The online learning market in India is set to grow from USD 247 million (around 1.6 million users) in 2016, to eight times that and sit comfortably at USD 1.96 billion (around 9.6 million users) by the year 2021 itself. While reskilling and online education market currently accounts for a significant part of the online education sector, online test preparation is expected to be the fastest growing category. With an explosion of resources becoming more available to the masses by the day, the process of knowledge acquisition and dissemination has never been easier. And if one wishes to sharpen his skills and expand his horizon in the engineering and manufacturing domains through the medium of online learning, Enggenious is the right place to be.
The simplest way to describe Enggenious: it is a company of learning solutions experts in engineering and manufacturing domains. They design and deliver learning solutions for and about automotive, auto-ancillary, power, metal, oil, and gas, and other manufacturing domains. Enggenious addresses the learning needs of all stages – employability, deployability, career advancements, leadership and serve purposes of up-skilling, in-depth knowledge, and expertise. It enables the journey of students as career aspirants to industry leaders, through eLearning, conventional and blended learning ways.
Enggenious is a strategic business unit at SAN Techno Mentors Pvt Ltd. Founded in 2006 by a group of IIT and COEP alumnus with long years of professional experience in diverse industry verticals, SAN Techno Mentors has been into conventional classroom training and mentoring for the engineering and manufacturing companies. Gradually, SAN Techno Mentors became first choice technical training partner for large and medium engineering and manufacturing companies across the world.
SAN Techno Mentors is a part of SAN Group. Established in 1990, it has six companies in product design, electronic manufacturing, industrial automation, data connectivity solutions, instrumentation, and value engineering domains respectively. SAN group has presence in India and the Middle East and works with a global clientele.
With a large pool of subject matter experts (SMEs) with strong industry and brilliant academic backgrounds, experienced instructional designers (IDs) and creative visualizers working together, Enggenious creates meaningfully engaging and lasting learning experiences which are beyond books and theories.
Having worked with large Indian and foreign corporates in this space, Enggenious is ably equipped with the know-how of designing learning solutions for students, freshers, graduate engineering trainees or senior, mid or senior engineers, managers and leaders.
Team now comprises of 60 plus ex-IITs, ex-COEP, PhDs subject matter experts with average 30 plus years of experience in industry and academia. Digital media experts, experienced instructional designers and developers work with those subject and domain experts to create awesome learning experiences.
Leading the Charge
With an industry and academic experience of 35 years, Sudhir Panditrao, Founder-MD of SAN Techno Mentors has always been a passionate trainer. Sudhir completed his Bachelors’ of Engineering (BE) in instrumentation and control from COEP in 1985, and later Masters’ of Engineering (ME) in instrumentation and control from COEP in 2003.
Mangesh Wagh, CEO at SAN Techno Mentors comes from digital technology and media profession with experience of 17 years. BE in production from COEP in 2001, and later PGDBM in marketing from Indus Business Academy in 2005. Mangesh brings in his expertise in digital technologies as content development and delivery platforms and digital media.
eLearning is the need of the hour, a cliché, but true statement. According to the team over at Enggenious, one of their major turn-ons in eLearning has been the creative visualization aspect. The company believes that the core eLearning quality comes from there. For the learner to gain complete clarity on technological/ technical concepts, content needs to be built with excellent creative visualization.
“After going through our courses when the learner says, ‘never thought it was that easy’…that’s the kick we live for,” commented Mr Mangesh Wagh.
A Goal to Inspire Towards
Enggenious impacts top and bottom lines of clients via well-crafted learning solutions. It wants to be that catalyst who work with learning and development (L&D) teams to create and continuously build upon desirable learning culture. On the other side of the spectrum of the industry, there is a great scope to bridge industry-academia expectation gap. “We are working with academic institutes to prepare their future workforce which exceeds industry expectations, rather than setting greatly elevated benchmarks,” said Mr Sudhir Panditrao.
They do this by keeping in mind a few simple mantras to direct their time and energies toward:
- Learning that is beyond just books and theories
- Learning that sticks
- Learning that is joyful experience
- Encouraging the learner to learn continuously
“Having acquired marquee clientele over the years for conventional learning solutions and also for the eLearning and blended learning solutions, we are looking to scale up rapidly in next couple of years,” added Mr Sudhir Panditrao.
Primary Products and Services
Main products/services offered by Enggenious are as listed:
Off-the-shelf eLearning courses – online subscriptions or buying packages
Custom developed eLearning and microlearning courses
Innovative blended learning courses; pre-packaged as well as custom
LMS- (learning management system) based competency assessment solutions; pre-packaged as well as custom
Enggenious learning solutions are created by subject matter experts having global field experience in the subject. Experts who create these courses/solutions are available for training, mentoring and consultancy at site or via web.
Weathering the Storms
There are several challenges faced by EdTech start-ups manoeuvring the trials and tribulations of the industry.
However, according to Enggenious, the challenge that resides at the core is andragogy. And it (Enggenious) is going all out to nail this aspect. The courses need to be meaningful, addressing needs and problems of the learners, showing them the way to pursue their desires. Dumping eLearning courses on employees or students and enforcing them to get the ticks for the completion report will never serve the larger purpose.
“You can deliver less useful content in high quality 3D animation or VR or AR, versus delivering a much more meaningful stuff in a text blog; you know what will make the difference in learner’s life. Yes, interactivity, engagement, overall production quality brings a lot of merit but let andragogy be the hero of your solution,” is the word to the wise, from Sudhir Panditrao and Mangesh Wagh.
Riding the Tides of Time
A few more talked about developments in the field of learning solutions, are practices such as gamification, localization, bite-sized-learning pieces, use of AI in the learning management system platforms, interactive videos and much more. Enggenious is looking to create or acquire a comprehensive learning experience platform, with plans to float their content on it.
The company soon plans to create cluster packages of courses, for example, pool of courses for engineering trainees, other one for the beginners in digital manufacturing. “We are localizing a few of our courses in Hindi and other regional languages,” added Mr Sudhir. Elaborating on their perseverance and strive to reach new milestones, Mr. Mangesh commented: “We love what we do. Learning is a joy. Ask anyone. When you learn something new, you are happy. If you have someone who helps you learn well, makes it interesting, is not preachy but a buddy; you will have great time learning.” This is perhaps the same experience and trust which the clients have received over the years.
Enggenious has also adopted global technological trends well. For example, they have mastered digital manufacturing, Industry 4.0 and created comprehensive learning solutions on the same. Very large manufacturing companies have been continuously working with the company to make themselves Industry 4.0 ready.
Based on the target audience and learning objectives, they have created learning solutions of small durations like halfa-day to three months long championship programs. These programs include both synchronous and asynchronous modes – eLearning, live lectures, recorded lectures, hands-on training, interesting online gamified assessments, case solving, hackathons and more.
Aspiring to Make an Impact
The journey of Enggenious has only just begun. Soon, they envision to create an unseen value proposition for engineering and manufacturing domains. Not just learning solutions partner but a learning culture partner for manufacturing companies, individual professionals and even for the students preparing themselves for profession in the engineering fields.
One obvious feature would be use of latest technology and tools to enhance learners’ experience and retention of knowledge. Continuous innovations on fronts of instructional design, delivery, assessments and other aspects of learning – that’s assured. By all measures, Enggenious is all set to keep creating and maximizing joy of learning. “We will impact top lines, bottom lines of the companies with well researched and awesomely built learning offerings,” concluded Mr. Mangesh Wagh.
