Media Release
Udupi, Oct 23: The challenge of getting jobs for college students has always been very high. New technologies like AI are expected to have a major impact on jobs due to a few critical reasons which will affect freshers directly.
These are:
High level of automation, resulting in less entry level jobs.
Reduced recruitment due to less requirements because of AI process efficiencies.
Outdated skills for Freshers as the business landscape changes faster than what statutory authorities and institutions can put on syllabus.
However, these challenges are being addressed on a war footing in the USA and Europe. The way they are doing it is using the latest and cutting-edge AI and Simulations based training programmes to bring student skills to a new level of job-readiness.
Although AI is great, it is also very expensive. This is particularly the case if you use it with AI Avatars for role-play scenarios, or, the latest AI movie role-play scenarios which is still in the process of being launched by ChatGPT (Sora), Meta (EMU), and others.
Institutions and Universities in the USA and Europe have managed to enhance their students’ skill sets by collaborating with major multinationals who are creating these expensive programmes for their own staff by getting similar programmes for their students.
Meta (Facebook) itself has partnered with over 60 US Universities for training using AI & Simulations. Normally, these type of training programmes are used by high end companies, and data shows that 75% of Fortune 500 companies are using Simulations to train their staff.
Even in the Middle East, AI & Simulation training using role-plays scenarios with avatars and not actors has not yet permeated into the market for the corporate sector, let alone Institutions and Universities. However, ZillionPathways and its dynamic CEO, Ronald Olivera has been in the forefront of using AI & Simulation based training to improve and enhance the skill sets of his clients in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These innovative programmes are even profiled in US sites like Fox News, which has over 67 million viewers in the USA.
Being from the South Kanara / Udupi region, Ronald felt that these programmes would help students tremendously, and decided to subsidize programmes to bring them within the reach of colleges to ensure that their students gain an advantage, particularly those colleges in tier 2 cities as they face a disadvantage compared to the metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai.
For this initiative, he had tremendous support from the famous philanthropist, Michael D’Souza who was also committed to help students, particularly disadvantaged students improve their skills to allow them to compete with the best in the market. According to Ronald Olivera, “We all owe a lot to our institutions in South Canara, particularly the non-profit Institutions who have done sterling services for generations with minimum recompense, and offering such programmes which are comparable to the best in the world to help students is almost like a mission to me.”
Milagres College Kallianpur, with its innovative thinking principal, Dr Vincent Alva, was the first college to grab this opportunity. According to Dr Alva, “The programme was conducted on the October 15 and 16 of and was attended by over 50 students and 20 staff and was a resounding success. It impressed all the participants, and I am convinced that such programmes are absolutely vital for skill enhancement”.
The programme was eclectic and covered a range of skills which would help students to the maximum advantage. The modules are all developed by Zillionpathways who uses AI avatars for actual real-time role-play scenarios. These scenarios are created by industry experts from around the world and experts from Ivy League Universities also contribute to the creation of these scenarios, so they are done by the best and are comparable to any programmes that the Fortune 500 companies have to train their staff.
In fact, following Milagres College Kallianpur’s path, a lot of renowned Institutions and Universities are looking to add these programmes to skill their students. In the true human spirit, which is heartening, there is also interest from alumni and non-profit associations to assist in helping more students in institutions, particularly in 2nd tier cities and rural areas avail of these programmes.
The programme was delivered by Ronald Olivera himself who is a world-renowned public speaker and corporate trainer and has trained over 5,000 people in his career. In his own words, “Although these programmes are doing exceedingly well in the Gulf, I still try to dedicate reasonable time to see if I can get them to colleges starting with South Kanara / Udupi, as this is really a worthwhile investment in the next generation which will reflect on us.”
As a famous author said, “The best way to predict the future is to invest in it”. And investing in these programmes for students in 2nd tier cities and rural areas will just help all stakeholders towards a better future.
