23-year-old Hyd girl launches edtech startup to bridge skill gap for students

Telangana has around 200 engineering colleges of which only the top few add value by keeping the students best interest in mind or work towards a student’s pursuit to achieve an objective. The gap between a college’s curriculum, and real time application of technology is a fact, says 23-year-old CEO and Founder, Swathi Rusheetha, who launched, Knowvation Learning Pvt Ltd to equip students with practical knowledge through interactive learning experiences of fundamental concepts over textbooks. The city-based edtech startup offers courses such as Tech Titans for grade five and six, Code Ninja’s for grade seven and eight students, Hi-tech Warriors for ninth and 10th standard, Tech-Geniuses for 11th and 12th grade, and Code combats for grade 12 and above. The other services include project guidance by mentors/experts, community application called as iCube, and Hyderabad’s largest tech summit for youth, TechKnow 1.0, a national level hybrid hackathon alongside panel discussions for knowledge sharing by experts

Was launching an edtech startup always on the card?

Initially I had plans to pursue Masters in UK after completing Bachelors in Computer Science. I also got a seat in Birmingham and Greenwich University. But I always had planned of doing something in the edtech field. So I dropped the intention of pursuing Masters and instead chose to take risk by following my dream. While in Degree only I had started working as a Campus Recruitment Trainer (CRT). I also used to teach second and third year engineering students Python, C, C++ and Java. My stint as a trainer made me realise the very much existent gap in education. Engineering students of these colleges were learning technology but in theory form only. They are not aware about the technology’s practical implementation. Colleges also lacked community system where students could discuss, meet their peers and jointly build something innovative. With this thought of building a community I started Knowvation Learnings.

How is Knowvation Learnings bridging the gap for students?

First step was to teach coding and technology from schooling itself for students to understand its importance and where their liking stands. In engineering colleges, out of 100 students only 15 to 20 per cent students are passionate about utilising technology to build something useful while the rest are in that course for getting a degree certificate. We help them make informed career choice by giving them better understanding of the field at an early age which is important nowadays. We started off by holding summer camps for school students then later we entered colleges too. Till now we have organised 50 workshops in engineering colleges across Hyderabad and other tier-2 towns.

How different is your offering from the incubation/ innovation centers?

While working as a CRT I got to network with students. I also visited every other networking centre, T-Hub, and attended all events related to networking and technology. I met many corporate professionals and gained in-depth understanding of the gap in an employer’s expectation and college education. I did not want to offer training on the lines of that already exists in the market. We have designed Knowvation Learnings curriculum such that it does not include any theory instead it consists of projects, programme, code editor. Knowing the functionality behind every concept that exists is what we are trying to do. The curriculum is designed by professors, with inputs from me and few professionals from the industry, after having taken into consideration their requirements.

Were authorities at schools open for this tech infused learning idea of summer camp?

There were few rejections during the initial period from schools. But most of the schools were open to the idea of summer camp as it did not clash with their school routine. Few schools opted for online workshops while few took up offline camps. Besides summer camps for schools students and workshops for college students, we conduct online courses, hackathon, and this year Olympiad is on the chart.

Speaking of Hackathon, how unique was TechKnow 1.0?

Normally in hackathons, participants are given problem statement to develop a solution around it. But ours was an open innovation which meant students had no restriction on the idea. In the 24-hour hackathon we asked students to think of a problem they are facing and to come up with a solution for it. At the hackathon a 12th graders team, the second runner-ups, built a browser for people suffering from ADHD. Later we had organised panel discussions wherein we touched upon -- if somebody wants to build a tech-based startup for them we had founders of communities to talk about building distribution, then we had entrepreneurs who built their products talking on how to build a MVP, then we had officials from the government to talk about how to approach the government with their startup idea or product. Here we wanted to change the student’s mindset from job seeking to job giving.

What do students stand to gain after having taken up your courses?

The take away for students attending our workshops is that they will be concluding their learning only after having developed something, be it, portfolio website or anything. If they join a 10-week bootcamp stand a chance for getting enrolled in three month internship at companies that we have a tie up with. If the idea or problem statement is worthy then they get the mentor support to develop it. Right now we are in the process of mentoring three teams. One of the Under Graduates team of students has developed technology for waste management or segregation.

Till date, how many students have benefited from Knowvation Learnings?

We cater to tier-1, 2 and 3 colleges. In total, we have conducted workshops in 25 colleges, of which 10 are in Andhra Pradesh, and 15 in Telangana. Around 10,000 plus students have benefited through right mentorship that is missing for students in the field. We have provided students with networking which is also important to build a startup. Only when these students have the support of the right team of people they will not drain out their money. That is what we bring to the table.

Through intervention in education phase, how is Knowvation shaping tomorrow’s startup ecosystem?

Education will shape the future. Right education imparted in the right way can lead India to be one of the top competitors. That is my intervention in the edtech field, through Knowvation, direct students from schooling itself to make the right choice. New technologies are entering the market rapidly. Knowvation is trying to bridge that gap between current education system and the future. We are trying to bring student into real time world to make them understand how things work in real time so that they are well prepared to take on the competition. We also hold CRT where students get trained to gain placement. We make them realise whether they have the caliber to build something on their own or they would be best suited for nine to five job. In both the routes we are there to train them.

Knowvation Learnings took off with the idea of building a community, where does the idea stand right now?

The beta version of the application is running right now and the formal launch will be held in the next three to four months. The community application is called as iCube. It is basically to ignite the thirst for knowledge, innovate on ideas, and implement the knowledge gained. iCube is a one stop shop for students, from real time application of technology, to finding peers, mentors, create groups and collaborate on projects. Through code editors they can learn the technology from us, and also prep for their interviews. All of this is available in just one application. They get to know what event is being conducted in and around, and what other colleges are doing to stay ahead. This community is open for students above 10th class, but will be useful for UG and PG students. Students can also call out for mentors, registered on the platform, for guidance while building something.

Other than Hackathon any other programme that is lined up?

We will be opening registration for Olympiad from July, the exam will be held in October, or November, December, and the final result will be out in January or February. Olympiad is nothing but an exam or qualifying test for school students from fifth to 12th. A curriculum will be sent out first and they can prepare based on that. They will have to learn a technology. Then the exam date will be released. Students can attend the exam which will be conducted on a National level. We will select students who are good at that technology and will provide our course free of cost, coach them from our end. Moreover through our collaborations with colleges, these select students can get admission in that college by paying a subsidised fee amount.

How is Knowvation Learnings growing financially as a startup?

The startup has been completely bootstrapped up to a tune of Rs 4 lakh for building curriculum and operations. My team consists of 30 people of which, 17 are trainers who are professional experts, and we have interns working on social media handling, designing and operations. The revenue has been infused into running the show till now. Students pay for the workshops where we have courses from HTML to latest technology like AI, ML. The fee depends on the module which is different for fifth class students to Masters; also it varies based on duration, if it is one week workshop or 10-week workshop. We are looking for investors to start offline classes. The funding requirement is Rs 25 lakh. To give the offline centre experience of learning I will be recruiting a full-time trainer. Mentorship is always effective offline as online we have restricted time-frame which is a challenge.