We need the WILL to succeed...

24-June-2018 - A pleasant Sunday morning @ The Park Hotel, Navi Mumbai. The occasion - Graduation Ceremony of the Aegis School - PGP Program in Data Science, Business Analytics and Big Data.

The graduands were in full attendance, with the ceremonial gown and the paraphernalia, along with their families - parents, spouse, and kids. Interesting and inspiring stories were shared on how they managed work, family and the learning as they spent long hours and weekends in the campus.

We talk about Work Integrated Learning (WIL) and Work Life Integration (WLI).. and given today's high velocity of technology obsolescence probably we need to see how we can have both WIL and WLI… and we need WILL (Work Integrated Life and Learning) to be successful in our careers.

Interacting with the graduands brought back memories of my PGP days at IIM Bangalore, which was again a work integrated learning program for 2 years.

Gone are the days when one can shepherd his/her career with 25 years of formal education. The 3 box approach to life - Educate-Work-Retire (Waterfall model) is giving way to an agile model, where one can stay relevant as long as he/she can sprint.. and the more sprints we do (educate-work, educate-work, educate-work) the longer our career will be.

To execute the WILL.. one needs to

• have antennas-up to scan the future and prepare ahead
• prioritize work-life-learning and juggle them without dropping them
• be willing to invest time and money

Many who had enrolled for this program, had done one or the other online self-paced e-learning courses, and according to them the missing link in an online course was

• limited or no access to subject matter experts when they needed
• rigor, depth and hands-on experience that one would get in a classroom
• they missed the benefits of experiential sharing from the class participants
• lack of recognition for the e-learning courses - missing external and internal motivation

I think this is where a blended PG program like this at Aegis, delivered in collaboration with IBM, with faculty drawn from academia and industry, and placement support at the end of the program, helps participants to launch their careers on an accelerated growth path. It was heartening to hear many participants share their stories of how they have shifted their job-roles from being a software developer, tester, business analyst to data scientists.

Congratulations to all the participants on successful graduation and demonstrating your WILL to succeed !!!

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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog are my personal point of view and do not in anyway represent that of the organization I work for.