Speaking to TechGraph, Atulya Kaushik, Co-founder & CEO of PrepInsta has said, “Disruptive technologies are already defining the possibility of future education, it is, therefore, critical to begin incorporating these concepts into the curriculum based on their relevance to different age groups.
Read the complete interview:
TechGraph: Could you help give a sense of how Prepinsta has come in its one year of existence?
Atulya Kaushik: We conceptualized PrepInsta in 2016 in the dorm rooms of VIT Vellore. We formally started PrepInsta in 2018 with a team of 3 people and by 2020, we grew to a team size of 20 people currently as of June 2020 we have over 70+ employees working from our Noida and Bengaluru offices.
We have two websites now which are prepinsta.com and prepinstaprime.com, with over 1 million monthly active users and over 1.5 Paid Prime Subscribers.
PrepInsta Prime Subscription which offers over 150+ courses as a single subscription has been very well received by our audience. We are seeing high demand from both students and also colleges/universities.
TechGraph: How is PrepInsta facilitating the entire learning process digitally? What are the new trends in the Tech Industry?
Atulya Kaushik: Students no longer see college curriculum as primary; they have understood that recruiters want them to develop additional skills which are high in demand like Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing, Machine Learning, etc. Students are going ahead with digitally learning these skills with different online players.
Each student on average takes 3-4 different certification courses in various technologies and languages these days. PrepInsta partnered with TCS in 2021 where now students have a chance to get certification both from TCS iON and PrepInsta. We also partnered with CoCubes AON to get more opportunities for students
TechGraph: How is the response so far to your online courses?
Atulya Kaushik: In comparison to our competitors, we have shown significant growth as an Ed-Tech platform. We have produced a growth of 5x in 2022 compared to 2020 and a growth of 2.1x in 2022 compared to 2021. Also, as Covid-19 has hampered placement drives across colleges and universities, we have seen a sudden increase in enrollment for our courses, which has significantly increased our business traction. PrepInsta has a target of 4x growth year on year and works to generate 10 million USD in the new fiscal.
TechGraph: What is the state of online code learning platforms in the Indian market, especially for Gen Z?
Atulya Kaushik: Since a major portion of the technology is dependent on coding, tech too is estimated to be a $14 billion market in India soon. Many Ed-tech platforms have responded by introducing courses that teach children how to code and become technological inventors.
Also as Generation Z is born in the internet age, they have demonstrated a greater digital competency and zeal in acquiring knowledge of coding and programming.
These in-demand courses will undoubtedly assist Gen Z in advancing their careers in a wide range of fields such as web design, software development, information science, and so on.
TechGraph: What are the new trends in the engineering space?
Atulya Kaushik: We have seen companies paying higher. Most startups are already confident about the concept of 10x engineers. For example, if you look at NetFlix which follows the 10x engineer concept, they believe that one great engineer has an output of 10 good engineers in terms of reliability, efficiency, and output and these companies do not also mind paying extra to these engineers.
Also, companies like Amazon and Microsoft have gone big in India for their hiring. They are adding close to 10,000 engineers to their Indian workforce every year. In fact, over 3000+ PrepInsta Prime students got offers from Amazon and 1500+ from Microsoft. Both of them were offering high packages, which were 47 LPA and 44 LPA respectively. Over 1 Lakh people last year got packages of more than 10LPA with PrepInsta Prime.
TechGraph: How do technologies, namely Al, machine learning, and cloud, have relevance in online courses? What will the future look like?
Atulya Kaushik: We use AI and machine learning to customize learning experiences for students so that no two students have the same journey. For somebody who is a quick learner and already knows the basics, our AI automatically creates a customized learning path for them similarly for someone who needs more brushup and needs help with more basic content our AI can adapt accordingly.
No two students are the same, each one has their strengths and weaknesses so why must they have the same course content and learning path right?
These disruptive technologies are already defining the possibility of future education, it is, therefore, critical to begin incorporating these concepts into the curriculum based on their relevance to different age groups.