touch on Facebook
Circling back to their unique feature of building a community of innovators, Satyam says, "We also share information about hackathons and challenges our students can participate in on a regular basis via our Facebook Group. The point is that even if a student comes back to us after five years, he should be able to connect via these groups," he says and concludes.
For more on them, check out skillovate.com
