What I read, watched, wrote, and listened to this week:
As you can see, my consumption diet is broad. I don’t consider learning with a cost-benefit analysis in mind. I work hard to connect the dots and that has been a rewarding experience.
Last year, I was conferred the India-UK Achievers Award. This year I wrote a short essay discussing a topic close to my heart: The future of education.
Here it is:
Noteworthy education researchers and moral philosophers suggest that higher education has intrinsic value, i.e., it matters in and of itself. They consider the pursuit of higher education to be the ultimate reward and add that we should be skeptical of reducing it as a means towards an end. However, most people decide to get a college/ advanced degree because it provides a pathway to learn new skills, find a better job, expand their network, demonstrate their future employability, and augment their quality of life. That is why it is useful to think of higher education as an amorphous bundle of benefits stacked together that collectively offers insurance, social status, and marker readiness, in addition to the joy of learning.
The application of technology to different aspects of this “bundle” is commonly referred to as education technology or edtech. At its core, edtech promises to reduce cost and scale learning outcomes for different stakeholders. Several companies have tried to disrupt higher education by trying to build an Oxford or Standford on the internet at 1% of the cost, but the results have not been favorable.
That’s why promising edtech companies are now involved in the unbundling of education, i.e., trying to build products and services that help learners achieve specific outcomes, instead of reinventing the entire experience from the ground up. 85% of the jobs of 2030 do not exist today and the cost of pursuing higher education is increasing at eight times the median wage. A new approach toward learning is the need of the hour.
Having built Network Capital, one of the world’s largest career transition platforms, and invested in several fast-growing edtech companies, I have witnessed three tectonic shifts that are likely to unbundle and re-bundle higher education into something relevant to the demands of the 21st century.
The first wave includes channels of learning hard skills with direct employment prospects. Think of coding boot camps, Massive Open Online Courses with certifications and nanodegrees, for example. These are huge opportunities, but very few such disruptions have scaled so far. To make them work, the learning-to-earning link needs to be reinforced, with the help of governments and the private sector. As a partner to the Government of India’s NITI Aayog, Network Capital has enabled mentorship for 7.5 million students. That said, a lot more needs to be done.
A big reason that people choose to go for higher studies is for networking, and that is where the second wave of disruption is likely. Alternatives to traditional networking in the form of coworking spaces, accelerators, private networks, curated associations, and peer-mentoring communities are likely to be another area of massive disruption.
Along with hard skills and networks, there is likely to be a huge push for soft skills. Several innovations can be expected in this space in the coming years. The ones that will work are likely to be able to demonstrate tangible benefits for students and young professionals.
To conclude, new waves of education disruptions have the potential to offer a useful complement to traditional learning avenues. Whether they will be able to offer viable substitutes is an unanswered question. Can it happen? Absolutely. Is it imminent? Data tells otherwise.
Balancing Growth and Impact
I discussed some of these lessons at a guest lecture in the Department of Education, University of Oxford. The most important conundrum that needs to be resolved in the education space seems to be balancing scale, quality, technology, and capital. The students quizzed me extensively and I found the discussion energizing.
Network Capital | INSEAD
On March 12, Network Capital will be part of a mini-case study at INSEAD, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts abound fundraising; mergers and acquisitions; and building to last. You can read one of the essays I wrote for Harvard Business Review and an article published by The Economic Times discussing Network Capital’s approach.
Have a great weekend!
Utkarsh