Manav Shah, Co-Founder of a booming start-up Eduvacancy, is an inspiration to all the young minds who dream and believe in themselves, their passion, and the constant thrive to carve a niche for themselves. Keeping up with his motto of being a go-getter and breaking the rules of not following traditional family business, Manav is extremely passionate about the education space. He believes in constant innovation and providing solutions that would amplify the growth trajectories. With an MSc in Finance from one of the leading UK universities, Manav is a lifelong learner devoted to exponentially utilizing and expanding skillsets to accommodate the changing dynamics of the current business scenario.
First and foremost, the Education Sector has grown leaps and bounds in the last few years. In totality all the segments from K-12 to higher education have witnessed exponential growth. The pandemic has opened up a series of opportunities for E-learning and Ed-tech companies particularly. There has been a huge surge in e-learning platforms and learning from home as a concept. However, when we look at the industry there is lack of a robust mechanism for hiring. Despite a huge growth hiring of right and quality talent has suffered within the industry. The hiring process continues to remain complex and suffered throughout this massive boom. When we look at the education sector in India and worldwide it has come of age and plays an integral role in employment generation too. Today education is being imparted in a revolutionary manner and the fast-growing pace of e-learning has transformed the functioning of the sector.
When we look at the future, we estimate the education space to grow at around 20-25% from $117 bn (2020) to $225 bn (2025) and educational hiring to grow at a similar space. Besides that, we are also witnessing a hiring growth of 50-60% in the Ed tech space. With the education sector being one of the top 5 employment generation sectors in our country recruitment of qualified academic and non-academic roles also needs to evolve with time.
Moreover, the Indian education landscape is witnessing exponential growth; therefore, it is critical for structured and qualified recruitment to take place within the industry. Most recruitment in the education industry is quite haphazard and lengthy with merely poor search results. A huge problem occurs as candidates do not know where to look for jobs in the Education industry and most institutes find it difficult in sourcing genuine quality talent. Therefore, there is an inefficient mechanism for both candidates and institutions. We often notice job vacancies posted and marketed on multiple social platforms with merely no response. This purely indicates inefficiencies of hiring within the industry. Generic Recruitment Platforms in the country do not focus on Education Industry. They mainly focus on IT, BFSI, Oil & Gas sectors where bulk hiring occurs. Education Industry is side-lined completely by these platforms and have limited candidate pool as well.
Besides that, the Indian Education Market is a very huge market in itself. If we divide the market, we have Pre-schools/Nurseries, K-12 schools, Colleges, Universities, Coaching Classes, Vocational Training Organizations, Test Prep Institutes, Ed-Tech Companies and many more. For such a vast industry the hiring process needs to be modernized with a professional approach.
The digitization explosion seen during the pandemic is surely not short-lived and is going to grow consistently for the next decade. Besides that, there is an additional requirement of 200,000 schools, 35,000 colleges, 700 universities in our country. Currently to match up to new student enrolments India needs on an average around 8,00,000 new teachers every year for the next 3 years. Therefore, to keep pace with this surge the education sector will have to evolve and develop a structured, simplified and faster hiring process. The industry often witnesses inaccurate profiles applying for jobs, making the hiring process cumbersome. Therefore, teachers will constantly have to evolve and upskill themselves adequately as per job requirements. Upskilling with relevant training will ensure a direction leading towards a robust hiring mechanism within the industry. Besides the growth trajectory the pandemic has also infused a plethora of remote working options, which needs to be explored by this industry. Institutions will need to instil a culture where portion of their workforce will prefer working remotely. This will enable institutions in attracting quality talent around the country and across the globe.
A major hiring process to evolve is the lengthy recruitment process within this sector. Institutions need to device a mechanism where they fill up open vacancies within a stipulated period of time rather than a continuous increase in lead time. This will help in achieving a faster hiring process.
However, the real challenge and transition will be to adopt measures, which provide convenient and valid job search results for the industry. With the exponential growth we are witnessing it is inevitable to adopt a robust hiring mechanism.