25 February,2015 08:14 AM IST | | Soma Das
Purple Squirrel Eduventures is a city-based start-up which conducts industrial visits and educational tours for students across India. They plan to create an app where students can directly sign up for such tours
Industrial visits are conducted across the country and showcase the nuances of various fields
If experience is the key to knowledge, then industrial visits are integral to learning the ropes. Making this easier for students is Purple Squirrel Eduventures (PSQ), a start-up that hosts curated industrial visits and educational tours. They are also working on a model where students can directly coordinate such trips.
Industrial visits are conducted across the country and showcase the nuances of various fields
Their current tours are targetted at graduate students and span across industries like media, engineering, management, IT, cloud computing and entertainment production. They also give students exposure to unconventional careers, like the job of a wine sommelier, as well as conduct trips to find out how NGOs function and to offices of upcoming start-ups.
Started in September 2013, PSQ was founded by Aditya Gandhi (25), an IIT Bombay alumnus with an M Tech, Computer Science and Engineering degree and Sahiba Dhandhania (22), a gold medalist with Economics (Hons) from Christ University, Bangalore. PSQ was incubated by the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay.
Founders (left-right) Sahiba Dhandhania and Aditya Gandhi
Gandhi elaborates, "We need to bridge the gap between industry and academia. Direct coordination fell into place when colleges, who had a semblance of industrial visits, used to conduct this as an annual affair, across faculties. We researched the students curriculum to create an itinerary with department heads that suited their future."
Dhandhania explains that during the course of their work lives they noticed an undercurrent of frustration among professionals around their choices. "Two out of 10 were doing what they believed in. Barely four out of 10 were strongly holding themselves back from jumping jobs. Our research revealed unhealthy career choices as the problem."
PSQ plans to launch an app where students can enroll directly for visits: "We are moving towards building a business to consumer (B2C) platform and an app for students to directly profile themselves. By the new fiscal year, we hope to do away with the B2B model," states Gandhi.
Their tours target graduate students across industries
At present, PSQ does industrial visits to seven hubs: "These are determined by the concentration of industries. Ahmedabad and Anand are famous for cooperatives and social enterprises; Delhi for
e-commerce; Mumbai makes a great BFSI (Banking, Financial services and Insurance) and media hub, while Pune is known for technical and automotive sectors," reveals Dhandhania.
Log on to www.purplesq.com
