Quest Alliance concludes its 3rd Edition of Quest 2 Learn at NIAS Bengaluru

The primary focus of the summit is to enable a dialogue on diverse aspects shaping the education and skills divide

by Shrutee K/DNS

Bangalore: Quest Alliance, a not-for-profit trust that equips young people with 21st century skills by enabling self-learning concluded it’s third edition of Quest2Learn, a 2-day annual summit held on 28th and 29th June, 2018, at the National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. With over 250 attendees from across the country, Quest2Learn 2018 saw some impactful conversations in the areas of education technology and employability. Educationists, skills trainers, youth, government officials, corporations and civil society organisations intensely brought numerous perspectives on improving learning experiences across and beyond classrooms.

The two days saw three panel discussions, two amazing showcases and 9 parallel sessions that enabled various discussions and brought to fore various ideas and practices for youth to be able to work for jobs of tomorrow, and how the ecosystem of education can enable that.

In his opening note, CEO of Quest Alliance took the audience through trends that mire the education and employability space and set the context for the next two days. He shared the organisation’s commitment to “Integrate self-learning to various ecosystems, facilitate approaches to scaling impact and advocate for what it means to be a learning organization”. Technology plays a crucial role in enabling self-learning, which is the ideology of Quest Alliance. Punya Mishra, Associate Dean & Professor, Arizona State University took this thought forward in his keynote said ‘Most technology is not designed for educational purposes - for classrooms. We can redefine them in the ways we want. Repurposing is a creative and innovative concept’.

In the keynote on day two, Kiran Bir Sethi, Founder - Riverside School and Design for Change elucidated on reshaping learning experiences and shared how building aware, enabled and empowered young people who graduate with a ‘I can’ mindset can transform communities. She said, “There needs to be empathy in designing a framework for education. The ‘who’ and the ‘why’ are missing from the conversation of education in India”.

Panel discussions emphasized the future of work, education, youth employability, reimagining 21^st century classroom, learning through the lens of digital fluency, career counseling and adapting to a changing job market. The sessions highlighted how women can be equal contributors, creators and architects of India’s workforce and economic growth. Several leading CSR representatives from Accenture, Cisco, JP Morgan, NASSCOM Foundation and LinkedIn among others were present both on the panels and in the audience to share their views. Quest and Accenture India marked 10 years of their partnership at the Summit with an insightful conversation on mission alignment and co-creation of social change models. Quest released the blended learning model for youth employability in India that is based on the Skills to succeed program that has been co-created with Accenture.

Master classes were intense sessions on innovations in education technology that enable self-learning, career development models, and school dropout prevention as well as how to build government partnerships to scale-up these models. These classes were facilitated by both Quest and external thought leaders.

The primary focus of the summit is to enable a dialogue on diverse aspects shaping the education and skills divide, to build a broad-based partnership with organizations, educators, teachers, trainers and the industry to shift the paradigm and explore new learning approaches and platforms that consciously develop all round skills and capabilities. 

About QUEST Alliance

Founded in 2005, Quest Alliance is uniquely positioned to address the challenges of 21st century learning and jobs. Quest is fuelled by research, strengthened by partnerships and driven by innovation and technology. We enable learners with the freedom to drive life-long learning experience in a fun and impactful manner using our signature blended learning curriculum that develops 21st century life, work and digital skills for children & youth. We work closely with teachers and educators to bring about a mind-shift from teaching to facilitation through peer learning & data driven decision-making systems. We bring together diverse stakeholders. Over the last 10 years our work has demonstrated significant improvements in learning outcomes leveraging strengths of the non-profit, corporate sector and development agencies. www.questalliance.net

About Quest2Learn

Quest 2 Learn 2018 (www.quest2learn.net) is an annual summit organized by Quest Alliance, a non-profit trust working to bridge the education and skills divide by enabling self-learning for young learners. The platform brings together educators, design thinkers, organisations, CSR leaders, technologists and government to discuss the issues plaguing the education sector, which result in wide disparities between skill sets and requirements. Quest designs scalable and replicable solutions across three programs: Anandshala – works to create joyful schools; MyQuest – focuses on career development for youth; and MasterCoach – builds trainers as 21st Century change agents.