Veative Announces a 5-Year Partnership with Dev Clever and NISA

Ankur Aggarwal, Veative CEO, is pleased to announce the signing of a five-year, exclusive partnership agreement between Veative Labs, NISA and Dev Clever, to introduce a transformational program of career-focused learning to the schools market in India.

As noted by Aggarwal, “We are both excited and humbled to be working with Dev Clever, a market leader in career development, and NISA, a massively influential body working hard to affect real, lasting change in the lives of Indian youths. Our contribution to this endeavour is to add a unique immersive learning element to enable a true understanding of what some career choices entail, plus some real learning in that area of interest.

In these trying times, the ability for educators to pivot with the changing needs of both in-person and remote learners, is paramount. Such a disruptive environment creates both challenges and opportunities for EdTech companies to rise to the occasion. Delivering online education at scale at significantly lower costs, coupled with increased internet and smartphone penetration and a large untapped consumer base, makes this a truly wonderful time to be involved in education in India.”

This first of its kind initiative uses Dev Clever’s LaunchYourCareer platform to deliver high-quality career guidance in line with dedicated benchmarks to ensure standards are raised. Focusing on verified testing, profiling, and custom data, Dev Clever will replicate the success it has had in the UK and US to raise the bar across all NISA-affiliated schools that it welcomes onto the platform.

As part of the new agreement, the trio will further bridge the careers gap in India by integrating a world-first, direct-to-consumer subscription service. The service will offer advanced functionality and invaluable careers development content at the click of a button. Accessible anywhere and anytime, this resource will help to nurture India’s youngest minds, in the comfort of their own homes. By providing the tools to discover a career outside the norm, linked to employers and institutions, and offering resources to help make informed decisions, the objective is to become the CEIAG (Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance) platform-of-choice across India.

Chris Jeffries, CEO Dev Clever, said:

“This is a significant milestone and material opportunity to support the career development of millions of young people in India. We are delighted to be working directly in partnership with NISA, the benchmark authority and voice of the expeditiously expanding budget private education sector in India, and Veative, the market-leading provider of online and immersive curriculum-aligned learning content. Together, we are able to deliver this solution at such a scale that it has a real possibility to change the way young people learn and become prepared for the world of work in their future.

The Indian EdTech sector is predicted to grow from *$2.8B in 2020 to $10B by 2025 and this partnership enables the company to enter an exciting geography at scale with a strong proposition, a direct route to market and the opportunity to secure a sizable part of this rapidly growing sector.”

Phase One, evaluation, has already concluded, allowing for Phase Two to begin in January 2021. This will see NISA recommend LaunchYourCareer as the platform-of-choice to its 70,000 schools, which are attended by approximately 13 million students.

There has been an increased demand for better careers standards and advisers in India. In 2019, it was reported that 93% of schools across India lacked trained career specialists. Up to 53% of those leaving school are ill-prepared to find a job. Market saturation in certain sectors has left many youths out of work, creating untenable situations for schools and learners, as well as being detrimental to India’s economy.

The new partnership will tackle India’s crisis head-on, in schools and at home. Once schools are familiar with the platform, there will be an opportunity to upgrade a subscription license to access best practice tools, and Veative’s virtual learning content. The upgrades are engineered to not only enhance student potential, but provide better advisory efficiency.

Kulbhushan Sharma, President at NISA, commented:

“NISA is committed to bringing about the best learning and growth opportunities for all students within our purview, and this commitment does not end at the gates of a school. Working with Dev Clever and Veative to drive career readiness and open up further long-term opportunities brings an added dimension to all that we do. We are delighted to explore new career aspirations with our students through the LaunchYourCareer platform, and then excite those minds with the cutting-edge learning technology developed by Veative. Much more than a simple solution, this new way of connecting students with learning will bring a significantly positive impact to budget private schools in India.”

Worldwide, EdTech has been growing significantly year-on-year, and this has been exacerbated by Covid-19. India is expected to grow in this area by up to 400%, by 2025, reaching approximately $10B, led by engaging with young, paid subscribers.

In fact, India has become a nation of digital subscribers. This sleek and modern approach to careers guidance will also enable parents to supplement and monitor their child’s progress from any device.

The expansive service will provide skills, guidance, and experience from all angles to maximize a learner’s potential and prepare them for college and career readiness. Students will benefit from virtual work experiences, career networking, as well as college and course recommendations. Moreover, students can also undertake valuable learning modules to build aspects of their character, as well as their personal knowledge base, by accessing Veative’s curriculum-aligned, interactive, educational offering, bringing learning to life. When a young learner has an opportunity to see what they like, or don’t like, about a certain career, they gain the ability to form a more holistic understanding of careers they may pursue in the future.

Dev Clever has brought about remarkable careers engagement in learners within the UK. In recently collected feedback from participating schools, there has proven to be an impressive 147% growth in students feeling more engaged and informed after using the LaunchYourCareer platform. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with 94% of learners saying the platform was helpful in finding the right career, 89% felt more informed about careers, and 96% of students said they loved the platform.

By combining the solid framework of LaunchYourCareer with the deep learning of Veative modules, together with the reach of NISA, we are pleased to announce a major shift in the area of careers guidance coming in early 2021, in India.

*https://inc42.com/datalab/the-future-of-education-indian-startups-chase-10-bn-edtech-market/