SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello, my dear listeners and watchers, and welcome to the Kapil Gupta Career Port Show, your go-to destination for insightful discussions on navigating career paths and unlocking professional success. And today we are thrilled to bring you a special episode featuring Dr. Rajiv Bhishama, a distinguished adventurist and the group MD and CEO of TASA Global Group. Join us as we delve into his remarkable journey, gain profound insights into the world of studying abroad, and uncover the essential tips and advice to help you chart your path to academic excellence and career fulfillment. It's time to embark on an enlightening and empowering conversation that could shape the trajectory of your future. So let's welcome Dr. Rajiv V. Shaman.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Thank you for calling.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Yes, sir. I'm so honored to see you here for accepting my invitation to be part of this podcast. And I'm sure our listeners and watchers will greatly benefit today. And as I've already mentioned, that Dr. Sherma is the group MD and CEO of TASA Global Group, but there's much more to him. His illustrious career spans over three decades, marked by his leadership in the realms of education, HR, and finance. He's the visionary behind several impactful ventures, including TASA Global, TASA Study Abroad, and Career Path to name a few. With a diverse background in engineering, an MBA and a doctorate, Dr. Sherma embodies the epitome of an education entrepreneur, seasoned leader, and technocrat. His commitment to impacting the lives of 5 million youth through his ventures underscores his unwavering dedication to purity of purpose. Today, Dr. Sherma joins us to share his invaluable insights into studying abroad, guiding aspiring students towards a brighter future. And be ready with your noting equipment, as this episode will have tons of valuable nuggets for you to note down. So over to Dr. Rajiv Sharma. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here. I'm sure I'm so excited today to see you on my podcast. I'm sure this will be a golden podcast for all those study abroad aspirants because you will give first hand knowledge, students. And so, how are you feeling to be here?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I'm feeling very excited, Kapil G. And uh, so one there is one called Kapil Sharma Show, and there's a now Kapil Gupta show. So I'm at least I've not seen Kapil Sharma Show now, but I've reached Kapil Gupta show.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

So you know thank you very much, and sir, it's the honor is all mine because I've been following you for so long, but now even I'll get to learn a lot through this podcast, it'll be a learning for me as well, and this will be a way that I'll be able to peek into your life journey. Yes, thank you very much. So without wasting any more time, I would like to you know begin with this. And as it's customary, that I want to know about your journey. So, because you have such extensive experience in the education sector, so I would like to know what motivated you to you know go this way to establish study abroad and tasa global growth.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So it's a uh Kapilji, it's a very long story. Uh, but I've tried to you know shorten the story. Um after my engineering and MBA, uh, I always in fact, after my engineering, I always believed in the uh story of India. Uh in fact, it's irony that I am in I am currently helping kids to go abroad, but I personally did not want to go abroad. I got admission then for my MBA in Georgia Tech, one of the leading UC then, but I said that if I leave, and this I'm talking of 35 years back, okay, 30, 32 years back. I said, if I leave, um I would not be able to come back. Right. And I need to be here and do something in India. So that's why I decided to do my MBA in India. And as I kept on working, as you know, that I for the first 10 years I worked uh in a company called Apptech, which was the international Indian MNC in the space of education, and then I worked in the in the space of finance with the topmost companies. But something has been on my okay, how can I contribute? How can I contribute? So in around 2006-7, see, I'm a very reader, but in 2006, 7 I came in connect with Dr. Abdul Qara, okay, and his books and other people. So one sentence of mine which actually started triggered this thought. What I'm talking today, he said that the biggest challenge to India is not poverty, it is educated, unemployed youth. He said that is a bigger challenge than poverty. So that started making made me start thinking what could be done in this space. Okay, by the way, unknowingly, very early, around eight, nine years back, unknowingly, I had bought a uh a big land uh in my place where I where steady spent most of the time Baroda uh for making a school. So it was there in part of mind at some point of time I will impact the youth. But most time I'd like something of a school, and you know, I need to share my experience. I think that was in my mind, but then Dr. Adruk Alam said, No, it has to be much bigger. Okay, a school will impact a thousand, two thousand, three thousand students. What can I do to impact lacks of students from this part of the world, especially India? So that's the first trigger which came. Then I when I probed further, the second thought which I when I researched and found out was that India as a country, and obviously I'm a very, very strong patriotic Indian. It's not that anybody else is less, but I have a very, very strong feeling in terms of contributing, much more. Uh, I always believe in punching above my weight. Okay, that's had been my concept all the time. So when I looked at India has been a superpower earlier, okay, but our superpower is very it's a soft superpower, right? Uh unlike the hard superpower through through dollars, through military, their control. Ours has been soft, uh, you know, super power. I said, what are the if you look at the three areas where India has a so has a chances or can become a superpower? What are those three? First is through our spirituality. So, for example, yoga can really change the world, it is changing the world. The second is obviously your Bollywood and movies.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Okay, right, right.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

And the third is our youth, our people. So this is soft power. And if you see, you know, the top five uh 500 companies in the world, they say of the top seven uh IT giants, two of the uh companies being headed by an Indian. Now a country also is heading by Indian, like UK, right? Uh all of this said, okay, this is a second area for me. Then what I what I did, I said key, okay. See, there are past. I said I need to find my purpose. So by the time it was 910, 20 2009 and 10, I found my purpose. Okay, see, you have a passion, but the purpose is the highest area where you can be. So I find my purpose. I need to do some work in the space of education and uh international education. So that's where you know my thought process of you know, but Tasa, you know, study abroad and global this group came about. So I'm cutting short my uh let's say uh long story into small one where it's but but now it's not a business for me, it's my purpose, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Right, very true. But once you told me that uh you went on to setting up the private university, can you just share some details about it? What was that journey about?

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Right. So this was the time when I was working with aptech. Okay, aptech is an Indian multinational, and I was still working. Uh, I was not on my own, and this is year 2000. Now I have been uh you know handling aptec worldwide, uh, but I could clearly foresee that the formal education was coming over, right? And the future was formal education. Aptech was an informal education. Now, currently we call them vocational companies, but you know, it was an informal education, there was nothing more vocational then at this point of time. So when I said and uh the private newsti act had just come up in a few states, so there were some deemed news, there were private colleges, but there were no university. UNC was supposed to be of government, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

I said this is a very good way where I can take aptech and change the way. And as you can understand, I come from um let's say vocational education or a training edu uh company background, employment is the topmost in our mind because we don't have the uh didn't have the luxury of you know giving a degree without jobs, you know. Okay, so employment was the topmost thing. So at the time, this idea germinated in my mind. He let's make make a university, and apptech at the time was a listed company, okay, and not only listed in India, it was listed abroad as a GDS or listed. So it had to be something which had to be worldwide. So I created a business model where we uh took permission, made a university in India. First university, it was a very high-end tech university. Now we're talking of tech. At that time, I made a tech university specializing in the space of tech, made some five colleges, uh, made some uh what I call this distance education or centers in 16 countries, and this entire thing was made. I raised money uh from UK, around 60 uh million uh pounds were raised, and but the challenge was heavy because it was an uncharted view. To give an example, I even wrote the first statutes of the university. It it means first I made a society because it has to be under a non-uh non-for-profit area, made a society. So I was a secretary of society, wrote the first statutes in with my own hand. The it means a constitution, constitution because uh a university is like a like a country, so you made to make the constitution, how to craze the money, how to raise the funding, you know. I had the backup, but I had to raise the money. Even the curriculum we made was very fantastic, very far for even if you launch that curriculum today. If you learn it today, it's it is like you have it was 20 years back, I made it for today, you know. Uh that requirement. The faculty, it was very difficult for faculty to convince to move from a state colleges to a private unity.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Okay, so everything was a challenge. Let me be, and it was a beautiful journey. Let me be very, very frank with you. It was a beautiful journey. I learned a lot, I met a lot of some beautiful people, very knowledgeable people. I was able to bring a lot of good, knowledgeable, esteemed people as part of the unsty. Um, and uh, I thank my star that I got that opportunity. Let me put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah, but apte was a really well-known name in those days, right? Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Uh you know, they're known, but they're all part of ApTech company.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. They uh they have diversified into different fields now, right? Because in those days, uh, you are as you rightly said, because when we used to do, let's say, graduation, then afterwards we were always looking for professional courses so that we can land up in a good job. So that was the scenario in those days.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Okay, and you have multiple hats, right? So, and you being an engineer yourself, how do you envision the role of technology in shaping the future of education, particularly for students aspiring to study abroad?

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Okay, uh, first thing, it is going to change dramatically. It is changing, and in the future, it is going to change dramatically. Um, in fact, I was in one of the uh uh forums a couple of days back, and one very esteemed panelist told a beautiful work. He this is going to be pre pre-Christ and post-Christ. So this is going to be pre-COVID and post-COVID. That's not the difference, and the biggest difference is actually coming in the school education, right? Okay, in higher education, it is just folding, okay. But the magic maximum difference has come in school, is going to come in school, you know. The way the students are behaving is going to be very different. Okay, but let's uh let's say focus on higher education. In higher education, everything for we do in study abroad is changing. Okay. First, how do we attract students? It's changing earlier. Very few, if even if you had a website that was more than sufficient for you to attract people, no more. Okay, the way the Instagrams and your Snapchat and what on YouTube and maybe like channel your yours is what is coming up, right? To enlighten the student, give them information, help uh companies, university to attract or you know, give give their offering to the student. So, first change is happening there, and it'll still change dramatically, like I'm repeating to you, right? Then, second is the one of the most difficult parts currently is matching your program and unity with with your background, right? Your career. To just give you an example, the world has 17,000 universities and a couple of lakhs of courses. Okay, for example, if you do if you Google MBA, you'll have thousands of MBA coming in. Now, which MBA from which unity, what is right for you, you know, is a difficult proposition. So I feel it's not coming yet, it's coming in. Lot of you know, uh technology like AI and other things will be used to do your matching, right? We are also working on the same. So, second, your matching of your program and things like this will come. The third applications. I still remember just before COVID, every day in my office, I used to get hundreds of bundles of applications, you know, with all the documentation, all gone. It's completely become online, okay? Completely become online. But I'm just talking three years, the difference has changed because you couldn't do you couldn't send the physical copies to you, let's say US and UK and Canada, right? Now it's completely online. So the process itself of application is uh uh changing. Then the student selection, you'll be surprised, and this is for the students. Your CV and everything you make has to be very, very different now. It has to be SEO enabled, right? Because the first thing anybody chooses you is through your CV, which is done by a machine, it's not done by a person now, no more. The machine which is picking you up, okay. So even that, you know, the student selection is changing. The course conduct now it is accepted that a part of the current curriculum can be online, right? In fact, if you know in COVID, everything became online because it became physical, but still, if you go abroad, you can actually pick up one of your subjects. If you're taking three subjects online and learn online, so the way the course conduct is also happening, and the most important for this is for students, the definition has changed now. Earlier, if you knew the language, you were literate. Then came an era, and still which is running on is digital literacy. If you know digital, that's your level literacy. The latest which is getting added now, this I'm talking of next couple of years, is called data literacy. So three levels of literacy are coming up. Not only sufficient that you read, write, and understand, okay, you have to have digital literacy and a data literacy. Okay, so the skills being required by the corporate changing dramatically. Dramatically, all right. And this message to all my fellow uh professors, counselors, who are looking that the way now uh the technology, the kids are going to use the technology is also going to be very different. We ourselves will have to change dramatically. So uh I think that the right description before Christ, after Christ, so now this is before COVID and after COVID, technology is changing dramatically and it will change dramatically.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Right, right. Agree, fully agree with that. But now, see, whenever parents come to us, uh they have different concerns. And if I talk about youngsters, they are more into just going abroad. But parents have a different level of concerns because they feel it's very costly and the safety concerns are there. So, because obviously not every parent is in a position to go along with the child or even to drop him to the university as the criteria is because some how if we are just moving to different cities, usually parents take along kids for the university as well. But when it's abroad, the thing is different because obviously they have financial concerns. So, what advice would you give to Indian students planning to you know pursue higher education abroad and considering these factors like choice of country or the course selection or even financial planning?

SPEAKER_00 18:19

In this area, uh I have some strong views compared to what is happening around. And uh and uh I've been holding this view from the last five years, and I'm finding it getting now endorsed abroad. And what's my view? See, when you go abroad, you are going abroad for your career, right? Though uh I I accept there are set of people which are just going for a for a heck of immigration, so I'm not talking of that customer. See, there are three levels of customers uh or people going abroad, one who just want to go for immigration, second level people who are from average plus, okay, they want to go to uh study abroad so that they can make they can get a job there, okay. And there are topmost students which only want to go if they get into the dream unstream or the topmost unstream, what they want, you know, which really makes it. So there are three levels of people, okay. This what I'm seeing is more prevalent for level two and level three, okay. For level gun, level one, whichever country gives them the you know easiest immigration, like earlier it's used to be Canada, okay. By the way, it was US, then Australia, then uh Canada, now something else will emerge. So that will keep on happening, you know. But uh, so this is uh advice for level two and level three. So for these people, why you're going abroad? You're going abroad for your career, right? Uh, so it is important the first area you should look at is your career. So choose your career. Okay. Uh, by the way, we have a scientific tool through which we help students to find what could be the best career for which they are born. Okay, we call it a brain mapping uh tech and technology which BG has created. Right, but after what you find out what your right career you want to make your career next 20, 30, 40 years, the second area for you is look at a program. Find out what could be the best program to add to that career of yours, then go for university, right? And in university, also, I don't uh recommend just look at the overall ranking, look at the ranking of your program because you are going for that career, that's more important, right? And then look at the country. So, country for us comes the last, that's point number one. So, our point of view is dramatically different compared to the normal way which is uh current happening, and I'm a very strong advocate for this. Now, if you look at the universities abroad, everybody, and in fact, the there's a back-to-back surveys have come in last one year where students have started giving career as the topmost importance. Okay, so that's the first thing what you need to do. Second thing very important for the parents. See if a kid wants to go to IIT or need, you start four years back. You start in nine standard. If I'm talking of you know a school student, okay. Why not for study abroad? It's also a career, it's also an area, so you have to start early. Our recommendation is minimum 18 months, i or ideally 36 months. It means three years, four years earlier. You have to start preparing for your study abroad journey, right? Third, as you because as you start early, you can build up your profile. Build up profile for what so that you get admission into better universities, better programs. This also gives time to the parents for financial planning. You know, if you have three to four years for your financial planning, though we recommend still very early, but anyway, parents are prepared. Three to four years for study abroad, uh, financial planning is also a good time. So that's why planning earlier. Also give you a lot of time to do your research. See when you go to buy a refrigerator, how much research do you do? You go online, you do this, you ask 10 people, you know, you ask everybody. But here, when you're going to spend and you talk of your career, in fact, I keep I tell parents a carry decision, if not more, is as important as marriage for a child. Yeah, whatever career the child is choosing is going to affect three three generations his own generation, his parent generation, and his family, the child's uh family. At some point, it's going to happen. So when you do research, see then this elimination of you know safety factors, all of this happens, and obviously, uh uh you can do a limited research, okay. And then obviously, people like us come in, which are global career consultants where we help kids do much more to deep dive, detail thing, but early. I'm repeating to you if you come late, you cannot do much research, right? So that's what we we recommend to the parents. This is a way, so study abroad is is not a decision instinct, it's a planned decision, right? It's a planned career move. What you're going to make, it's not an accidental, which is unfortunately happening for most of the people currently.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Right, right. Okay, and uh at backstage, we were having you know some discussion about uh you were telling me about that tribe of advisors and all. So, can you just shed some light on the significance of uh developing that strong ecosystem you were mentioning? That a tribe of advisors and community of career advocates, and how will it actually help youth in their journey, in their academic or professional journey?

SPEAKER_00 23:50

Right, right. Thank you. Um, and um uh it's a very interesting question. Um the reason see it's a very strong statement I'm making. The statement is that we are actually our in our school system, we are setting up our children to become failure right from school. Why in developed countries, a thing of career starts from fifth standards. Okay, you take Japan, Germany, USA. Okay, the government of India has recommended that for every 258 student there should be one career counselor. India requires 19 lakh career counselors. Okay, India has only one lakh career counselors, out of which 18,000 are trained and certified. Okay, you happen to be one of them. The rest of them are designated teachers who have been made career counselors. So kids don't know in school, in college, also they don't know. Okay, they choose career for some other reason than what their own potential is. Either it's parents which want, either for because of friends, relatives, Google. You talk of everything rather than a professional advice, because they talk of queries, right? I'll give you one more data. See, every year 15 lakh engineers come out out of India. You know, engineering is supposed to be the one of the best career paths somebody can take, right? My 50% of people coming to me are students from engineering background, they don't want to continue post-engineering after they've done that. Okay, now this entire thing cannot be done by me alone. So I have created a purpose. Okay, I need to impact 50 lakh students, which is a five million students. What I'm talking of now that cannot be done alone, it can only be done with like-minded people. Hence, it is very important for us, for me, for the organization, that we need to go together. So that's why we have we have taken care that we will have a tribe of advisors. I've given it a number by the way, which I don't state on my linked. I'm looking at 10,000 advisors, active advisors, let me put that way, working with us along with us and helping this kid. By the way, India requires 19 lakh. I'm not talking about 19 lakh. I'm saying uh I I hope some we will uh we do majorly, but I'm just talking of 10,000 of them. But 10,000 active making an impact, even if one at one um advisor impacts 500 students, job done. You know, 5 million students. As for my purpose is concerned of my life, I think I would have achieved that.

SPEAKER_01 26:37

Right, right, very true, very true. And this is actually a very interesting way of uh uh it's interesting thought, and I'm sure if this gets implemented in the right way, it'll make a huge, huge change in this uh sector and a great you know help to the students because they'll be able to approach career counselors in a much much better way in a professional way, also.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

It's a professional way, it's it's a see the most important is a professional way, professional way, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

And in your opinion, what are the key skills and qualities that students should cultivate to thrive in an increasingly globalized and competitive academic landscape? Because you are you just mentioned that it's changing very fast, and so how is a student now, for example, a student is still at school, not aware of such you know changing uh changes taking place at the global level. So, how he will get to know this, all right.

SPEAKER_00 27:41

Um, this is by the way, an excellent question, and uh uh I hope a lot of people dwell on answer these questions along with me. See, first thing you need to uh uh accept, and which people have started accepting. Again, I will quote I was in an ET education event, and uh by mistake, I went into the track which is a school track instead of the higher education track, right? And I heard speakers, practically I heard some four-five of them. Everybody was saying and accepting today's children are global citizens, so that's the first thing you need to accept. I am a global citizen, okay. Right? That's the first recognition you need to have. If you recognize that, so what we have done now, and it's a work in progress, but I can I'm just you know advanced in taking you. We are creating something called global employability quotient. Okay, we have created already this already this test in pen and paper, uh, very shortly to be available for people for free. Okay, they can actually judge themselves how global employable they are. Okay, now uh just to give you a preview of that, these are 12 criteria on which we have third key. You need to be if you want to be a global citizen, a global employable person, in this 12 uh areas you should be uh there. So I'll give you a couple of examples. But first, the curriculum or the course you have to do has to do with something latest, okay, which is future. Okay, so that's one area. Or let's say um, apart from what you're learning in a college, you need to add skills which I call as micro degrees and micro certifications. Okay, by the way, micro degrees our brand, uh, as you can see in the background, okay. One of the brands that we have, you need to add those skills which are for the future because your course curriculum may not be able to change so fast, right? But you add those uh skills to that. Third, areas like by the way, I'm first talking of college, then I'll go to schools. Um, internships, right? Very, very important. You need to have internship, and specifically, if you can do some global internship, even if you're not able to go abroad to internship, virtual internship abroad will really add value to you. Okay, next area is language and communication. Now, if you Google also and say what is the basic first thing you need to do as a global citizen, it will say language. So your communication and language has to be excellent. First level, ideally English. There's no doubt about that, because if we're going abroad, you need to have be good in English and at least one more language, and especially if you're going to countries which are non-English speaking countries, apart from the four typically everybody goes to talks of four major countries, which is US, Canada, UK, and Australia. But there are a lot of other countries which are good, a lot of European countries, Asia-Pack countries, you know, which have good education system, Nordic countries where you can kids and go. So your global employability skills is going to decide. Now, let's say uh digital literacy was a global employment skill, let's say uh one year down the line. The future, as I said, is going to be AI skills. Okay, so that will keep on changing, but it it means you keep on doing that additional certification for you to be latest abreast about it, about that skill which is coming, which are short certifications, right? You see, you cannot go back and finish off, do your engineering again, but you are a lifelong learner which you can go about doing it. I'll I and you'll be surprised how things change. And when you talk of soft skill, you know what is the topmost soft skill being required by the employers currently? Can you guess? Latest report is just come storytelling. Storytelling. Okay, storytelling has is the latest soft skill an employer is looking for in a candidate. Okay, so things this will change, but then you have to learn. I'm talking of mine. See, my skills, I um very early, I was not a good public speaker, then I became a public speaker. Suddenly, COVID came, all this you know, platform came. I was able to talk, you know, like I'm talking to you, you know, uh impromptu and things like this. But when it came to recording, I I had a cold feet, okay. Self-recording, I learned that now. You you will actually find that in the last six, seven months, a lot of reels of mine have come up, right? Okay, I'm still not at my best, but you know, I'm trying to learn, so I'm learning the skills. When at you know, at my age, I am willing to learn the skills. Why not the students? Now coming to schools. See, there's a very clear way where the education happens in school, where the an education happens in colleges. In a school, you are taught to learn, it means that you're taught to keep on learning, whereas in college you are taught to earn right basic pedagogic difference, okay. So, in a school for a school children, right, they should just learn the basics because they should never learn. In fact, if you look at any entrance exam, which is an international exam, even in the in India, what they look at the subject is 9th, 11, 12th. Okay, even if you're giving a cat for your master's, okay, your content verbal is what of 10th and 12th only, right? Even if you're giving GR GMAT, is the same level. So, till a school level, you keep on learning what is there, learn that adaptability. That's most important. Okay, so that you are able to um learn, learn to learn, let me put that way. You learn to learn. That's what a school education needs to things will keep on changing so that you can keep on adapting. You know, that's my message to both school kids and the uh college kids.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Definitely, definitely. And it's uh it's actually the right way to approach uh your career, right? And but still, you know, there's many misconceptions, myths surrounding the study abroad, because uh most of the information uh I would say a normal resident would have is through newspapers or through media, and it has all kinds of information, right? So for example, uh nowadays uh it's about Canada, and people are now feeling as if it's this country is no longer safe for the kids, then some uh incident might happen in US or Australia, and that might get so much exaggerated in the media that people have so how to deal with that, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:45

Um first, I think um at some point you can have a look. I have created uh uh a series of reels on myths and the right answers. Okay, okay. So I will talk of a few of them uh here. See, there are there are a few uh myths, topmost myths, of course, security and safety, one of them. I will take that that question uh maybe after two or three uh myths. But the first myth okay, people have for especially study abroad, I'm talking of that is only for rich people, okay. It's expensive for rich people. The first not so true. We as TASA we have programs right from five lakh rupees to a couple of crores, so it's not, but we there's a range. Point number one. There are a lot of ways. For example, we have a program we are in Europe, we are able to get 100% scholarship to students, 100% living expenses, right? Or let's say in some uh getting admission public colleges, okay, where only living expenses require which people can work, they are around 20 hours and work. So, first, yes and no, it can be expensive, it cannot be expensive, it depends on the on the child. There are ways to go about doing it. One first basic myth, second myth is only for bright students, not so okay. There was a time where only ITNs used to go abroad, no more, right? They are every level of colleges which are available, and uh, mind you, uh, average college uh or a university abroad is much higher compared to our level. I'm talking about quality of education, right? So, by the way, we all know that uh when you talk of quality of creation, only some top colleges are taking care of, you know. The rest, you know, there's a need for improvement for them. They are doing it, but I'm saying, you know, need for improvement. So it's not that needs to go, you need to write, even if you are above average student, right? There is a space uh for you. Third very thing, when especially people don't go for top four and other things, is for example, Germany. Hey, I need to know no German. No, your program is in German, but yes, while you are there, you should learn German. If you want to step back, you have to you have to learn that latent language. Okay, don't you think it is it happens in India? If I go to Panyab, right? If I have to stay back, I have to know Panyabi know. If I go to Tamil Nadu, I need to know Tamil. It's not about for studying, I need to know Tamil. I'm going to English medium school, right? So uh this is the uh uh perception they have. The other perception, as I said, now safety. See, there are some rules for every country which you need to follow. Okay, I'll give you a typical example, New York, okay, one of the best cities in the world. Okay, everything you know you've heard only good things, but you'll be surprised that one street it is safe, but a street behind that is not a safe, which is known to local people. You should understand that you should not try something else, right? In fact, to about safety and these countries, I I plan to make a very separate video on on that how to go about tackling it. I'm trying to bring solutions. Okay, so safety would you say that US is not is not safe? It is safe, one of the very safe countries in the world, right, is is you can not save, it is safe. Okay, but you have to be then there are local laws, local um, you know, uh tradition which you need to follow. Okay, if you do that, then you are safe, and still something happened, then I can only say some unfortunate accidents happened everywhere. Okay, so there are a lot of myths. I have only tackled, you know, uh four and four or five of them uh at this point of time. I think there are um 13, 14 of them, which uh I hope I have answered your question.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Yeah, but now I want to add uh a few more things to it because there's one more uh misconception about the uh this cultural difference. Many parents, you know, from uh two Thai cities or three tire cities, they're very much you know averse to that that cultural change. Now, what do you have to say on that?

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Uh see you have to uh and this is for the parents, as such, even if you don't want to, your kids are getting exposed today to what you what we call is not Indian culture. Are your kids not seeing OTT? Are your kids not seeing movies? Okay, they are seeing everything, okay, so they know you may be naive enough to say that they don't know. Okay, is that you have to build your value system of the child and your family? Okay, this helps people to take not only in in the culture editing, in taking decision in your life. See, beyond a point, you cannot control your kids, it's a fact of life. Up see, okay, you know, at harage undergrad. By the way, uh, anyway, I my father so strongly believed that I studied in hostal post-montel for my engineering, right? So you have to make your family values, and and by the way, this is not nothing to study abroad. This is data to for your family and family values. Okay, make your help your kids to take right decisions, that's more important. Up see, there are um, by the way, there are many blogs my uh uh partner colleague has written on on uh you know specially school kids, young kids. There are different types of parentings. Okay, there's one type of parenting which is which we call as a denial parenting. Right? Right, they are anyway going to school. Okay, other is you enable them to take the right decision, they should know the difference between right and wrong and what is going to affect them and their life and career. In our observation, when you help children make their career goal, make them abreast of it, unko up direction, or unka kutkunato direction. So but you got a baj and you have to believe in that, right? So this is a basic uh changes in parenting, and it's got both deep-rooted uh sir Indian tradition, and I'll go back again, slightly longish answer. Earlier, we used to have joint families, okay? So somebody used to be the guiding factor. We have nuclear families, one child or two child at best. Like I have one child now. Whom they go to guide to, right? And usually these are they, you know, um either friends of parents are very friendly or they are you know very strict, you know, they went different style, different families. Now, whom do the kids go to? So they they go to a friend of theirs as a guide. Now he's also as young as as this guy, what guidance will they be able to have? Hence, it's very important in this era. Things like external gurus, which I've according to me are career counselors or guides or you know, right teachers, eyes become very, very important. Somebody to guide a child, right? And one of the basic things we should do for a child, in fact, we uh we do our assessment and goal setting in eight. We prefer doing an eighth standard. We do it earlier also, but eighth, you should do your goal goal setting of a child. What I need to do 20, 30 down the line, and once we believe that the child is has his goal ready, okay. You are enabling him to take decisions, giving him the right culture, right input, right? Kids do well, they understand, even if they go through step, they come back because they are missing their goal, right? Right. So, this is my advice to parents.

SPEAKER_01 43:17

And now I want to you know share something, and in fact, I have shared with you multiple times in the past also, and this is something very close to my heart. As in India, you know, whosoever goes for the science stream either wants to be an engineer or be a doctor, right? I have seen many parents saying that science lilo. And I have seen multiple times students you know opting, preparing for J or NEET or beach, depression they commit suicide, they end their life. I have always said multiple times in my reels also that. Instead of taking such a step, please come to us. We have multiple options. So, what is your take on it? How easy will it be for them to do engineering abroad than opting for J in India or they opt for medical uh courses abroad? What do you have to say? And how can we help in a much much better way, such students?

SPEAKER_00 44:24

So I will answer this in two parts. Okay. First is a basic fundamental thing. Um, picture use carton, subjana linebacker, right? Or unko unko bola hilta jana, chita bi hai, giraffe, monkey be hair, tortoise be hair, you know, uh crocodile be a sub line. Right now, up subco a came up in the doctor but now can a tortoise win the race? He cannot. But he's his tortoise. He's made for something else. See in India we look at only, I think at best, if you ask somebody, they will be able to count seven careers. Internationally, there are six hundred and fifty careers. Okay, that's the first thing. So please, please, is a it's a request to our to the parents. Every child has come with some skill. Right? Only thing you need to identify. And by the way, identifying through umsekya kia, manna chatata, manjine banpaya, manjina tubi engineer banega. Okay, yes, some are not important. Every child is different. Help and scientifically can you can find out for a child what is his right talent and let him build his career.

unknown 46:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

Right. He has been the greatest batchman which which the India has seen or the world has seen. Right, right. Right. So, first, every child is different, every child has skills, has some strength, and you can choose a career based on that. Point number one. That's the first thing we need to understand. Point number two. Yes, our entrance exam, especially engineering. So, if engineering, but check, just give me another year, medicine. Okay, uh, for engineering, uh, it is uh comparatively easier than becoming a doctor. There are choices abroad. In fact, there are a lot of students. Uh, in fact, from your place, Delhi, uh, I have sent 12k bar, and then by 10th, they say we don't want to be part of this rat race, okay. Of this ITJ. We want to become engineers because it came we want to be engineered, but not here. So we send them abroad, and obviously, with a lot of programs, it's it was you know, uh, few could afford, few couldn't afford, so a lot of scholarship, a lot of things, but you have to work on it. See, up IT Jine standards. Okay, so those kids which are sent decided in nine standards. Yes, engineering here, but we don't want to engineering through IDJ.

SPEAKER_02 47:18

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 47:19

In fact, government, I will give numbers to you. Government of India says that one out of four children in school time and college time goes through a depression. See that data one out of four. Okay, I'll give you one more very shocking data. Last year, and this is again government of India data. Uh, around 12 and a half thousand students did suicide. These are reported, huh? Non-reported last year. Okay, it means 365 days. So these are reported, non-reported. Non-reported every child is uh in fact. Um, I have a brand which I'm not sure when I will launch. Okay, I'm not still ready for it. Maybe the market not it's called Nikatu.com.

SPEAKER_01 48:13

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:14

I'm telling you, every child has got some talent. Only identify that, right? And help him build that career. Give him skills in that career. Okay, international. You'll be uh you'll be surprised the people who do vocational programs earn more than engineers and doctors, right? In Canada, you spoke of Canada. A preschool teacher gets higher salary than uh MS. A nurse gets a higher salary than uh engineer.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Okay, yeah, people need to know this.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

Yeah, I'm saying I want to add this as a as a as a misconception. There are ways, and scientifically ask possible possible though during my time and your time, we didn't have any of these scientific tools. They are away from now. Make use of that, make use of that. I hope I think answered your second question.

SPEAKER_01 49:15

Yeah, yeah, thank you, thank you. Because I am actually, you know, I always, whenever uh I read such a news in the newspaper, I always feel very hurt that I'm not able to reach out to them to help them, and that's the one big reason why that I'm creating reels so that somehow it reaches them and they get a chance to reach out to me or uh people like me who can definitely help them, right? And uh thank you for this, sir. And lastly, what message would you like to convey to our listeners, especially those aspiring to pursue higher education abroad, and as they embark on this transformative journey? Because even I feel that it's all to it's not only about education, but it's a grooming journey for an individual individual.

SPEAKER_00 50:04

Right. So, as I first told you, one of the first things is start early, as I told you. Why not? It's like that only. Okay, so three to four years, what is required so that you are able to get admission into a college or a UST, which is better. Kabir, you will be surprised. 95% of the students which go abroad go to a college or UST below their potential. I'm repeating this to you 95%. Okay, okay, this has an effect on your career. Now imagine you have studied from uh let's say, let's talk of India. If you studied from IIT or compared to your study from a let's say your uh nearby engineering college, is there a difference in career? Yes, yes, okay. The difference is what preparation. Please understand the difference is preparation. Okay, so you have to prepare early, start early and prepare well because international admissions have the criteria very different, unlike India, one exam, like in IIT IIT exam and your 12th, two criteria is will decide your adness, not abroad. You have nine to thirteen criteria depending on the country and the unity on which they judge you. So how's come about the profile building? You have to build your profile for that, okay. Uh but coming to study abroad first, study abroad first is challenging. You all need to understand that it's not easy. Challenging why because the education style is different. We are used to very spoon-filling style, know that your classes, you know, especially in masters for many programs, is not more than nine to ten hours a week. But for that, you have to study for 12 to 15 hours a day. That much science work you need to do. Okay, so education is different compared to the Indian system. Okay, it's not difficult, it's different. Okay, second, even the style, the way it is taught, you know, everything as I told you is different. The process will just come and teach you concepts, talk about the concepts, go away. Give you some assignment which you need supposed to do in group, or do something else on your own, you know, you do all of those things. Then the country is different, okay. Just an example, you are in north, where everybody and not doing Chennai, you in interior where people speak only Tamil. What will you do? So land is different. Third, the culture is different. Okay, uh, you spoke about culture, but every country has a culture, right? Is that culture? There's nothing called right and wrong, but is that culture? Is that why the people behave? You need to understand that culture, you need to adapt to that culture. Next, the biggest challenge with our kids, food. Yeah, okay. Food is very so you need to know your food, try to adapt other food. Uh, that's why we recommend that every child, boy or girl, should learn cooking. Yeah, okay, because cooking is I and I'm and I'm telling you by experience, food is one area, so food, weather, and the style of education, these are three which can actually lead kids to you know being disoriented in that country. But if you prepare, no problem, right? Sir, a simple example. Um, again, I'm not being feminist, but you know, for a for a life after marriage. This is like this, you have to groom, you have to help your kids, okay. But this all teaches you what managing self. Okay, this journey of study abroad is very exciting, very wonderful, life-changing. Okay, it opens up a very, very new world for you, okay. And what it adds, it adds to your resume, it adds to your career, and it adds to your employer. Okay, up a bacha barke ayah, airport to the panna nagaraji.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

Very true.

SPEAKER_00 54:20

Because life has taught them because everything they have to adapt now, as I told you, whether it's a lake, language, rana, you know, study, everything is a challenge, right? Hamasko both comfort zone. When kids go out, you grow, and it's not for study abroad, anything. You only grow as a person when you move out of your comfort zone.

SPEAKER_01 54:41

Yeah, very true, very true. And I'm I'm experiencing the same thing in my son in just one year of his education in Germany. He's altogether a changed person, much more confident than when he was in India.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

It's a fact. So, again, for the parents, are you asked earlier question? Your child will be very different, positive angle. I'm talking of the positives are much more than the negative angles. So it's worth taking that. If I want to use the word called risk, or I don't know about risk, I talk about investment. It's worth taking that investment into your child for his for his better future.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Yeah, right, right, right. Thank you, sir. Thank you for thank you for such you know golden nuggets. I'm sure whosoever, even the teenagers who are aspiring students, or even the parents will be listening to this or you know, watching this video afterwards, they'll get firsthand and concrete, you know, workable information. And thank you for this. And as we draw the curtains on today's enlightening conversations with Dr. Sherma, it's clear that studying abroad is not just about acquiring academic credentials, it's about embarking on a transformative journey of personal and professional growth. And Dr. Sherma's wealth of experience and invaluable insights have shed light on the importance of pursuing education with purpose and passion, and while also emphasizing the need for resilience, adaptability, and a strong sense of purpose. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Dr. Sharma, for sharing your wisdom with us. Thank you, sir. And it was so lovely to hear you.

SPEAKER_00 56:28

Thank you, Rmas. Thank you for having me here, Kabiji. All the best to you and the kids and the parents who are listening to this. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_01 56:36

Yeah, thank you, sir. And if you have questions, suggestions, or just want to say hello, feel free to reach out. I'm here to help and engage in meaningful conversations with you. Don't miss out on the future episodes and valuable life insights, and subscribe to the Couple Gupta Kareport Show on your favorite podcast platform to stay informed and inspired. And if you found value in the podcast, help us reach more listeners by sharing it with your friends, family, and colleagues who might benefit from our discussions. And whether you are considering study abroad or already on that path, remember to stay true to your goals, seek guidance from mentors like Dr. Sherma, and embrace every challenge as an opportunity for growth and with determination, perseverance, and a thirst for knowledge, the world truly becomes your oyster. Thank you again for joining us on the Kapil Gupta Career Port Show. And until next time, keep chasing your dreams and carving out your own path to success. Thank you.