In the competitive Indian career sector dominated by academics, marks, tuitions, exams and special classes, the idea of games and ‘fun activities’ seem wildly out of place. It’s the decimals after the high 90s on your marksheet that count, not the number of your game stage level. This will probably continue to hold true for decades to come, but at least there may be a change in the winds blowing prior to the admission stage. GetSet Ventures, the brainchild of Swaraj Phadtare, a third year MTech student at VIT University, and Dhanush Ram, a software engineer from Bengaluru, seeks to provide a ‘gamified’ platform for youngsters to identify the most suitable career option for them. The initiative appears to be quite distinctive in its modus operandi and we bombard them with queries to learn more. Excerpts:
What are your views on the current situation of the career guidance system in India?
I have seen many parents spending thousands on a movie without a second thought, but when it comes to career guidance, which is an issue of primary importance, they are not willing to spend. Parents should not live their dreams through their children. Each child is unique and we must cherish that. The career guidance system in India needs to evolve. Nowadays, career guidance is actually based on Science. Many streams have emerged in the last few years but career counsellors are unaware of most of them. Many career counsellors in India do not have the necessary training or expertise in career counselling either.
What is your initiative, GetSet Ventures, all about? What are its salient aspects and features?
GetSet Ventures is a non-judgmental, non-evaluative, non-threatening and non-competitive gamified career guidance platform. We realise that children are overburdened with so many different tests that they wouldn’t be willing to sit for career counselling because it is similar to a regular test. We wanted to make this experience interesting and thus, we developed a gamified version of career guidance. We believe in ‘How are you intelligent?’ and not ‘How intelligent you are.’
What triggered you to start your platform? Was there any specific incident or experience?
I have always been friends with people who were academically not very brilliant. They needed some means to convince their parents that they are not meant for engineering. India has one of the highest unemployment rates in modern times, with a report from Aspiring Minds stating that ‘Almost 93% of engineers are unemployable’. We felt that the reason behind this was that students are not taking up their passion as their career.
Do you focus on only utilising games to suggest suitable careers, or do you also impart game-based training as well?
Games in GetSet Ventures are so simple that even a Class IV student can play them. Each game measures certain career-related traits such as numerical ability, verbal ability, etc. Each game also comes with a small tutorial by which the student can easily figure out what needs to be done in the game.
There are several gaming institutes in the country that offer personalised coaching and training. Does GetSet have something similar to this?
GetSet is dedicated to the serious business of identifying careers using games. Professional gaming can be looked upon as a viable career, provided the person has the skillset.
The general opinion is that gaming might distract young students. How do your students convince their parents to grant them permission to enroll at the institute?
Not all games are distracting. Games like chess have been there for a long time. Parents are happy if their children play games like chess. GetSet has games which are not destructive and instead they help improve problem-solving skills, enhance memory and attention-span retention.
