Victoria Leads the Way for EDTECH Collaborations with India with 70+ Delegates at Didac, Victoria (Australia) Continues To Forge Partnerships with India

Bengaluru: With over 70 delegates at DIDAC 2023, Victoria (Australia) and India are advancing their education engagement at all education levels.   

The Victorian delegation was the largest international delegation at DIDAC.   Victoria’s DIDAC exhibition featured products and services from 19 organisations as well as participation from 12 leading female school principals who are in India as part of the Victorian government’s Women in Schools Leadership (WISL) exchange programme. 

“Victoria is a global education hub, with Melbourne ranked 4th among the world’s best student cities. There are very few jurisdictions in the world that can boast Victoria’s experience, excellence, commitment, and comprehensive education quality at all levels,” said Michelle Wade, Commissioner for South Asia for the State Government of Victoria.

The state of Victoria is about the size of Pune, with a population of slightly over 6.5 million. Victoria is home to eight of the world's top 400 universities. Earlier this year, Deakin University, from Victoria, achieved a historic milestone as the first university globally to unveil plans for a global campus in India. 

She added, “The relationship between India, Australia, and Victoria has never been stronger.  We look forward to more edtech collaborations between Indian and Victorian organisations to support the upskilling of India’s 400 million millennials.” 

Among the participating edtech organisations are HEX, Australian Council for Education Research, SoaringEd, iCanStudy, Maxme, and Early Childhood Professional Services Australia. 

Baradhazhvar Balaji, CEO of SoaringEd, said, “Our founders have a strong Indian heritage and take immense pride in our work in India, with over 100 professionals currently employed in India. Our attendance at DIDAC 2022 resulted in an exciting partnership with Yagen Robotics.”

Renata Sguario, Founder and CEO, Maxme, a global provider of tech-enabled human skill learning and development experiences, said, “Expanding into a dynamic global market such as India, an emerging global economy that promises to skill the rest of the world, is critical to the successful delivery of Maxme's vision.”

According to the latest research, 73% of companies in India are investing in education/up-skilling compared to the global average of 55%, and 88% of Indians believe that up-skilling is necessary to future-proof their career. “With India having the largest population of youth globally, where 50% are less than 25 years of age, we are focusing on education as well as early-to-career individuals across the business sectors,” Sguario added.

Sandra Yelen, Director, Early Childhood Professional Services Australia, states, “We have cultivated longstanding partnerships with numerous Indian childcare providers and institutions over the years, dedicated to fostering learning opportunities and facilitating training programmes. The collaboration with Indian counterparts has been a source of immense satisfaction, as it has enabled us to deliver a wide range of Australian childcare programmes to early childhood providers and schools in India. Presenting at DIDAC in 2023 allowed us to share our expertise and explore partnership opportunities.”

Michael Tsai, iCanStudy Co-founder and CEO, said, “We offer the world’s first cognitive retraining program with AI feedback and reporting to enhance self-regulated higher-order thinking skills. Starting with India, we would like to empower high school, university, and professional learners to become fundamentally ‘smarter’. Our goals fully align with both the NEP and the G20 goals, so we are here to build long-lasting partnerships with organisations here.”

ABOUT DIDAC 2023 AND THE VICTORIAN DELEGATION

DIDAC 2023 is Asia’s largest and India’s only edtech-focused international trade fair. Hosted at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre from 17 to 19 October, DIDAC gathered executives and decision-makers from the global educational fraternity to advance collaborations in implementing educational standards at par with global practices. 

A BRIEF ON PARTICIPATING VICTORIAN COMPANIES

HEX   www.startwithhex.com

HEX is an Australian-based, multi-award-winning EdTech company delivering innovation and entrepreneurship programs to the next generation of talent.

Jeanette Cheah, Founder of HEX was recently named in Australia’s Top100 Innovators List and returns to DIDAC for the second time.

HEX programs are university-accredited and internationally recognised.  Programs such as HEX Ed (co-designed with IT multinational company Atlassian) and their ‘Innovation Gap Year’ model support the company’s mission to build a new generation of global founders, leaders and talent to close the future skills gap shortage.

Australian Council for Education Research www.acer.org/in

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) is a globally recognised not-for-profit education research organisation providing high quality technical advice in educational research and assessments.

Over the last 90 years, ACER has supported countries all over the world in their efforts to achieve quality and equity in education.   Since its establishment in India in 2005, ACER India has supported assessment reforms in South Asia and the development of competency-based education systems, enabling a shift away from rote-based learning.

ACER also maintains a Database of Research on International Education comprising over 16,500 Australian and global resources related to international education.  The library is free and has had over 6.2 million downloads from almost every country on the planet.

iCanStudy     www.icanstudy.com

iCanStudy offers the world’s first cognitive retraining program with AI feedback and reporting to enhance self-regulated higher-order thinking skills to empower high school, university and professional learners to become fundamentally “smarter”.

This hybrid program supports all curricula and only requires an additional investment of 20 minutes every three days from the learner.  Their program has already benefited over 12,000 learners in 150 countries, delivering remarkable enhancements in academic performance, learning efficiency, long-term recall, knowledge application, learner confidence and motivation, unprecedented in both commercial and research settings.

iCanStudy is backed by Google and is in a joint research project with the Education Faculty at Monash University.

Early Childhood Professional Services Australia www.earlychildhoodaus.com.au

Early Childhood Professional Services Australia is a leading organisation dedicated to advancing the quality of early childhood education and care.

The company offers mentoring and support to new and existing childcare facility directors, including in India.  Utilising their many years in the Australian sector, Early Childhood Professional Services delivers customised training, can help develop and conduct workplace audits and develop professional documentation.

Early Childhood Professional Services Australia will conduct workshops as part of the DIDAC conference program.