Corporate Gurukul is grooming empathetic leaders of tomorrow, through Applied Experiential Learning and Research. Rudra Narayan Sahoo, Editor of SkillOutlook, has an email based interaction with Mr. Rajesh Panda, Founder & CEO, Corporate Gurukul. Here is the brief of this interaction on various aspects of student learning skills, job ready skills and National Education Policy 2020.
- The idea behind the inception of Corporate Gurukul & how it’s unique from their competitors?
The idea behind Corporate Gurukul was to groom empathetic leaders of tomorrow, through Applied Experiential Learning and Research.
While, talent is universal, opportunity isn’t. The idea was also to close that gap by bringing world-class academicians, industry experts, technology labs and curious students together, through various channels, to change the way leaders of the future will perceive and work in the world.
Our uniqueness is inspired by the ‘gurukul’ system, that offers access to real-world applied experiential learning which has social relevance and is solution-driven. We empower students to be dream big, disrupt, innovate and thrive on the biggest challenges of tomorrow. Corporate Gurukul’s reason to exist is to help our students go from ‘Good to Great’.
- How will your programmes help the students learn real-world skills?
Our students identify real-world challenges in their own countries and communities. Students then learn and solve these real-world problems under the guidance of world class professors and industry experts. To help evolve solutions, we train and empower them with latest tools and technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship and Leadership.
Our real-world applied learning programmes are designed and imparted in partnership with some of the world’s best – National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Amazon, SoftBank and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
- There is tight competition across all industries and with the pandemic, how do you upskill and make the students job-ready?
Firstly, our approach in upskilling is holistic and that is the competitive edge of our students. Our students are skilled for the real-world and not just a job. Upskilling for real-world is at 3 levels:
- Managing Self
- Managing People and Community
- Managing Profession
Secondly, while knowledge can be acquired in seconds, skills take months to develop. Applied learning and research experiences with focus on practicing and performing, gives our students months to apply their knowledge and sharpen their skills, thereby getting adept at it.
Our insight, over 13 years and 150,000+ students, reflect that students who do well professionally also excel in managing self and managing community.
- Success stories of students if any.
70% of our alumni have joined world’s top-50 universities including Harvard, Stanford, UCLA, MIT, Maryland, Carnegie Mellon, Princeton. Georgia Tech, UPenn, University of South California, John Hopkins, Northwestern, Oxford, Cambridge, University of Toronto, University of Sydney, etc. This year alone we have 6 alumni joining NUS and NTU.
We also have alumni joining new-age tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Uber, McAfee, etc.
- Your thoughts on the NEP?
NEP, in philosophy and practice, totally resonates with holistic development of an individual which is also our focus at Corporate Gurukul. It focuses on unleashing an era of creating leaders and entrepreneurs which is a departure from the colonised industrial age worker mindset. It focuses on relevance to real-world and I find synergies with the ‘gurukul’ system of applied experiential learning in the real-world.
It is my pleasure to mention here that Corporate Gurukul has been implementing a lot of operational aspects of the NEP including multi-disciplinary education, holistic learning, applied research, vocational training, design thinking, AI and Machine Learning among others.
