For more than a decade, TalentSprint has been powering DeepTech talent ecosystem
TalentSprint, is a leader in deep tech education and brings transformational high-end and deep-tech learning programs to emerging and experienced professionals in partnership with top academic institutions and global corporations. TalentSprint patent-pending, AI-powered, digital learning platform enables a perfect blend of high-end academics and industry-leading practitioner experience. TalentSprint has expanded its footprint to the USA by setting up an office and collaborating with institutions in that country. K. Sridhar, Chief Business Officer, TalentSprint in a discussion with CXOToday shares about the journey of TalentSprint, DeepTech learning programs, and creating talent for future-ready jobs. Read on…
1: Please tell us about your company, its Specialization, and the services you provide.
We are a global edtech company and are part of the prestigious National Stock Exchange (NSE) group. We bring transformational high-end and deep-tech learning programs to young and experienced professionals. Our proprietary digital platform, ipearl.ai offers a hybrid learning experience to seekers of deep technology expertise. TalentSprint partners with top academic institutions and global corporations to create and deliver world-class programs, certifications, and learning outcomes. A few of our collaborations with top academic institutions of the country include IISc Bangalore, IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Kanpur, Carnegie Mellon, IIIT Hyderabad, Indian School of Business, IIM Calcutta, and IIFT who offer world-class programs in DeepTech, management, and leadership.
We also partner with global corporations such as PegaSystems, Google, and Salesforce to deliver high-impact, cutting-edge programs to our learners. One of our flagship programs, WE for women engineers running its 4th edition, is supported by Google.
Most recently, we have announced a partnership with Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science Executive Education to create global DevOps experts. Our program will also target the Indian diaspora in South East Asia and the Middle East.
2: What is the biggest USP that differentiates your company from competitors?
Our biggest USP is the new-age futuristic DeepTech programs we offer in association with Top Academic Institutions, in a high-impact format preferred by serious learners and professionals.
In today’s era of fast-changing trends of tech and businesses, it is important to stay relevant not just today, but in future as well. TalentSprint pioneers in offering futuristic DeepTech Programs in association with top academic institutions. The prestigious institutions are highly ranked for their research in their particular cutting-edge technologies, and offer hands-on learning experience through distinguished faculty and leading industry experts. For example, IISc Bengaluru, which is World’s #1 Research University, is one of our eminent partners, with whom we offer world-class innovative programs like Digital Health, Digital Manufacturing, 5G, Deep Learning, and Data Science among others, that ensure a promising future.
With industries changing its folds at every turn, our programs ensure professionals build niche skills and expertise in cutting-edge technologies. TalentSprint’s programs are rigorous and thoughtfully curated for serious learners with the sole objective of bridging gaps that exist in the industry and those that are most likely to appear in the foreseeable future. In a nutshell, our programs make our learners future-ready.
The knowledge bestowed through such institutes and programs are not just studied but also implemented practically. The format of our programs uniquely combines the benefits of an instructor-led in-class program with the flexibility of online delivery. The classes are carefully designed in an executive-friendly format for professionals to easily strike a balance between their work and classes. Professionals learn through live interactive classes, case studies, hackathons, interact with esteemed faculty in real time sessions, build capstone projects, and collaborate with a diverse peer group that is selected with much thought and expertise. Certifications by the top academic institutions further add tremendous credibility and value. Moreover, learners also get valuable mentorship from alumni and placement assistance in some of our programs.
It is not just what you learn through the program, but also, what you learn from your peers. At TalentSprint, we ensure that each cohort is diverse in terms of experience, domain, and the organization to which the participants belong. As a result, every class becomes learning for our program participants – both practically and collaboratively. We teach topics in the context of actual industry needs as covering a topic simply isn’t quite enough in today’s digital era.
3: What strategies are you putting in place as an EdTech platform to ensure that this growth continues?
TalentSprint has an impressive list of over 25 transformational programs with 9 top-tier academic partners, namely IISc Bangalore, IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, IIT Hyderabad, ISB, IIM Calcutta, CMU, IIFT and IIIT Hyderabad. We continue to deepen our partnerships with these institutions as we identify new program areas. We aim to deepen our portfolio of programs with existing academic partners over the next couple of years, while we focus on signing up newer partners, both in India and abroad. We are also working closely with the NSE Group, our parent organization, to design and launch novel programs at the intersection of deeptech and financial markets.
We continue to work on programs that build high-end talent at the entry-level, where we are partners to top tier MNCs such as Google, PegaSystems, Salesforce, TCS, and so forth. A critical area of focus is developing talent among women engineers. We have two celebrated programs in this space: Women in Software Engineering (WISE) and the Women Engineers program (WE), the latter supported by Google. Both programs are highly successful, and we will continue to design new programs for women in technology. We also have a DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) program called TechWise that is being currently offered in the USA in association with 5 college partners, and supported by Google.
All our deeptech programs are offered on our award-winning, patent-pending, digital platform iPearl.ai, which facilitates synchronous and asynchronous learning, assignments, assessments, group work, cloud labs, and video indexing, with a single sign-on capability. Our platform enjoys a market-leading net promoter score and is deployed by premier academic institutions such as IIMs and IITs to operate their digital campuses.
4: What are the sectors, broadly categorized, which have seen a surge in demand for professionals with online certification?
The demand for skilled AI professionals is hitting the roof. Artificial intelligence (AI) is not a fringe technology anymore. It has achieved mainstream adoption and sound investments during the last few years. Today, almost every industry is using AI tools, AI models, and AI solutions in some or the other way. The major technologies in huge demand are data science, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, algorithm design, algorithm training, natural language processing, computer vision, data models, deep learning, cyber security, reinforcement learning, neural networks, and devops among many others.
These emerging technologies are driving major sectors today – BFSI (banking, financial services and insurance), hospitality, media and entertainment, e-commerce, logistics, and healthcare. The BFSI sector has shown massive growth potential owing to the huge investments, digital infrastructure, and government policies. New technologies such as united payment interface (UPI), blockchain, biometrics, etc. have made it easier to deliver faster, paperless, secure and hassle-free financial services. Marketers have a variety of digital tools to build marketing campaigns. In order to align with the customer landscape, companies are investing heavily on martech (technology-enabled marketing).
Therefore, technology is disrupting every kind of industry, even the most traditional ones. This has led to a rise in online certifications for programs in fintech (financial technology), healthtech, martech, etc. There is a demand for certifications on building core technical skills which can be applied anywhere. On the other hand, there is a demand for specific industry-focused certifications and the technology that has disrupted it. For example – blockchain and distributed ledger technology have become critical in the BFSI industry.
5: Reports show that professionals need to acquire AI and data science skills to be relevant in the future workplace. Which kind of jobs do you see gaining popularity in the future?
The demand and supply gap in Applied Data Science is immense right now. According to the World Economic Forum, Data Science, Data Architecture, Data Analysis, and Data Engineering are going to be the most favored career paths in 2022, and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 11.5 million career openings in these fields by 2026. Alongside the US, India is expected to be a prominent global hub for data science. Recent data suggests millions of job openings in data science, of which 70% will be available to professionals with less than five years of experience.
6: What is the most important soft skill that you advise a student to improve?
Engaging in a productive conversation is the most important skill that one needs to develop. This is not only a key employability skill, but also is the base for one to find out where the industry is going, and how one can improve oneself in various areas. Also, it is conversations which open up opportunities and hence I believe this is the most important soft skill a student should have. Another important skill is networking—as you grow in your career and meet more people, leveraging your networks will go a long way in furthering your career.
