Hello therodinhoods,
Let me give my brief introduction first. I am from Darbhanga, Bihar. For One and half year, I have been training young graduates and other professionals in digital tools and softwares like Tally, MS Office, Internet, Photoshop etc.
At present I am going to apply for the PMEGP loan and for that I need to decide on the project. I have two business ideas in my mind both related to provide training in skills that would make people job ready.
1. My first idea is to start a training center where I will offer 1 year course in Employability skills. During this one year the candidates will be given training in following areas of skills : Reasoning, Pattern recognition, Numeracy, Communication, English Language, Digital tools, Critical thinking, and @job life skill, such as Team spirit, work ethics, Personality, basic professional etiquette, time management etc. After the course completion they would get assistance in placement.
Pros:
a. This is one integrated course that not only helps job seekers to polish their interview skills, but also gives them edge over their competitors by learning about work related issues and digital tools.
b. Though a student can join a competition preparation institute, an English coaching and a Computer center for learning most of the skills mentioned; that would be more costly in terms of time and money. Our center will provide the same in less amount. So more saving and more learning for students.
Cons:
1. In the beginning, this course will have no accreditation from any authorised govt body. So, after completion, the certificate we would provide may have no market value. This could work against us, as here people value certificate more than learning opportunity.
2. The student enrolment would be limited.
My second idea is about Online tutorial site, where I would put tutorial instructions along with quizzes and assignment/project for student to prepare in employability skills (mentioned above). A student would visit the site and choose the desired skill module(s). They would be notified for new lessons through Facebook and Twitter. The tutorial would be both in Hindi and English, so that students with no English literacy could also benefit.
Along with this tutorial site, I would offer workshops in different skill modules in near by schools, colleges and other institutions.
Pros:
a. More students can benefit from the course. Being a web app the course could be viewed in internet enabled mobile too, so the students in rural areas would also have the opportunity to learn. Also as we do workshops in nearby villages, we would direct them to this tutorial site for further learning.
b. The workshops will give the opportunity to interact with students and provide skill training in topical format. Also it would give us opportunity to market our website to prospective students.
Cons:
a. No direct interaction with the students on the website.
b. Some skills require hands on learning and can be learn better in classroom settings. E.g. Communication skills
c. There would be no control over student’s learning path.
Given both the ideas I request you to please give me feedback and guide me in choosing the right project as I am in a fix to choose as both look great to me.
Thanks and regard
Yatin Mulay
Go with the option which you believe can bring in cash flow faster and once that is established compliment it with the other half.
Personally I’d go with the 2nd one. All the cons listed by you there are non existent really with technology! ( trust me i train people all over the world 100% online )
There are two approaches:
You can create your own web presence with dedicated LMS ( CMS dedicated to online learning/teaching ) like Moodle (free) OR you can get site designed with dedicated LMS theme like Sensei (paid) OR you can use GoToTraining (paid). You can supplement it with Skype/Hangouts/JoinMe, etc if needed.
With this approach, you’d need to take care of the marketing part too which can be difficult if you dunno it.
In that case, you can take a different approach. Start offering training on platforms like Udemy, HelpOuts by Google, etc, that already have huge traffic. (Udemy has an incredibly useful free course for trainers to design their course) ( note: udemy will take it’s cut but it’s worth it)
Hope this helps. All the best!
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you Yatin for your help and encouragement.
Ashish Katkamwar
Hi Bhaskar,
I don’t have a clue what type of internet connectivity you have there, but I would suggest you should go with 1st option. However, you have to be realistic to pull in enough people who are interested in those training’s, my guess, people are not aware of the course contents you just mentioned. But I would suggest one excellent option. Government of India has something known as National Skill Development Corporation (nsdcindia.org) which have a Star Scheme. You can find the details of the scheme on nscsindia.org. Pick up an area of interest, choose a course which you feel comfortable to offer and after you are done with the enrollment with respective agency, you get around 10,000 Rs per student as compensation from government of India and I feel that would be worth putting in efforts like you mentioned.
Check out and decide. All the very best..!!
manjunath
I like the first idea and from the customer’s perspective, the first one is better. You can give them a partial refund in case the student doesn’t get a job or something. This is a very good value proposition. You may, thru an interview,select the students who are eligible for this.
Vishal Saha
Would advise going with Option 2 and as Ashish said you can approach National Skill Development Corporation.
NSDC also approves your course curriculum when they enrol you. This way your certificate will carry the relevant weight. You may complement the online course with a smaller course meant for topics which can be learnt only in the class, like – communication skills etc.
Good luck!
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you Ashish for your valuable suggestions. Getting accreditation from NSDC is already in my plan. But to fulfill their qualification criteria I need to wait for atleast 1 year. As for internet connectivity, it is no issue here. Thanks to 2G and 3G network with affordable price point, even an average person have access to it.
Yes you are right, the course curriculum may sound new to some, though with few exceptions it consists of subjects which people here are already familiar with, like reasoning, Math, English, computer etc.
As for 1st option, there is a catch which I need to solve before investing in a training center. That is, students here are skeptical of paying to a new institution. They pay only to those which are popular or which have affiliation to any renowned institution/university. Also what I am offering is a one year course and it is one year commitment from students. In my experience and the field study I did, I found that if I start with scratch it will take 3 years before I get reasonable no. of students to make a profitable business. To start with a brand value which I think is a good business sense. Isn’t it good that, first I create a brand name that students can trust and then use it for a training center?
So how could I the brand name before starting the business? This is the first question come to my mind. Some years back, when I was a software consultant, I did some course from coursera, udacity, and edX. I was attracted by its mass appeal. Though they have the industry leaders as lecturers :). Still this MOOC model can be replicated, esp in my skill training project.
So, what I have decided for now is to go with 2nd option and treat it as an awareness campaign for 1st year. The focus and priority would be delivering the high quality content both in Hindi and English. In 3 months time I would hoarding and banners of my course website in my town and around. I would do marketing such that most of people go to the site and get aware of it. Once I would have metrics to show that students around this place are coming to the site and have interest, I would approach nearby school or colleges for workshop space to provide training in topical skill.
Once I would get 1000 active learners (which I target for next 6 months) and have done 60 workshop, I would start affiliation process with NSDC and then opening the training center.
Do you Sir feel, it’s a right approach?
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you for your valued suggestion.
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you Vishal.
Ashish Katkamwar
Its surely the best approach, till the time you are convinced..!! One important thing you will achieve out of this is the basic marketing in and around area.
However, truth be very clear, its difficult to achieve your cash flow, the way you see it, through option 2. At the end, you will fall back on option 1 only. But this looks convincing enough for achieving what you have planned for.
And another thing, I can recommend you with couple of NGO. who will help in in placements in and around the region. That would probbly get you some USP. Do drop me your profile on ashish@uniserved.com,
Karan Ahuja
What’s USp from coursera or udemy ?
Checkout mysliderule.
Can u do learning paths like they do for increasing employability ?
Can u do career or aptitude tours for students looking to decide career paths .
Let me give an example
I run a software company and many cousins who pass out ssc yo HSc or btech want to visit our office to see what happens inside a tech company so that they can choose the right path.
Can you make this as a service …
All the best
Cheers
Karan
9820011185
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you Ashish once again. As mentioned, local advertisements would be for gaining recognition in local community, connecting the local youths to this course and most importantly to convince the school/college administration for workshop offer. I will also do the usual online marketing like Facebook ads, SEO, Online Ads etc.
And if you can connect me to some NGOs, that would be very nice. Thank you.
One thing, I saw your website uniserved.com and I found in concept note ppt on slide 9 (competition), there is “Less Flexible written on both the axis”. I found it weird, so thought to notify you.
Ashish Katkamwar
Thanks Bhaskar, for pointing the error. Its changed already in presentation, but the website is showing an old version. We are changing that right away..!!
Bhaskar Jha
Thank you for pointing out these questions and this really give me a good insight. What my current course model is that the students will come to the website and will choose the skill set they want to learn and gain all the necessary knowledge, hands on learning, etc. They will test their newly acquired knowledge through lesson’s challenge (real world case study), quizzes and one skill project.
Question of career path and learning path can be solved. Let me explain by an example :
Let suppose, there is a student named Nisha in a village called Trilokpur. She has passed +2 this year and is applying for Data entry operator in village Panchayat. She needs this job as she needs to support her family, but the problem is she does not know what kind of skills and knowledge she need to learn or know for this job. She knows only that if she does some DCA or some computer course, she would be fine. Again there is no computer teaching center in her village, so she has to go to near by town each day. It costs her much. After some time she learn from the panchayat’s project leader that she also needs to know English. Now again that is the problem for her. There is no good English coaching center in her village and she doesn’t have the permission and resources to go to the city for learning English. There is also no guarantee of having good English institute.
One day in her Facebook timeline (she could open internet in her mobile) she sees a recommended page of my Website. She opens it with interest and find that she could learn every skills and gain knowledge of what ever job profile she need to apply for. So, she goes to the website and search for Data Entry Operator. She sees a listing of DEO. Once she opens that link, she has every skills in her page to work on and knowledge to get for this job. She goes thru all the lessons, passed all the inbuilt challenges and quizzes. After that she get to know about the type of interview questions. She also have some sample interviews for her to watch and practice. Now after getting certification for us she is ready for the job. She could now apply for the job and post her resume in our placement page.
This website is for people like Nisha, who have desire to succeed but no proper guidance and resources. At present, I do not have career or aptitude tours in my plan, may be in future.
Thank you again for your reply as this encourage to think more deeply.