Page 49 - EducationWorld March 2022

are insufficient communication de-
partments in Indian colleges. SoME’s
goal is to empower learners of all age
groups through effective communi-
cation and sound leadership skills,”
says Godhwani.
Future plans. Encouraged by the
positive response to SoME pro-
grammes, Godhwani has drawn up
an ambitious roadmap for the future.
“We have finalised plans to reach
1 million learners by 2025 and 10
million by 2030. SoME has plans
to penetrate tier II-IV towns across
India and create better jobs for com-
munication teachers and trainers.
Our mission is to develop SoME into
an institute of the future and make
learning an enriching, empower-
ing and everlasting experience for
Godhwani: 30,000 certified learners in four years learners across all age groups,” says
Godhwani.
education start-up that offers online quently, he taught at IIM-Bangalore, Way to go!
communication and leadership skills IIM-Trichy, IIM-Vizag, SDM IMD, Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)
development programmes to teenage IIM Udaipur and Ahmedabad
children, entrepreneurs and working University as adjunct faculty. After Creativity stimulator
professionals. completing his Ph D programme in
Through partnerships with cor- 2017, he was offered a tenured pro-
porates, schools, colleges and other fessor position at a university. But engaluru-based AAYUR KAUL
education institutions, the school has he turned down the offer as it would is the India head of the New
certified 30,000 learners over the have restricted him from teaching BYork-based Skillshare Inc.
past four years. SoME has a presence communication skills to students. (est.2010) — “the world’s larg-
in five cities (Bengaluru, Mumbai, “My dream was to teach millions est online learning community for
Chennai, Ahmedabad and Man- of students. I realised this ambition creativity”. Skillshare, with over 13
galuru) in India and two overseas could only be achieved through a million registered members world-
(Sydney, Kuala Lumpur) and hosts a start-up. For me, good education is wide, made its India debut last No-
current cohort of 967 learners. about creating meaningful experi- vember. Kaul’s brief is to introduce
Newspeg. Last September, SoME ences. In 2018, the School of Mean- Skillshare’s products and services to
successfully concluded the second ingful Experiences was born,” says Indian learners.
season of India's only online debat- Godhwani. Newspeg: Skillshare’s India debut
ing competition for teens Debato Direct talk. “Indian education has fortuitously coincided with the com-
2021. It attracted participation of traditionally neglected developing pany’s global launch of its Chroma
300 school teams from across the students’ communication, soft and courses. This cohort-based four-week
country. other essential life skills. The focus course provides lessons in several
History. A computer science engi- has been primarily on machines, creative subjects to small batches
neering and business management hard skills, sciences and mathemat- of students, ensuring personalised
alum of NIT, Surathkal and IIM- ics. I became aware of the enormity attention. Meanwhile, Kaul has also
Bangalore with a Ph D in leadership of a communication deficit in my adapted Skillshare Originals for the
communication awarded by Cardiff corporate life. Moreover, my teach- Indian market. Through collabora-
Metropolitan University, UK, God- ing experiences revealed that many tions with accomplished profession-
hwani served for over a decade in schools and colleges wrongly equate als, Skillshare aims to provide its
several blue-chip companies (Wipro, command of English with com- community the opportunity to learn
Intel and Qualcomm) before going munication. There’s much more to valuable skills from the likes of film-
solo in 2008 to follow his passion to it. Unfortunately, this key aspect of maker and YouTuber Ankit Bhatia,
“teach, write and research”. Subse- education is a rarity because there with a class on producing quality

MARCH 2022 EDUCATIONWORLD 49