Ashwin Ajila is the promoter and managing director of the Bangalore-based iNurture Education Solut-ions Pvt. Ltd (estb. 2005), a company which specialises in developing and delivering industry-specific educational content designed to improve the employability and productivity of youth streaming out of the country’s colleges and universities. iNurture, which has a headcount of 250 — most comprise faculty drawn from industry — prides itself on being the only education enterprise to offer Plus Two school-leavers and graduates full-time undergrad/postgrad degree programmes in association with 15 Indian universities.

Newspeg. iNurture celebrated its eighth anniversary in July by adding the information security, information storage and cloud technology verticals to its portfolio of undergraduate and postgrad programmes. Another cause for celeb-ration is that over the past nine months the company has signed up with seven partner institutions including Jain University, Bangalore; Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Delhi; and Vel’s University, Chennai, among others.

History. A chartered accountant, Ajila articled with KPMG Peat Mavrick, Manchester, UK and acquired a decade’s experience with manufacturing, travel and education companies including KPMG, Fakhro, Bahrain, and Ihot (Internet Holiday and Travel) Pvt. Ltd. However after ten years in employment, Ajila heeded the call to go solo and in the spirit of enlightened self-interest promoted an animation design company under the name and style of ToonSkool Pvt. Ltd after encountering Indian youth certified in animation design struggling to find jobs because they lacked industry-specific skills. In 2010 ToonSkool was renamed iNurture. “Industry experts and HR consultants constantly complained about syllabi being completely out of sync with industry requirements. We discovered a business opportunity in bridging this industry-academia gap,” recalls Ajila.

Currently the company offers a wide range of niche study programmes including animation, mobile applications, creative management and financial services.

Direct talk. “ToonSkool was the first company to conceptualise and roll out the university industry partnership (UIP) model which connects industry and academia. We invest time, money and academic skills to develop syllabuses and content in consultation with industry experts, and offer these curriculums on-campus. These courses certified by full-fledged universities and independent of study programmes run by them, could be B.Sc/B.Tech or an M.Sc/M.Tech designed according to industry specifications,” says Ajila, alumnus of the garden city’s vintage Bishop Cotton Boys’ School and St. Joseph’s College of Commerce. “Thus far we have awarded degrees to 1,000 students and placed over 600 of them. Our target is to certify 20,000 such students over the next five years,” says Ajila.

Tuition fee. Rs.60,000-1.5 lakh per year, payable to the university, a share of which accrues to iNurture.

Future plans. According to Ajila, the idea of preparing graduates for industry by skilling them is increasingly becoming acceptable in Indian academia. “With colleges and universities cooperating readily, our goal is to widen our portfolio to include analytics, design, corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and expand our partner base to 50 universities by 2015. Indian industry urgently needs ready-to-go managers to meet project execution deadlines and raise organisational productivity. We are in the right business at the right time,” says Ajila.

Way to go!

Paromita Sengupta (Bangalore)