According to data from a study conducted by the Indian HRD ministry, less than 20 percent of the 1.5 million engineering graduates each year have the necessary skill set to get into core domains that they often aspire for. This large discrepancy in numbers is largely attributed to a gap between college curriculum and industry standards, lack of proper guidance and the unstructured way educational resources are distributed across the internet.
While multiple niche disciplines of the tech field are currently growing, and the entire sector is set to continue booming in the years to come, the dearth of skilled young tech talent is projected to be a setback, both from the perspective of students and employers.
The idea of a college companion programme, thus, germinated in the minds of Abhimanyu Saxena and Anshuman Singh, the co-founders of Scaler by InterviewBit. Having already found success with Scaler Academy, a flexible, guided learning programme for working professionals, the duo wanted to build something that upskills young techies from the ground up.
After months of talking to students and understanding their pain points, the team behind Academy introduced Scaler Edge. The programme aims to equip students with enough ammunition for a stellar career in tech. It is targeted at engineering students from any stream, who have the motivation to hustle to the top.
Below is a detailed summary of the course.
Even as Scaler Edge is positioned as India’s first online university for software engineering that any student can enroll into, irrespective of their understanding of programming, there exists a test that determines their current level of programming knowledge, if any, and puts them into customised batches for a smoother learning experience with a peer group that they are on par with.
The course offers two modules of 6 months each. The first module will focus on building career skills essential such as DSA, CS fundamentals, along with interview test preparation support. The second module is a guided career capstone project that will allow engineering students to get a taste of the professional world.
The great thing about the course is that the weekly commitment is very doable – 15 hours per week for the first module and just 5 hours per week for the second module. It allows students the freedom to pursue their college commitments alongside. The course is built keeping the average college student in mind, who also has to focus on his college curriculum.
With a hybrid model of live and assisted-live classes along, students will have the opportunity to learn from the best while getting personalised attention from teaching assistants who will virtually clear doubts of all kinds.
Adding more weight is the presence of dedicated mentors. These are people working at some top tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, who share their learnings, and act as the one guide that each student always needs in their career. They are available to give students career advice and help them mould themselves into better professionals.
But it doesn’t end there. As part of the program, students also get access to a wide range of career support services including sessions on soft skills, resume building activities, CV review by experts as well as mock interviews.
Over and above the course curriculum, they also offer free Masterclasses that happen over the weekend on diverse subjects that outline in detail how an engineering student can scale up their software career.
With Edge, Scaler by InterviewBit has taken up the task of solving an enormous problem that currently plagues engineering students across the country. While the Scaler Academy program has already seen considerable success and name in the industry, this new college companion programme also doesn’t seem too far behind. The early feedback received from some of the Scaler Edge students is quite encouraging.
