Going Global
We are Partnering with Global Leaders to Solve India’s Skill Gap Problem
TinkerHub is teaming up with communities and technology leaders from all over the world to intervene in the imminent tech talent crisis.
You want to learn.
You want to know how to do things like “those smart engineers” do.
Maybe you want to land that dream job.
Or maybe you want to start your own company.
But you are clueless as to where you stand or what you need to get there.
Don’t worry if this profile matches yours. This is what it looks like for most students before they get their first stimulus to start learning.
Now, imagine having a companion who knows you better than you do. It knows your weak spots, your strongholds, your areas of interest, and what you want to be. It tells you what it analyses and suggests a particular course of action to help you make the most of your learning experience. Learning paths, resources, skill-based recommendations; you name it, this companion gives it to you.
This is exactly what we’re working on at TinkerHub now. A chatbot built using open-source NLP tools that solves queries from students about the best resources for learning particular technologies along with a learning path from beginner to advanced level. The bot is currently in beta testing stage with advanced features planned for release in the next couple of months.
And we don’t stop there.
“You have got to believe in a few different things than I think you believed in the past. One is to believe that skills are perhaps more important than a degree.”
This March, IBM Chief Ginni Rometty expressed her concern over the mismatch between open opportunities and available talent crop in India and elsewhere in the world.
The Annual Employability Survey revealed that 80% of Indian engineers are not fit for any job in the knowledge economy.
Just this month, the problems of employability and skill gap, along with the need for a massive overhaul in the engineering curriculum were voiced in the Indian parliament.
What does TinkerHub do?
Years ago, when TinkerHub Foundation was established, it was a small effort to explore, discover, learn and teach emerging technology that had seemed out of reach in the college curriculum. The group grew larger, mostly by word of mouth, with learning enthusiasts from near and far joining in to participate in empathetic and fun study circles.
Today, it is a community that has reached over 23000 people since its inception — Tinkerhub hosts, co-hosts and partners with several learning initiatives all over the country. Last year, we had a fantastic experience hosting the second edition of Coopathon in collaboration with the International Cooperative Alliance (Asia Pacific) last year. Earlier this year, Cooperatives Europe, the regional office for ICA Europe had associated with TinkerHub for their global pilot project to encourage and mentor young cooperative entrepreneurship.
We have evolved over the years, and so has our vision.
Teaming Up with DigitalOcean
Today, we have arrived at a significant juncture in our journey. Today, we have the opportunity to partner with an organisation that shares our vision. We are delighted to announce that TinkerHub is teaming up with DigitalOcean, a Silicon Valley-based cloud infrastructure provider, as our Technical Partner. DigitalOcean has provided team Tinkerhub with the credits required to run our operations for a wider audience globally. The team has a few projects lined up, which will benefit immensely from the infrastructure support that DigitalOcean provides.
The first and most ambitious project is the chatbot that will enable learning for everyone. The second project is a Django based web portal for more than a thousand technical and arts colleges across the state of Kerala. Using the portal, student representatives can sign up and request for events or learning sessions by a curated set of speakers and developers. The portal will also host learning paths on various technologies like backend and frontend development, Android, iOS, Machine Learning, AR/VR etc.
How can you help us?
For a long time now, debates have been rife in India about the ‘stubborn’ unemployability of Indian engineers. Employability of engineers in our country has remained stagnant since 2010.
For the last four years, TinkerHub has been working at the grassroots level to bridge the distance between students and the industry. Volunteers from the organisation have worked with students through initiatives like Campus Connect, Innovation Catalyst Workshops, Hackathons and Ideathons, opening up new avenues and learning paths.
“India is going through a critical phase where interventions in learning and skilling are essential to prevent a major talent crisis in the near future. Even though this is a global scenario, we need a tailor-made solution, which will be a hybrid of a tech-based online and community-based offline interventions. Our core philosophy is to use the power of self-learning and peer mentoring within communities to empower people with the digital skills they need. We are scaling up access to learning with technology partners like DigitalOcean.”
~ Mehar MP, CEO and Co-Founder, TinkerHub.
For the next two years, our goal as a non-profit organisation enabling technology learning is to reach out to more than 10,000 students across 300 colleges in Kerala. We plan to provide workshops, mentorships and clear learning paths to take them from the beginner level to the expert level.
TinkerHub is joining forces with communities and technology leaders from all over the world. Would you care to join us?
If your company has a technology product that can benefit this cause, join us in this mission.
