Higher Education Digest - Fashion Institute Special

INDIA EDITION Connecta

www.highereducationdigest.com

JD INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY SEPTEMBER 2019

2

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Chennai

gurgaon

GREATNESS LIES WITHIN YOU. TAKE THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS IT. This is your time. Stretch your imagination, push your limits and aim high. At Great Lakes, we are geared to nurture your passion with the finest mentors who guide and challenge you to achieve more. Our programs are dynamic, innovative and business relevant to help you face the challenges of the future. This is your time for excellence. And ours for inspiring greatness.

PGPM

PGDM

POST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MANAGEMENT

One year full time management program for professionals with 2+ years of work experience Admissions are open for PGPM 2020-21

50+ 150+

Full Time FAcultY

25+

Two year full time management program for graduates with 0-2 years of work experience

GlOBAllY Benchmarked Curriculum

inteRnAtiOnAl Visiting Faculty

RicH PeeR GROuP with diverse industry experience

industRY leAdeRs on campus

POST GRADUATE DIPLOMA IN MANAGEMENT

2

International Accreditations by AMBA, uK and sAQs (Chennai Campus)

Chennai Campus

RANKINGs (2018-19) (CheNNAI CAmpus)

3 rd

by OutlOOK (1 year MBA)

KARMA-YOGA Experiential Leadership Program

8800+

AluMni Spread over 30 countries

Gurgaon Campus

7 th

by BusINess tOdAy (Top B-Schools)

18 th

by NIRF (Top B-Schools)

ASSOCIATIONS

www.greatlakes.edu.in | admissions@greatlakes.edu.in |

3

8510021155 September 2019

Higher Education Digest

Connecta

September 2019

Vol - 1 Issue - 6

Fashion and Design Institutes Special (India Edition) Editor in Chief

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Managing Editor Rose Mary

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Anjana K Shyam S

Jessica Jo Stanly Lui Emma James

Editorial Enquiry: editor@highereducationdigest.com

Art and Design Ajay K Das

Sales & Marketing

Rahul Visakh Prathyoosh K Shaji

4

Divya M Milan Bharati

Sales Enquiry: sales@highereducationdigest.com

Subscription

www.highereducationdigest.com

International Representation

GET THE MOBILE ISSUE

London Connecta Education Ltd. 27, Old Gloucester Street, London, WC1N 3AX, United Kingdom Dubai Focus Innovation Technologies FZE P.O. Box 48299, Dubai Silicon Oasis Dubai, UAE Bangalore Connecta Innovation Pvt. Ltd. Carlton Towers, Old Airport Road, Bangalore - 560008 India Connecta Higher Education Digest is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in the content are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Connecta Innovation Private Limited or any of its members. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for the advertisements and all representation of warranties made in such advisements are those of the advertisers and not of the publisher.

Higher Education Digest September March 20192019

EDITOR IN CHIEF’S NOTE

Will Delhi be the Next Paris?

T

he Asia Pacific is one of the largest retail markets in the world for fashion by a significant margin. In 2018, the regional sales were valued at 653 billion US dollars, representing 37% of the global apparel and footwear sales. This region also recorded the fastest growth and is expected to continue to lead the way, with a value CAGR of 3% over the period of 2018-2023. Led

by India and China, rising populations, and a rapidly expanding base of increasingly wealthy and fashionconscious middle-class consumers is expected to support apparel and footwear sales in the region.

Following China and the US in terms of market share, India has expanded into a strikingly more attractive market for apparel and footwear businesses. Expected to grow by 36 billion US dollars over 2018-2023, the Indian market is expected to record the fastest forecast growth at a 9% CAGR, overtaking Germany, Japan, and the UK to become the world’s third-largest apparel and footwear market by 2023.

How does this translate to the Indian Fashion and Design education?

The most obvious answer is the availability of jobs, the rising tech platforms for retail shopping, and the rise of unique and exquisite boutiques. With rising employment opportunities comes a deluge of fashion aspirants signing up for various fashion courses. The need of the hour is accomplished professionals who can craft newbies into connoisseurs of the fashion world.

In this issue, we have highlighted a few colleges that have created a niche for itself in the Fashion and Design education domain. We hope these institutions serve as a pacesetter for all other players in the industry.

It is said that Paris refused Hitler’s demand to move haute couture from France to Germany, but can we hope to see iconic showstopping collections on Indian runways in the near future?

Maybe, just maybe…

Dr. Manoj Varghese

Higher Education Digest September 2019

5

ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc. Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Dr.Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Researcher and Data Analyst in Social Science

6 Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi) Senior Director HR. Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

Major General (Rtd.) Dr. Sunil Chandra, VSM (Vishishta Seva Medal), Ph.D, M. Phil, MA, M.Ed, PGBDA Ex-M D Army Welfare Education Society, ExCOO GEMS Education - India, Ex- Addl Dir Gen - Army Education, Mentor - Adventure-Pulse

Asst. Prof. Dr. Suramya Mathai, Ph.D,M.Ed,MA,BA. Teachers Training Expert, Writer, Author, Speaker & Social Worker

Higher Education Digest September 2019

7

Higher Education Digest September 2019

MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

When Words Fail, Fashion Speaks

8

F

ashion has always been the preferred tool for generations of rebellious changemakers to get their point across.

For instance, the battle for equality and recognizing the LGBTQ+ community is long-standing. Many talks and debates have been conducted and forgotten. However, throughout queer history, fashion, and music, both stuck to a clear perspective: individuality and equality for all.

Designers like Gianni Versace, Alexander McQueen, Jean Cocteau, and Christian Dior have always been on the cutting edge of culture and expression with their nod to androgyny and display of queer lifestyle.

Whether to fight against the AIDS crisis or to commemorate the Stonewall riots, fashion and music have served as vessels to be seen and heard. And it is not just the fashion gods who speak up. Even models, like Ayesha Tan-Jones, use fashion as a stage to shine the spotlight on things that matter. A 26-year-old nonbinary model, artist, and musician who uses “they”/”them” pronouns, Ayesha Tan-Jones recently staged a runway protest against Gucci, slamming the brand’s “offensive” use of straitjackets “alluding to mental patients” in its spring/summer 2020 collection during Milan Fashion Week. They held up their hands on the runway to display a message that read: ‘Mental health is not fashion’.

Likewise, Maria Grazia Chiuri of Dior put climate change on the center stage, even as world leaders look at the matter with appalling indifference. The Dior spring ’20 show featured a cast of Greta Thunberg clones and a wooded set of 164 trees — all destined to be replanted in and around the French capital.

Watching the kingpins of the fashion industry acting with such fervency only underlines the necessity of teaching ethics and sustainability in fashion technology courses. This is why we decided to dedicate our September issue to the Fashion & Designing Institutes in India. We have featured some of the best colleges in India that are at the forefront of providing cutting edge fashion and designing education.

We also had the fortune of covering the inspiring story of the NexConnect team. Ensuring quality education to children from the often-forgotten sections of the society, NexConnect is on the campaign of making “Right to Education” a reality.

We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together, because who doesn’t like getting a little glitter on their hands?

Cheers!

Rose Mary

Higher Education Digest September 2019

9

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Cover Story

28

WHERE

IMAGINATION MEETS DISCIPLINE JD INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

20 - 23 INSTITUTE OF DESIGN

Guiding Fashionistas From Scribbles to the Runway

38 - 41

10

PEARL ACADEMY

Where Creativity Thrives

Higher Education Digest August 2019

CONTENTS MENTOR’S MANTRA ED SHEROES

24 - 26

Why You Must Reinvent Yourself–And Your Company–Every 3.5 Years Nadya Zhexembayeva Chief Reinvention Officer, WE EXIST Reinvention Agency

INDUSTRY PERCPECTIVE

16 - 18 What Traditional Schools Can’t Teach You Enough Of? Innovation & Creativity Jesuit Loh Chief Venture Officer, OnlyVenture Consulting, Singapore

42 - 49 NexConnect: Helping Underprivileged Children Enjoy Their RIGHT TO EDUCATION

52 - 54 Expanding Horizons Terence Wallis CEO, Indelible Adventures Inc.

12

Higher Education Digest September August 2019 2019

To Fur or Not to Fur?

T

he roots of fashion are deep and pervasive. Before you scoff this off, keep in mind the iconic dialogue of Miranda Priestly, “…that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of ‘stuff’.” No matter how far you think you have distanced from fashion you are really not that far.

Fashion is an irreplaceable factor in the evolution of culture and lifestyle. This is why the impact that fashion can make is always under scrutiny. Recently, fast fashion retailers have come under fire from environmental campaigners for encouraging a market that sees around 300,000 tonnes of clothes dumped in UK landfills each year.

A small consolation is that under the guidance of French president Emmanuel Macron at the recent G7 summit in Biarritz, 32 fashion companies signed a “fashion pact” to emphasize sustainability in the industry.

These included some of the largest luxury brands in the market – Chanel, Ralph Lauren, and Prada – as well as “fast fashion” producers, including H&M Group and Zara.

According to a United Nations study, the fashion industry is responsible for about 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, 20% of all wastewater, and consumes

more energy than the airline and shipping industries combined. With clothing production expected to hit 102 million tonnes a year by 2030, sustainability efforts need to accelerate to avoid even more strain being placed on the world’s resources. Add to this the fact that red carpet (and several other ‘carpet’) looks are rarely ever repeated, until recently, the magnitude of fabric waste can leave one stumped for words.

Although industrial czars have taken steps to change this dismal situation, the onus lies on young aspiring couturiers to take the front lead. They are the ones who are better capable of inventing ways in which sustainability and high fashion can be weaved together to design the spectacular fabric of tomorrow. Thus, it becomes ever more crucial to identify those fashion and design institutions that are capable of guiding and shaping young fashionistas.

In this issue of Higher Education Digest, we have buttoned down a couple of institutes that have proved its mettle. We present, with the help of our advisory panel consisting of senior academicians and practicing industry professionals, a list of “10 Must Watch Fashion & Design Institutes in India”.

We hope the names listed here will continue to be game-changers and bring together a community that can not only dazzle the runway but also take care of the environment.

Higher Education Digest September August 2019

13

Institute Name

City

Amity School of Fashion Technology

Noida

Uttar Pradesh

Hamstech Institute Of Creative Education

Hyderabad

Telengana

Indian Institute of Fashion Technology

Bengaluru

Karnataka

Chennai

Tamil Nadu

JD Institute of Fashion Technology

Bengaluru

Karnataka

LPU School of Design

Jalandhar

Punjab

National Institute of Fashion Technology

Bengaluru

Karnataka

Pearl Academy

Delhi

Delhi-NCR

Symbiosis Institute of Design

Pune

Maharashtra

Bengaluru

Karnataka

Institute of Design

Vogue Institute of Art and Design

State

15

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

What Traditional Schools Can’t Teach You Enough Of? Innovation & Creativity

By Jesuit Loh, Chief Venture Officer, OnlyVenture Consulting, Singapore

16 Jesuit is an educator and innovation management consultant of OnlyVenture Consulting Singapore that helps individuals, executives and companies design their lives, careers and businesses aligning purpose, passion and profit

Higher Education Digest September 2019

T

his is especially true when schools placed excess emphasis on academic achievements and research studies. The usual school system is organized around academic achievements in assessments, exams, case studies and project works. The projects may not be realworld business problems or not in real-time (as in past case issues or studies) and the project briefs are crafted by academics. You could imagine the degree of authenticity the project scenarios be if the academic had never worked in the industry before. The educators themselves have been brought up in an academic system of logical, process and system thinking. The little time they had contact with the industry was conducting research on industry trends and churning out their findings on papers.

All schools, if not most, have always found it a challenge to ‘teach’ students on innovation and/or creative thinking. The subject matter itself is more an art than a science. Some educators would even agree that one is to be endowed with the natural gifting than merely acquiring as a skill. Humans can come so far since Genesis is God’s given creativity to every one of us. We can create, make, adapt and keep evolving. What we need is both the macro and micro environments to bring out our latent ingenuities. Existing education and school systems placed too much emphasis on structural process and system thinking at the expense of stifling one’s ingenuity, one’s appetite of making mistakes and facing failures.

How could schools do better in educating Innovation and Creativity?

An institution’s (or organization’s) environment stems from its culture. Then one may ask: “How to have a culture of innovation?”. In the shoes of an innovation management consultant and an educator I would suggest that you be asking: “What makes a culture?”.

The people’s behaviours, attitudes, emotions and beliefs are what constitutes culture. What more straightforward is to have an innovative leader (Principal, Dean or Chancellor) to spark it off! The leadership definitely has to light the fire. Next, set up a reward system to reward innovative behaviours, creative ideas, new creations and inventions.

Give time for play and experimentations for students and faculty to work on things not planned in the school’s curriculum. Allocate (yes, allocate) a good portion of school time for students to exercise their creativity in creating, making and crafting objects, things, drawings, software, apps or anything that inspires them. Well-known

A school’s core culture should be designed around flex, fun, failure, or 3Fs, in the process of building aptitudes, attitudes and achievements, or 3As

Higher Education Digest September 2019

17

Existing education and school systems placed too much emphasis on structural process and system thinking at the expense of stifling one’s ingenuity, one’s appetite of making mistakes and facing failures

18

innovative company 3M has a ‘15% culture’ that empowers employees to allocate 15% of their time to work on projects outside of their daily focus. They have grassroots initiatives and grant programs like Genesis that empower process over the outcome for new and disruptive ideas. I believe there is no magic number for the amount of allocated time for one to exercise creativity. The act of allocating some time for ‘creativity’ actually nurtures innovativeness and of course, it motivates and does great to mental health too!

The world is putting its people into fixed structures and cookie-cutter systems. Imagine one being brought up in such an education system, would not he/she be more of a ‘normal’ than an innovator (yes, a ‘misnomer’ to a good degree) by the time he/she graduates from school? We need to give room for failures and even celebrate failures! No product is a perfect product. Design Thinking methodology, a popular innovation process that gains fame by equipping any people (even the so-called most uncreative ones) to be able to create something or forming solutions to tackle real-life problems. One concept that helps make the Design Thinking process so credible is iteration, i.e. continued re-inventions of existing solutions.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Can school assess students on Innovation or Creativity?

Measurement criteria ought to be both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative measurements can be: - Number of experimentations done - Number of failed trials - Number of product enhancements - Number of propositions - Number of ideas generated - Number of solutions - Number of patents registered - Number of product commercialization, etc.

Qualitative measurements sought to account for the quality of the learning journey, output and product solutions. The degree to which the product or solution addresses a real-life problem and the viability to commercialize the product or solution.

Institutions need to work closely with the industry to get industry professionals to act as mentors and evaluators for students working on company projects.

In a nutshell…

Schools should be an environment to bring out God’s given talents and creativity from each one of us. It is a place to nurture one’s creativity to venture to build tomorrow’s innovations. The school’s core culture is to be designed around flex, fun, failure or 3Fs in the process of building aptitudes, attitudes and achievements or 3As.

19

Higher Education Digest September 2019

INSTITUTE OF DESIGN

Guiding Fashionistas From Scribbles to the Runway

20

Higher Education Digest September 2019

F

or years, Chennai has been at the forefront of making waves in the fashion industry. Therefore, it is no wonder that one of the best fashion institutes of the country, Institute of Design, is from the state.

A premier ISO 9001:2008 certified art and design institution established in 1993, with the mission of providing quality art and design education, the Institute of Design (IoD) follows international content requirements for the ever demanding and challenging creative fashion industry.

Leveraging around 3 decades worth of experience in shaping aspiring fashionista into all-round professionals, IoD offers 1 Year Diploma courses in Fashion Design, Visual Design Interior Design, and Fine arts. Apart from its regular one-year stream, the institute also offers short-term courses in Drawing and Painting, Computer Graphics, Jewellery Design, and many more. The course content is so designed that the students are made thorough of the fundamentals and are given the strength and confidence to create their own designs and to follow and forecast their design acumen towards the industry growth. �The courses are structured in a manner giving the students the best they can find in an environment not familiar to them,� says Niyamathulla Nadeem, Founder Director, Institute of Design.

Hosting students from Maldives, Thailand, South Africa, Australia, Middle East, Netherlands, and Korea, IoD believes in continuous professional association and collaboration.

To this extent, the institute has signed MoU with the best fashion institutions in India, Asia, and Europe. As a result of which IoD students enjoy advanced education from some of the best names in the fashion houses, not just from India but the Middle East as well. Thanks to various internship opportunities that IoD makes available to the students, IoD students enjoy a plethora of avenues to showcase their talent in the fashion industry, create their own labels, and flaunt their ideas to the globe.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

21

The institute also has varied activities to promote its students’ talents such as a yearly exhibition of Fashion Illustration and a mock fashion show. IoD helps the students to bring out their creations to reality by conducting interior design exhibitions and jewelry exhibitions that are visited by eminent people in the Art & Design industry of Chennai.

IoD sets itself an inch above its peers by recognizing the career needs of its students. “Without innovation, nothing works. We help our students to take baby steps by

understanding their needs and wants. Once we understand whether the student wants to be in the creative zone or production, we guide them accordingly. As an institute of design, we say ‘Success by design happens only to those who have a strong desire and passion’” says Mr. Nadeem.

It is a testimony to the efforts made by the institute in recognizing the strengths of its students that many chic magazines feature the works of IoD students. “We are happy to see the creative works of our students being published. We also try our best to promote our students

22 N.Nadeem, Founder Director, Institute of Design - India - Sri Lanka A Graduate in English literature and a diploma holder in Interior Design, he created waves by setting up Institute of Design in 1993. Popularly known as IoD, Institute of Design is one of the first in Chennai’s list of premier international art and design institutions. With a humble beginning of one student, one classroom, and one faculty, the institute, under Mr. Nadeem’s constant guidance, has witnessed, till date, successful graduation ceremonies of more than 15,320 students in the fields of art and design. He has conducted several creative workshops in various city colleges in Chennai and in the Institute of Handloom and Textile Technology, Kannur, Kerala.

A designer himself, Mr. Nadeem has done several independent projects for clients and has expertly guided students into their fruitful careers. He has organized and judged various events, shows, and competitions such as “The Young Designer Contest” in Maldives, “Best student collection in PSG Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, “Creative show for women” in Kandasamy College of Women and several other all over South India. He has designed attires for several celebrities and styling for advertisements and feature films like ‘Jeans’. Looking forward to empowering creative entrepreneurs and turning the IoD Franchise a global destination for exclusive fashion and design education, Mr. Niyamathulla Nadeem believes in simplicity and feels that creativity is beyond the mind.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

The course content is so designed that the students are made thorough of the fundamentals and are given the strength and confidence to create their own designs and to follow and forecast their design acumen towards the industry growth

among prominent Indian press and media channels. Moreover, by expanding into Sri Lanka, we have made a creative space with both the countries, ensuring that our course content stays relevant and customized,� adds Mr. Nadeem.

Although many students have already set their eyes on working with certain mod and exclusive fashion labels, some also cherish the dream of starting something of their own. Creating a safe space for these creativepreneurs, IoD has partnered with a well-known women’s college from South India to set up an incubation center.

Having received various government awards for their trailblazing work in the fashion and design technology education, IoD is the premier educational institution that top international buying houses and garment factories from Chennai, Tirupur, and Bangalore frequent to recruit the best fashion professionals.

With an international branch in Colombo and 5 centers in Tamilnadu, the Institute of Design team is looking for creative acumen individuals and partner institutions to start franchise centers in various parts of Asia.

Weighing on the best faculty team to leverage a teaching-learning methodology that can deliver future creators, the Institute of Design has been setting milestones after milestones.

Providing vistas for creative new designers to create and, sometimes recreate, their ideas, aspirations & inspirations, Mr. Nadeem urges the young minds to keep scribbling, as everything starts from a scribble!

Higher Education Digest September 2019

23

MENTOR’S MANTRA

Why You Must Reinvent Yourself–And Your Company–Every 3.5 Years

Nadya Zhexembayeva, Chief Reinvention Officer, WE EXIST Reinvention Agency

Called ‘The Reinvention Guru’ by In Ventures magazine and ‘The Queen of Reinvention’ by TEDx Navasink, Dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva is a scientist, entrepreneur, and author specializing in resilience and reinvention. As a consultant, Nadya has helped such organizations as The Coca-Cola Company, ERG, Kohler, L’Oreal, IBM, CISCO, Erste Bank, Henkel, Knauf Insulation & many others to reinvent their products, processes, & leadership practices. As an educator, Nadya personally contributed to the development of more than 10,000 executives from over 60 countries & 20 industries. For nearly 10 years, Nadya taught courses in leadership, strategy & sustainability at IEDCBled School of Management, an executive education centre based in the Slovene Alps. In addition to IEDC, Nadya has been teaching in business schools around the world, including Case’s Weatherhead School of Management (USA), IPADE Business School (Mexico), and CEDEP (France), where she also contributes to the Academic Committee of the school.

24

Higher Education Digest September 2019

What separates companies that survive from those that go down is the ability to start a new lifecycle, to pivot their company far enough from the path of destruction to find a new opportunity for growth

A

sk any manager on planet Earth, “What is your key challenge?” and among many different responses one will strike you with remarkable consistency: Staying afloat. The fast-moving rollercoaster economy we live in today makes this task increasingly difficult. Just as we handle one crisis, another one looms around the corner. How can we survive - and even thrive?

The answer is the one you’ve heard before: We must consistently remake who we are, what we offer, and how we deliver our offerings to the world. Put it simply, we must reinvent. What you may not have heard before is this: Today, the frequency with which our reinvention must take place is staggering. Essentially, we must become a new company every three years.

25

Let me explain.

Once upon a time, our companies enjoyed long and healthy lives, with a slow rise to the top of financial performance and a gradual decline to annihilation. The rate of change was so slow that reinvention was rarely needed–and when it was, we had all the time in the world to renew our business on our term. 2007 book by the brilliant thinker Nassim Nicholas Taleb titled “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” introduced us to an idea of “black swan”—a high profile, hard-to-predict, and rare event that is beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology. There is no question that such event, if happens, should highly impact our business.And the key word in the definition of “black swan” is rare.

Indeed, a long time ago, when the organizational (and cultural) cycles were long and change was rare, black swans were rarely seen.

But the fairy tale is long gone.

Today, the situation is drastically different. I type these words in June of 2019—on a remote location working with a global client

Higher Education Digest September 2019

on scenarios that it [the client] should be ready for: the uncertain future of Brexit, the unclear results of US-China (and the whole world) trade war, emerging threats of new violent conflict in Iran, new deaths in Sudan uprising, every kind of threat of ecological disaster from climate change to loss of species to catastrophic disappearance of forests, and much more...

Here, no matter what sophisticated analysis of the past I bet on, it says little about survival in the future.

26

Nokia had been the number one cell phone seller from 1998 to 2007, controlling at its prime 40% of the entire global handset market. Yet, Nokia was forced to sell its telecom business to Microsoft in 2013 to save itself from its bankruptcy

Higher Education Digest September 2019

At the moment, all the swans look black.

And that’s exactly where reinvention comes handy.

The increasing level of globalization powered by the ever-increasing access to knowledge (think Google, free online courses, MOOCs, Khan Academy, etc), means that more of us are inventing every day and sharing those inventions globally, than ever before.

There is more start up activity today than ever, but they also continue to die at a high rate: only one-third survives to the 10-year mark. With all these pressures, the demand for corporate (economic, communal, and personal) reinvention has grown even further. Today, the life cycle of the company is much closer to 5-7 years than it is to 15 years.

Does it mean that we are all doomed? Absolutely not. What separates companies that survive from those that go down is the ability to start a new lifecycle, to pivot their company far enough from the path of destruction to find a new opportunity for growth: But if before you had 30+ years to reach the prime, today you might only have 3 years. That means that barely 2-3 years into your existing business reality, you must start the reinvention cycle anew.

Shocking, isn’t it? Kodak and Nokia thought so, too. Kodak had been the staple of American culture throughout 20th century, selling at one point 90% of all photographic film and 85% of all cameras in the United States. Nokia had been the number one cell phone seller from 1998 to 2007, controlling at its prime 40% of the entire global handset market. Yet, Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012, while Nokia was forced to sell its telecom business to Microsoft in 2013 to save itself from its own bankruptcy.

The business you are in today cannot be the business you’ll be in 3 years from now. By then, you are either entering your new business or you are on the way to extinction. Period.

27

Higher Education Digest September 2019

ST OR Y CO VE R Higher Education Digest September 2019

WHERE

IMAGINATION MEETS DISCIPLINE JD INSTITUTE OF FASHION TECHNOLOGY

By Rose Mary

Higher Education Digest September 2019

A 30

wise man once said, “The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” To create something out of nothing, you need imagination. And imagination without discipline yields no fruit. For instance, Thirtha Uthappa, a customer-centric corporate professional turned enthusiast and passionate jewelry designer and manufacturer, would not have been able to make Samáara Jewelry a huge success if it were not for the discipline and pearls of wisdom that she accrued from her alma mater, JD Institute of Fashion Technology. Another accomplished entrepreneur, Chandana MA, also credits the success of her venture, Soul Couture, to JD Institute of Fashion Technology. “My Journey with JD Institute was worthwhile and amazing. The Institute has played a major role in shaping me as a designer. I have started my design studio a year back with powerful knowledge and inspiration that I gained at JD,” says Chandana.

JD Institute of Fashion Technology (JD) began its journey when Mr. Chandraakant Dalal (President) and Mr. R.C. Dalal (cofounder) felt that there should be a platform in India for sustaining creative souls towards their journey of freedom. Therefore, in 1988, JD saw light for the first time and have, since its inception, evolved as a globally recognized destination for higher learning with 38+ centers across India; catering to the needs of Design, Fashion, and Industry.

Theertha Uthappa (L) and Chandana (R), two of the many successful alumnae that the institute has helped achieve their dreams

Higher Education Digest September 2019

31 Chandraakant Dalal President

A division of JD Educational Trust, JD stands today as one the oldest and premier Institute of Art and Design. Through constant innovation, high teaching standards, and enriching experience to students, JD has metamorphosed as an industry leader that develops courses with a pulse on the needs of the industry.

Offering Industry Relevant Courses Currently, JD offers multi-disciplinary education in the field of Fashion Design, Interior Design, Jewelry Design, Fashion Communication, Fashion Entrepreneurship, Fashion Management, Visual Merchandising, Fashion Photography, and Hair and Make-up Artistry. However, addressing the needs of the rapidly growing market, JD recently launched a series of new courses; Fashion Design and Business Management, Fashion Lifestyle and Entrepreneurship to help the students get accustomed to the nitty-gritties of retail, business, and management.

JD provides sound education through innovative methods and real-time lectures, making learning more effective and engaging. JD’s industry-oriented, and globally recognized curriculum is so designed so that it is not only intense but is also rewarding.

Couple this with a team of highly experienced faculty who engages themselves in continuous research, you get yourself a winner!

Higher Education Digest September 2019

RC Dalal Co-founder

32

“As an organization, the conduct of the staff is equally important as they reflect the values of the institute. To further enhance the quality of the teaching staff, the institute provides faculty development programs, which is a holistic approach that caters to their overall grooming be it the way they conduct themselves, their attitude towards the students and their coworkers, speech, and teaching methods. This cohesive process of development of the faculties helps them to give their best and provide superior service towards educating our students,” says Yashasvi Jadwani, PR and Communication, JD Institute of Fashion Technology.

JD also ensures world-class learning centers and offers access to E-Library with books, magazines, journals, and other fashion literature, as well as laboratories, and classrooms. JD students also have access to Digital Pilling Tester, Crease Recovery tester, Air Permeability tester, projection microscope, crokemeter, drape master, digital light fastness tester, Light busting Strength Tester, Digital Tensile Testing machine, Washing Fastness tester, Drape Studio, Sewing Lab and many more facilities. Apart from that, JD also organizes seminars, talk sessions, and workshops regarding pertinent matters to help students acquire skills and hands-on learning. Similarly, mentors and stalwarts from the design domain are regularly invited to enrich the knowledge base of the students. In line with the same, JD hosted Mr. Mannoviraj Khosla, a celebrity Fashion Designer on board.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Industry Engagement For Holistic Development Likewise, JD also engages students in various live industry projects, such as Quesccorp, JLL, Hungerbox, Styling project with CKC Jewelers (C. Krishnachetty & Sons) and various other installations. JD also partners with various fashion shows/events such as Times Fashion Week and Bengaluru by Design, giving the creative minds a platform to take the center stage and highlight their innovations to the industry professionals. JD students have also interned with well-known designers like Manoviraj Khosla to name a few. As part of the curriculum, students are expected to complete internships and during this duration, some have also landed pre-placement offers as well.

Moreover, every year, JD organizes ‘JD Annual Design Awards’, a platform that promotes and celebrates designs and innovations of the students every year in the form of a Fashion Show and a one-of-a-kind Exhibit. “The award show is a launchpad for them that promotes their ideology and design in front of key industrial players. With the urge of providing global excellence, JD Institute also provides an opportunity of ‘Study Abroad’ as a part of the ‘imagination journey’ for the students in association with London College of Fashion and KOEFIA, Rome and takes their knowledge and inspiration to the next level,” comments Yashasvi Jadwani.

Staying true to its motto “Welcome to Imagination”, JD prioritizes avenues that provide ample exposure to its

students. To this extent, JD has been successful in collaborating with Georgian College of Interior Design, Canada, where the students post the completion of their 3 years of Interior Design course at JD will be eligible to enter the third year of Interior Design at Georgian College, Canada and gain the Honours Bachelor of Interior Design from the prestigious college.

Along the same lines, to help students leverage the power of digital technology, JD has partnered with leading service providers to experience new avenues that can enable students to showcase their creations.

Associations, Memberships and Collaborations To develop and be globally viable, JD institute of Fashion Technology are members of internationally acclaimed prestigious bodies and associations like EQAC, Cumulus, Indo Italian chamber of Commerce and Industry, Indo French chamber of commerce and Industry, the council of EU chambers of commerce in India, Creative partners with IIID, ADI, Adobe India and does study abroad programs with London College of Fashion, UAL, London, Chelsea College of Arts, UAL, London, KOEFIA, Rome, Italy, and Honours Bachelor in Interior Design with Georgian College Canada. The Institute is the Educational Partner for the India Fashion Week London, which is one of the largest Asian events in UK and Europe.

Successful Placement Records Having successfully placed 75% of its graduate students with industry giants like Marks & Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Myntra, and H&M, JD takes immense pride to state that more than 150 students received placements through campus placement drive in 2019 alone. “Our job portal, Creative Careers, has also been a massive hit as companies post their openings that are then accessed by students, both current and former. The openings that are listed on Creative Careers are for the role of Apparel Merchandisers, Fashion Consultants, Fashion Designers, Fashion Stylists, Interior Designers, Jewellery Designers, Photographers, Graphic Designers, Make-up Artists, etc.,� adds Yashasvi Jadwani.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

33

Nealesh Dalal, Managing Trustee

34

Since 1991, Nealesh Dalal, has been driven by a strong belief in the power of ‘Imagination’. Through his work since then, he has made immense contributions in the field of Art and Design education in the country. In 2002, he became the Managing Trustee of JD Educational Trust. His systematic approach involves the integration of design, innovation, communication, technology, style and market intelligence. He is also a frequent commentator on fashion and design and lends his expertise to various events in the industry. He is also a mentor to the students and grooms them.“We would like to see our students make the best of higher quality of learning and gain access to cutting edge technologies in the field of design education”, says Nealesh. His creative leadership has contributed to making JD Institute of Fashion Technology, a pioneering art and design school in India, thus setting the benchmark in academic standard and for being pivotal in creating an educational system that recognizes, nurtures and promotes talent.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Having won awards like ‘‘Global League Institute’ Certified by Great Place to Study, London based on the student satisfactory survey’, ‘The qualified institute serving Fashion design, Interior design & Hair and Makeup courses’ at International Quality Awards, 2019, Best Vocational Education Institute for Fashion Design, and, recently, ‘Global excellence in design education’

by Times Education Excellence 2019, JD Institute of Fashion Technology has proved that it is a force to be reckoned with.

Providing a holistic experience to its students to gain requisite life skills that are imperative to face the real world once the students step outside their college life, JD trains its students to become creative problem solvers. Moving forward, JD Institutes of Fashion Technology plans to curate design education across local as well as a global level. Missioning to make India one of the design hubs in the world JD also aims at changing how people perceive design and make a revolutionary change in the world.

35

Higher Education Digest September 2019

36

Higher Education Digest September 2019

37

Higher Education Digest September 2019

PEARL ACADEMY

Where Creativity

Thrives 38

Higher Education Digest September 2019

C

hief human resources and strategy officers from leading global organizations opines that the skill of creativity will be a necessary asset for anyone working in 2020, in all levels of a small to large business, from admin assistants to CEOs. Nandita Abraham, President, Pearl Academy, says, “While new domains will keep on emerging, creativity will hold the forte. The World Economic Forum has identified creativity as one of the top 3 skills required in the future along with complex problem solving and critical thinking and I completely agree with this finding. The Future of Work report says that 60 percent of the new age jobs will fall under analytics, design and artificial intelligence.” A catalyst for success of the students across the creative industries, Pearl Academy has completed more than two decades of empowering creative minds. The institute is a pioneer in the Indian market, combining hybrid blended learning and real time lectures in a structured manner, thus making learning more effective and engaging.

“We were set up by the industry and the industry is involved in all the processes that we have. We have 30 uniquely designed undergraduate, post-graduate and professional development pathways which are all developed after consultation with the industry,” shares Nandita. Understanding the need gaps, Pearl Academy involves industry at every stage - right from the conceptualization of the product offering to curriculum design, its delivery in the classroom, and selection of faculty to intake of students and so on. Nandita adds, “We have an agile curriculum that is developed after taking input from the faculty and the industry. All faculty members are industry experts with rich experience and well trained in their respective domains.”

Live projects, masterclasses, industry visits, internships are part of a student’s learning journey at Pearl Academy over the period of four years. This is owing to our alliances with various Industries and businesses that provide students with relevant exposure.

“When a student is about to graduate, we call back the industry in the classroom to make students understand what their professional work in the initial months would look like to make them understand the nuances of the professional field and make them 100 percent industry ready,” pinpoints Nandita. In the previous academic year, a total of 739 out of 1327 students of Pearl Academy opted for placements. Out of 739, 733 students found

Higher Education Digest September 2019

39

Pearl Academy has 4 campuses in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Noida.

40

placement in leading companies across India. Some of these companies include Accenture, Capgemini, Walt Disney, Future Group, H&M, ITC, IBM, Amazon, Times of India and many more.

“We have been awarded by a leading industry body, ASSOCHAM as the best design institute in the country for the last four years in a row and we have had 99 percent placement record last year. I feel the right industry collaboration is a must to deliver the promise of creating industry ready professionals,” opines Nandita. Some examples of Pearl Academy’s collaboration with industry include FDCI, where 60 percent of the students are guided by leading designers of the country. It also gives the students a platform to showcase their collections annually at the fashion week in front of the industry. “Another important partnership we have is that with Asian Paints under which students are taught a new module on trends and techniques in colour. Our alliance with Adobe has helped in the launch of ‘Adobe Digital Technology Academy’ – a unique program designed to help learners of today leverage the power of digital technologies and tools for skill building,” explains Nandita.

The students of Pearl Academy also work with the Association of Designers (ADI) on various projects aimed towards Making Design Visible in our society today. Being a member of industry bodies like FICCI, ASSOCHAM and CII also help the institute to informed and updated on the latest developments across various sectors. “At Pearl Academy, we encourage young learners to dream, think big and work with them closely on how to fulfil those dreams. We provide an education that goes beyond the books and incorporates new-age learning methodologies for the holistic development of our students,”

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Pearl academy now has over 4,500 students and more than 340 academic staff.

Nandita Abraham, President Nandita Abraham is an energetic leader who works with a mission to keep students at the centre of all initiatives. With over 25 years of experience across corporates and academia in the US, Hong Kong and India, Nandita joined Pearl Academy in 2001 as a faculty. Over the years, she has worked successfully at various positions within the academy.

Nandita has a ‘Masters in science’ from Philadelphia University, PG Certificate in Higher Education from Nottingham Trent University, PG Diploma from NIFT, Delhi and Bachelors in Economics from St Joseph’s College in Bangalore.

pinpoints Nandita. The faculty members of Pearl Academy always encourage the students to do multi-disciplinary projects, think out of the box and solve the real problems of the world today. This, in turn, leads to innovation and new ways of thinking. Nandita adds, “Open Labs are spaces built in the curriculum to encourage and support multi-disciplinary learning experiences. These give students the opportunity to explore exciting interventions in the area of interest apart from their curricular inputs. These inputs can either be domain related or additional inputs in their area of interest. The aim of the Open Lab is to bring relevant knowledge to the students and further enrich their learning experience.”

Today, 50 percent of the students at Pearl Academy become entrepreneurs within 3 years of graduating from the institute.

All students undergo an entrepreneurship module and are encouraged in projects developing their own business ideas.

Pearl Academy has also tied up with Amazon India to promote alumni who are entrepreneurs and they go through rigorous training to ensure they are successful. Some of the successful ventures started by students of Pearl Academy include – Kriti Tula’s Doodlage, Nikhil Mehra’s Shantanu & Nikhil, Teresa Laisom and Utsav Pradhan’s Munkee See Munkee Doo; Vaishali Studio by Vaishali Shadangule; Mandira Wirk; Sumiran Kabir Sharma’s Anaam; THREE by Pallavi Dhyani; Karleo by Leon Vaz and Karan Berry; Rimzim Dadu; House of Torani by Karan Torani; Aastha Narang; Jayati Goenka among many others.

Talking about the old students, Nandita says, “One of our students I am particularly proud of is Rohan Chabbra, an alumnus of 2008 batch who is currently working as a Senior Designer at Ralph Lauren for Purple Label, Polo Performance and Special Projects in New York City. I am also proud of Pragya Prasun, our business alumnus, who despite being an acid attack survivor bounced back with great strength and grit and is working towards employability for acid attack survivors. She recently received the Naari Shakti award by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.”

Recognized by Business of Fashion as the only Indian institute to be amongst the top 25 colleges in the world, undoubtedly, Pearly Academy is a leading institute in design, fashion, business and media. The institute recently announced the launch of Bengaluru campus, which will be the fifth campus of Pearly Academy in India. Last year, the institute had announced the launch of a new school – School of Media. It educates students on all aspects of digital and new age media so that all avenues of storytelling can be explored across platforms.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

41

ED SHEROES

42

Higher Education Digest September 2019

NexConnect: Helping Underprivileged Children Enjoy Their RIGHT TO EDUCATION

T

echnology has helped change the concept of the classroom dramatically. A classroom is no longer a four-walled brick construction with a blackboard at one end of it and an oblivious teacher reading out from the textbook while the students stare listlessly at their books, wishing they were somewhere else. You couple a few interested students from the four corners of the world with a learned and willing teacher to teach them, you can easily call an internet chatroom a classroom. Technology has also changed the role of a teacher. Especially in India, where there is no more duster throwing and butt-whipping of the students to fear them into paying attention in the class. Metropolitan classrooms are now a scene to behold as teachers encourage curiosity, enable students to search for knowledge, and impart wisdom. In rural areas, however, classroom learning has a long way to go. Helping this cause is education enablers like Arina Bardhan.

43

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Meet Arina Bardhan Born and brought up in Kolkata, West Bengal, Arina Bardhan was keen on teaching. Hailing from a humble middle-class family, she understood the impact a good teacher made in a student’s life. For if kids came from a strong, healthy functioning family, a teacher’s job is easy. But if they do not come from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes the teacher’s job important.

“Teaching and assisting children have always excited me from within. After completing my Masters in Sociology from the University of Hyderabad, I came back to my hometown and worked in an NGO as a field investigator for 10 months which was quickly followed by my Research Associateship at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata in the year 2013,” says Arina.

44

Higher Education Digest September 2019

It was during her tenure of working as a Research Associate in the Research Excellence Group, Social Informatics Research Group at IIMC under Prof.

Somprakash Bandopadhyay, that she met Ms. Priyadarshini Dey and Mr. Jayanta Basak. These learned individuals, she did not know then, were to soon become her partners in a very important venture.

Rural Schools And Their Conundrums The team’s journey began in the year 2014, not as entrepreneurs, but as social science and computer science researchers. As part of her research, Arina, along with her colleagues, had to conduct several pilot studies on underprivileged students in semi-rural and rural areas of West Bengal. It was while carrying out inquiries into the quality of education and finding the possibility of using ICTs in assuring quality learning for all that the team was introduced to the current educational situation of students hailing from poor socio-economic backgrounds.

The team surveyed more than 10 schools in the outskirts of Kolkata and 3 other districts of West Bengal; inquiring about their current educational status. The team conducted ASER tests on literacy and numeracy and found out that more than 70% of the students were below the basic standards of learning. They also noticed that the teachers were not only inefficient and incapable of teaching students but did not even present themselves nicely. In Krishnanagar, West Bengal, the team met an in-

Arina Bardhan

45

Higher Education Digest September 2019

service teacher who always had a stick in hand and used it unsparingly on students whenever they were unable to answer her. Moreover, the school textbooks were boring and unappealing, leading to growing disinterest among students to even open the books.

“Our first interaction with the students was in Krishnanagar, in the year 2013 as research associates from SIRG, IIMC. It was an NGO sponsored residential school for orphan girls. There were more than 300 students in the school, but only 5 teachers to cater to them. The girls were wearing dirty clothes, had messy hair, and unclean nails.

Meeting us put a smile on their faces as they rarely had visitors from outside their villages. We observed some of their classes and realized that the teachers were not at all capable to teach the students, were inefficient, and often slept off in the class while teaching. The students, on the other hand, were spirited young minds who were keen on learning,” says Arina.

Priyadarshini Dey and Jayanta Basak

46

Higher Education Digest September 2019

Teachers that Inspire, Shape and Encourage The opportunity that these kids missed because of inept teachers had a big impact on the team. The Krishnanagar incident reminded everyone that there exist two kinds of teachers: the kind that fills you with so much fear that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you the little push that makes you jump to the skies. The Krishnanagar girls and the faces of several other rural schoolchildren gave the team the brainwave to connect aspiring students with teachers who were willing to truly teach, and not just finish a job and leave.

“We studied that the quality of education can be uniform throughout the country only by using the potentials of digital technology. In this light, we conducted some social experiments by connecting students with quality teachers using social technologies i.e., technologies used by people to interact socially and to create, enhance, and exchange content. Our evaluation of the impact of learning using the potentials of the Internet rendered positive results leading to the improvement of student learning and an increase in

Team Nexconnect

47 their academic interest level. We involved a large group of educated senior citizens (dormant knowledge capital) from the cities who taught rural students’ academic and non-academic subjects online. These teachers were mostly retired school teachers having more than twenty years of teaching experience,” says Arina.

So, on 15 June 2013, a group of 25 students from the second standard sat together in a residential school for orphan girls in Krishnanagar and two retired teachers from Kolkata taught the eager students English via the Internet.

NexConnect Ventures Pvt. Ltd The success of this mode of online learning led the team to develop its own teaching-learning platform. This online learning platform would act as a bridge between teachers and students. Teachers and students log in to take online live classes through this platform. The team put their heads and resources together and formed, on 17th February 2017, NexConnect Ventures Pvt. Ltd. A social business venture incubated in the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Innovation Park (IIMCIP), NexConnect Ventures seeks to address issues of exclusion by empowering communities and connecting them digitally.

Founded by Prof. Somprakash Bandopadhyay, Ms. Priyadarshini Dey, and Ms. Arina Bardhan., Ms. Priyadarshini Dey (Business Development and Operations Management) and Mr. Jayanta Basak (Technology) act as Directors of the company. Prof. Somprakash Bandopadhyay along with Dr. Siuli Roy also don the role of mentors.

In May 2017 the team, through their NexConnect platform, held its first class in an NGO-undertaken residential school in Burdwan. 25 students from two classes were taught English, Mathematics, Music, and Grandparenting (non-formal subjects comprising of storetelling, recitation, world knowledge, etc.) by 3 retired senior teachers.

“The widespread acceptance of this platform among students and parents from all socio-economic backgrounds led us to expand and scale up our platform to cater to the millions of underserved students in West Bengal. Thus, we redefined ourselves as social entrepreneurs and designed a hybrid business model, wherein rural students receive quality education from competent teachers hailing from the city at a subsidized rate. This is a cross-subsidized model where teachers sustain themselves by earning from

Higher Education Digest September 2019

a student in urban areas and providing almost free quality education to students in remote rural areas,” says Arina.

Scaling The Graph Higher And Higher Since their first class, the team has been successful in setting up eight study centers, which the team proudly call NexConnect Internet Schools (NIS). Spread across 7 districts of West Bengal and 1 of Jharkhand, the team has plans to expand to 20 more districts in Jharkhand and West Bengal and explore the untapped rural schools of Assam. It is commendable that the team has helped more than 800 students throughout the years, has 300 beneficiaries, and has been successful in conducting approximately 1500 online sessions with over 3500 hours of online live classes.

Having started with 3 teachers, the team now has 50 teachers partnering with them, of which 20 teachers regularly take classes. What started with 25 students, now regularly takes classes for 200 students. Along the way, NexConnect Ventures Pvt. Ltd has shown immense potential, as a result of which they received a start-up fund from DST, Government of India.

Beating Odds Through And Through As rosy as this sounds, the team did have to cross major roadblocks. It took time to convince the rural parents of the merits of online teaching. Another roadblock was local politics in the rural communities who showed a lot of apprehension in the beginning. The team also had to find proper infrastructural facilities to ensure that the children felt they were in a classroom, and not there to waste time. Moreover, internet connectivity in rural areas is still sketchy. During power cuts and disturbances in the network due to heavy rainfall every year is a problem, the team deals gives the students a few weeks as holidays.

In addition to these hurdles, there lay the most important conundrum of figuring out what to teach. The team spent many hours thinking about this and in the end discussed with expert teachers and mentors about how to improvise the ‘below the standard’ West Bengal Board textbooks. Following the experts’ advice, the team set about to revamp the content of the textbooks.

The team was shouldered with the nearly impossible task of digitizing and updating West Bengal Board textbooks. They made detailed lesson plans, audio-visual based PowerPoint presentations, and worksheets. As the focus was on the holistic development of each child, they incorporated something new into the materials keeping the Bengal Board syllabus intact.

The team then agreed on scheduling two-hour sessions for each subject each batch in each week, which would be relayed through their own learning portal.

48

Higher Education Digest September 2019

It is also important to acknowledge the support from the team’s parents and immediate social circle. In fact, Arina’s father was the first online teacher who was on board with the team. Since then he has been teaching Spoken English and Grandparenting to students from rural Birbhum, West Bengal, via NexConnect.

The platform seeks to be a social business working at the bottom of the pyramid with rural underserved people. “We cater to the capacity building of young children, older children through academic assistance through our live learning platform at affordable rates.

We cater to the capacity building of youth and adults through vocational and skill-building assistance through our live learning platform at affordable rates. As a private limited company and as a social business venture we need to sustain our business. As a result, we have developed a cross-subsidized business model where on one hand we teach rural students at a very subsidized rate and on the other hand, also teach groups of urban/NRI students at a comparatively higher cost. This is to survive our business and be able to pay our online teachers and pay for our operational costs,” says Arina.

What NexConnect Want From Us The thinktank behind NexConnect missions on disseminating formal and skill-based quality learning to young and adult rural students in the East Indian states using their online learning platform. As a citizen of India, who have the responsibility to look out for fellow Indians, what can you and I do to help such an inspiring and noble venture like NexConnect?

Well, the NexConnect team is looking for: 1. Venture funding support to kickstart new rural study centers.

2. Interested rural individuals to initiate a study center in her/his locality and mobilize local community students.

3. As many urban students as possible to register to NexConnect and get training from their panel of expert teachers to sustain their cross-subsidized business model.

4. Interested and passionate teachers who might be interested in teaching rural underprivileged students voluntarily.

In the crusade to make quality education affordable to all, irrespective of socio-economic backgrounds, using digital technologies The NexConnect team have proved that they are true warriors.

Higher Education Digest September 2019

49

50

Higher Education Digest September 2019

51

Higher Education Digest September 2019

INDUSTRY PERSPECTIVE

Expanding Horizons Terence Wallis, CEO, Indelible Adventures Inc.

Author, consultant, speaker, podcaster and photographer, Terence Wallis decided to leave the corporate world behind and start his own business, Indelible Adventures Inc. in 2014. Terence has published two books; “Indelible Adventures”, a collection of short stories about his life growing up in rural Australia and “Una storia d’amore” (My love story), a collection of his photography of his many trips to Italy

52

Higher Education Digest September 2019

R

ecently, my son Zach and I finished planning our summer trip to Europe. He created the itinerary purely based on the cities he wanted to visit, I had zero input, nor did I want any–this is trip is my gift to him.

Ever since I spent my year crisscrossing Europe by train way back in the day, I was hooked on the idea of taking the train for our 16-day European adventure. When I was in Sweden last summer for a writer’s conference, I got hold of a European rail map to share with him in preparation for our trip.

Clearly, he studied it in great detail which was evident in our newly minted itinerary.

There’s something mesmerizing about the clicketyclack of the carriages as they bump along the rails that seems to You can never soothe my soul, it’s one of the few understate the places I like to sit and daydream as I watch the countryside glide by.

value of learning to live and travel the world at an early age

We begin our adventure in Berlin spending 3 nights in this amazingly cosmopolitan city. Where else would a history buff love to begin his adventure but one of central Europe’s most historic and often fought over capitals, and that’s just in the 20th century! I loved my recent four-day flip to Berlin and I’m thinking he’ll love it as well. So much to see and do–we’re definitely going to get our full quotient of walking in over the 16 days.

From there we make our Prague where we are staying at an Airbnb in the old Jewish quarter of the city. In fact, the old city of Prague has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site and so we’ll be right in the heart of it. My mind’s eye immediately races to narrow, cobbled streets with centuries of character and charm.

After our three-night sojourn here its onto Vienna....

Of all the places in Europe I think Zach would tell you that Vienna has a certain place in his heart.

Zach’s maternal great grandmother grew up in Vienna. Her father was a well-respected judge until the Nazis occupied Austria in early 1938 - then

Higher Education Digest September 2019

53

everything changed. Her family being Jewish were soon targeted and not in a good way, her parents paid for her to get out of the country...just in time. However, the vast majority of her family and relatives were not so fortunate and hence perished into the flames of the Holocaust, such an incredibly sad time in our history.

He’s already expressed a great interest in making a pilgrimage to the apartment building where they lived and which I’m sure will elicit some serious reflection time.

After Vienna we’re off to Bratislava for a night before making our way to Budapest. For some reason Zach has always been intrigued and fascinated by Budapest. Voted one of the most liveable cities in Europe this gorgeous jewel is situated on the Danube river and is home to an eclectic array of museums and cultural institutions, not to mention the largest thermal water cave system in the world. In addition, its metro is the second oldest after Paris - who knew? Almost sensory overload isn’t it?

Next is onto Munich for a night before as we begin to wind our way back to Berlin for our flight home.

Trust me I’m going to savour every moment of the 16 days and soak up each and every experience with him, and I’m sure he’ll be doing the same.

Although we won’t get the same opportunities to travel together with the frequency that we have over the past few years, I’m hoping that this experience will be etched in his mind as one of those indelible moments in time that he’ll be able to recall and regale his kids with when he has a family of his own.

I’m also hoping that this trip will be a springboard to many more adventures over the course of his lifetime. You can never understate the value of learning to live and travel the world at an early age. The things they have experienced and the places they have been are more than the vast majority of people will ever see in a lifetime, but they have taken advantage of these moments in time and become citizens of the world.

My everlasting gift to him and my daughter Sam has been to set the foundation for a love affair with exploring this big, wide, wonderfully messy world we live in. This has been a conscious process, with my intent to help shape and mould them into curious, confident and resilient young adults. Fortunately, they’ve embraced our collective adventures and have matured beyond their years partly due to our travels.

Such an exciting time in their lives!

54

Higher Education Digest September 2019

55

Higher Education Digest September 2019

56

Higher Education Digest September 2019