Newly developed educational programme named the ‘Otermans Institute’, created by Brunel University London alumni, won a Global Leaders' Summit award for innovation in education and aims to up-skill millions of students in South A
On the 23 January 2020, recent alumnus and former Student Union Vice-President, Dev Aditya, was honoured with a Global Leaders' Summit 2020 trophy for his venture ‘Otermans Institute’ (OI). The award was given for entrepreneurship in the category for best innovation in education in India.
The prestigious award ceremony was honoured by his Excellency the Governor of West Bengal in the city of Kolkata, India. Dev Aditya was also previously awarded the ‘Bengal’s Pride Award’ at the House of Lords in July 2019 for his community driven work and the projected social impact of this venture.
OI aims to up-skill millions of students in their formative years through EQ driven soft skills and transferable skills training – which is seriously lacking in the countries where the venture is currently operational; Nepal, Bangladesh and several parts of India. The curriculum is tailor made for each country, with dedicated trainers and 24/7 teaching support to help monitor students' progress.
The latest teaching methods will be researched and developed in the UK. Those heavily involved in the project are PhD Researcher, Gerard Jansen, from the College of Design, Engineering and Physical Sciences and Lecturer and former Student Union President, Dr Pauldy Otermans from the College of Health and Life Sciences at Brunel.
“While western countries are working hard to develop their workforce for Industrial Revolution 4.0, this form of training is virtually non-existent for the vast majority of over 300 million students in India alone and millions more in its neighbouring countries,” said Dr Otermans.
“The lack of these skills has been sighted as a primary cause for the region's highest graduate unemployment in over five decades.”
Over the past five months, OI has started operations in five new states of India and has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government to work with many government schools and institutions in the state of Uttarakhand in India.
Reported by:
Simone McNichols-Thomas,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 265219
simone.mcnichols-thomas@brunel.ac.uk