Dubai Millionaire's: From Indian educationist to billionaire
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00:00I moved from Kuwait to UAE in 1990 because the government of Sharjah wanted me to establish educational establishment.
00:09And then I established Skyline Institute in the beginning in 1990 in full cooperation with His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi,
00:22member of Supreme Council and ruler of Sharjah. We started with the very modest beginning from the airport of Sharjah.
00:31Then we moved into city and now we have a campus of 40 acres in Sharjah University City.
00:42Basically, the growth of the country is always known through the educated people of that country.
00:48And Sharjah is known for education and culture. So, Sharjah was very keen that we should establish educational establishment of a high quality.
00:59And that is where we filled up the gap. We have a large population of UAE national and we have a 75 nationality.
01:10And the courses which we run, for example, we are the leading institution in travel and tourism, which is the backbone of UAE.
01:19We are also very strong in information technology, which is also a requirement of today's world.
01:29And then other courses like international business, marketing, strategic management, leadership, undergraduate and postgraduate all.
01:37So, the idea was to provide trained and qualified manpower to the industry.
01:43Success always comes when you are very clear in your vision, mission, purpose, goals and objectives.
01:50Life without purpose is no life. You have to see when you come to this world and when you go away from this world,
01:58what is the legacy you are going to leave behind. Have you made the world better?
02:02Mantra of my success is very simple. Determination, discipline and to make it short, take whole team along with you,
02:11so that we can create better things for this world. See, the higher education, when we started, we were only four institutions in higher education in 1990.
02:22And today we have approximately 90 institutions which are accredited by the federal government.
02:29And then we have a free zone institutions around about 70. And then online education is more than 100.
02:38So, what we are talking about education is not going to limit into bricks. It is going to be bricks and clicks.
02:46And education is changing. Like in Skyline, we don't have to give information and knowledge in classroom to any student.
02:54Our all teaching is research-based, project-based, how to handle the concept and make it sure the follow-up has been carried on particular concept,
03:06more on practical in nature. See, learning cycle is becoming short day by day.
03:12And we will not be enrolling a student for like four years for bachelor degree and two years for an MBA.
03:18We will be enrolling students for lifetime. Because whatever you will learn in two years' time and it will get outdated.
03:27So, you will come back for again re-skilling. And now the skills, especially future skills are very, very important.
03:36Like we run courses like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, robotic. These are the thing.
03:42Because there are two type of labor. One is a physical labor, second is a mental labor. Physical is going to Roberts.
03:49If you are doing same job day to day, you will be replaced. And mental labor is going to artificial intelligence, deep learning, etc.
03:59So, very, very important to make it sure that one size does not fit to all. When you go to Subway, you make your own sandwich.
04:08When you go to McDonald's, you choose your own recipe. Similar way in the education.
04:13Now, we will give a bouquet of 400 courses to the students. Student will select which courses he wants to pick up.
04:21So that, according to your own requirements, you can pick up courses and go. Education is going to drastically change in future.
04:31And especially even in UAE, because UAE emphases now on technology. When you look to global education system,
04:40as far as Middle East is concerned, Africa is concerned, or I am talking about Europe or USA and Canada, Australia, etc.
04:51When we see the difference, especially in Asian education system and the Western world education system,
04:57Asian education system used to be root learning, which has changed drastically from the last one decade.
05:07Now the world is becoming real flat as far as education is concerned. We have already crossed the boundaries through the internet.
05:15See, it is not physical boundaries are existing, but I can communicate to anybody anywhere in the world.
05:22And education is no more going to be in bricks. It is much away from the bricks. For example,
05:29take example of a small kid who is two years or three years. They play around with iPad or iPhone.
05:37All the knowledge, information is coming from there. They convert into knowledge.
05:43But computer technology can give you simulation of this stuff. But as far as the other areas like business ethics,
05:54honesty, value, relationship, team working, this is the area one has to create to make it sure that we are covering the other aspect of it.
06:06That is why Skyline has started a course in schools where Skyline is giving seminars on business ethics, values, love, relationship.
06:20And especially in education, we don't have to memorize anything. You should know how quickly you can get information out of the systems.
06:29So that remembering and filling up your brain with so much information is not required nowadays.
06:36What is required, creativity and innovation. You may have many ideas in life, but if the ideas are not implemented,
06:44that creativity is no more use if it doesn't become an innovation.