Just like you cannot judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, every individual has his or her own strengths, which needs proper nurturing. Learning is a powerful way to understand one's own skillsets and build upon them to make suitable career choices.
While your regular academics will give you the knowledge of the books, it is essential to keep an eye out in the real world to see the current trends. Technology is constantly evolving and now there are various categories such as AI, machine learning, robotics, smart things (IoT), 3D modeling, animations and much more.
If you want to make smart career choices, you will need more than your college degree at the end of graduation. In India, where extracurricular resources are limited when compared to developed countries such as the U.S., it gets challenging to build upon your strengths. That's where Pluralsight comes into play.
The U.S.-based ed-tech startup offers enterprise technology learning for businesses in India. With on-demand access to a wide range of learning tools and live mentoring, Pluralsight offers support to individuals towards a stronger career.
During an interaction with International Business Times, India, Arun Rajamani, country-head for Pluralsight India, spoke about the company's goals, scope and strategies for the Indian market.
IBTimes, India: What is Pluralsight's scope in the Indian market?
Arun Rajamani: Pluralsight is aggressively tapping the technology learning market in India. By 2017-end, India is expected to be the largest developer population in the world — requiring the most in-demand technology skills of today.
India also faces the challenge of a widening skills gap. Enterprises in India invest in training early-career professionals who graduate from universities to make them job-ready and also in continually evolving their workforce skills profiles to meet the changing needs of the markets they serve.
The Indian tech industry's focus on Digital-led services being a case in point. Pluralsight's technology learning platform is well placed to cater to India's new-age technology needs like automation, digital, data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and cloud and we aim to make these skills available to all technology learners across India.
IBT: What are the company's goals?
Rajamani: Pluralsight's mission is to democratise professional learning. We see ourselves as the world's leading company in closing the technology skills gap that exists today. In India, with every industry adopting technology to gain competitive advantage, we are well positioned to help them empower their tech employees to stay ahead of the curve. We work with over 13,000 enterprise customers globally and support over 4 million learners on our platform (both individually and through enterprise learning plans)
IBT: What is your growth strategy for the Indian market?
Rajamani: We are focused on online self-paced learning for technology professionals which is about 2.75 million strong today and is set to grow to 5.2 million tech professionals by 2018 thus overtaking US to be the largest developer population in the world. We are excited to be in India and be a career catalyst to this fast-growing segment.
In India, we have over 300+ enterprise customers. We have scaled our India team in the last 18 months and are seeing rapid uptake for our technology learning platform. We have built out unique solutions for different customer segments. For example, we have a solution called NEO – New Employee Onboarding – that caters to rapid onboarding requirements of startup companies and also caters to scale-out onboarding requirements of large companies where the focus is to get a new hire from college-trained and billable as quickly as possible.
IBT: What are the courses Pluralsight offers, and what are its limitations at the moment?
Rajamani: Pluralsight offers a gamut of 5,000 video courses which are authored by more than 1,000 industry experts. Our library contains deep, professional-grade training on a full suite of topics in digital, data analytics, new-tech (internet of things, machine learning), software development, IT operations, creative technologies (graphic design, animation, vfx, industrial design, 3D modelling).
Members can watch courses from beginning to end or, through a detailed table of contents and a searchable transcript, jump to a specific video clip for just-in-time training on a use case. Courses are available on-demand through web-enabled devices and custom apps for desktop, Android, iOS and Apple TV.
- Flexibility: Pluralsight allows its members to learn anytime, anywhere. No need to take a week off from work; week-long seminar once a year is insufficient for many reasons (cost/productivity, knowledge retention, timeliness, etc.). Members can upskill at their convenience.
- Affordability: Price includes all courses. No need to pay per topic.
- Personalized learning experience:Pluralsight members can access a variety of tools that meet their unique learning styles and needs.
- Measure your skill - With adaptive skill measurement, in as little as five minutes you'll know exactly where to start learning, so you never waste time on material you've already mastered.
- Follow a learning path – Expertly curated skill paths equip you with not just the "what," but the "how," "what-ifs" and "whens" to help you use technology skillfully in any scenario you might encounter.
- Get mentoring help when stuck - Pluralsight mentors are available 24/7 at the click of a button. Connect with a vetted expert to power through project roadblocks, learning hurdles and more.
- Platform provides features (bookmark, playlists, variable playback speed, interactive transcripts, contextual notes, etc.) that enhance learning experience by allowing learner to go at their pace
- Notes feature allows learners to take digital notes as they navigate courses
- Channels allows enterprise customers to design custom playlists for different teams in their company based on their learning needs
- Social and Gamification features – allows a learner to share her progress with her peers and with our Code School platform, enjoy a game-like experience while learning crucial skills
- Empowerment: Pluralsight's platform allows for members to play an active—rather than reactive—role in their learning. If a learner jumps into a course and finds that it's not for them, they can move on to a different one. If a learner wants to upskill on trending technologies, they can identify what those topics are. Pluralsight's platform allows learners to move away from a prescriptive learning mentality ("top down') and into a mindset ("bottoms up") that fosters exploration and breaks barriers into innovation, which makes them more relevant and marketable.
From a technology content point of view – maintaining quality and relevance of content is a challenge. We know that the 'two-year half-life' syndrome – only half of the tech skills that you have today will be relevant in two years' time – is real. So, we ensure that the content is in tune with the technology changes happening in the industry.
Besides, quality of training content is also a huge challenge for the tech industry in India. To provide relevant and high-quality learning resources, Pluralsight has built an author network of 1,000+ industry experts across the world who exclusively curate courses for us to have a full-fledged tech content team that stays ahead of the technology curve and builds our content roadmaps to match the latest technology roadmaps from across the world.
IBT: How many mentors and students does Pluralsight have currently and what is the goal for 2017?
Rajamani: Globally we support more than 4 million learners and 13,000+ enterprises with our platform. In India, we have 300+ enterprise customers. Our learners are spread across employees of companies who access Pluralsight through company plans, individuals who buy monthly/annual access and students who want to be industry-ready by the time they complete their graduation.
IBT: How is Pluralsight important in an individual's intellectual growth?
Rajamani: Pluralsight is a career catalyst for a tech professional. We help you build a strong career and help yourself and your company move ahead in the marketplace. Our learning platform allows individuals to assess their current competencies and we guide them along on an improvement path. We also allow our enterprise customers to use features like Channels to build custom learning paths for their employees. Pluralsight is a long-term partner for a technology professional. We are a "journey" partner not just a "milestone" partner in a learner's career and intellectual growth.
IBT: How does it affect in their career choices?
Rajamani: Pluralsight's platform allows for hyper-personalization of learning – creating learning content and experience according to the profile of the learner and not use a one-size fit all approach. It allows for different learning styles – all learners are not the same, some like sequential learning, some like byte-sized learning, and some are repetitive learners. A digital learning environment will cater to these styles.
A Pluralsight learner can evaluate his career choices based on the results of the courses he chooses to take up. Depending on his knowledge level, he can make a choice where he can start from, making sure he does not waste time on something which he already knows. Professionals become much clear sighted on the completion of the courses they opt and accordingly go for a career option in which they would be able to excel with the knowledge acquired through Pluralsight courses.
