Headquarter In: Bangalore, Karnataka
Employees Headcount: 1-10
The world of international education is becoming a centre of people who are studying with a global perspective and are ready to learn about many cultures, ethnic groups, faiths, and languages, thus improving society and broadening their academic experience.
Education abroad also creates a multicultural learning atmosphere, which is great for enhancing students’ cultural awareness and promoting their understanding and admiration of others from different backgrounds than their own.
GIC Academy offers specially developed short-term Global Immersion Certifications for students seeking immersive learning, industrial exposure, inter-cultural experience, and leadership skills.
The organisation works with some of the world’s leading institutions to create future-focused programmes on specific themes and issues such as robotics, blockchain, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, motorsport design, aerospace, data science, sustainability, leadership, and so on.
All of these programmes are taught on the campus of an international institution and include academic input, industrial visits, and cultural exploration. These programmes bring together a group of individuals from the greatest institutions around the country, allowing for academically stimulating and personally enriching experiences.
Extensive Learning Offerings
GIC Academy was incubated at Harvard University and founded by Prashant Tibrewal (MIT Sloan, USA) and Ritesh Tibrewal (Oxford University, UK). GIC focuses on holistic immersion programs at different international locations, power-packed within a period of 2-3 weeks.
One of the academy’s most popular programmes is Global Economics, International Relations, and Politics, which is taught at Sciences Po in Paris. Sciences Po is a 150-year-old institution that has produced some of the world’s most powerful political and business figures, including the previous five French Presidents.
GIC also provides short-term programmes in nations such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Israel, and Canada. Here are a few of its primary areas of focus:
- Blockchain, Internet of Things & Innovation
- Robotics, Cyber Security & Ethical Hacking
- Leadership, Data Science, Innovation & AI
- Global Economics, International Relations & Politics
- Fashion and Luxury Retail
- Sports Management
- Architecture and Design
The programs include the following:
- 20-30 hours of Classroom Programming
- Industry Visits to companies
- Cultural Visits and immersion opportunities
- Accommodation on campus / close to campus
- Visa Assistance
- Travel & Medical Insurance
The idea behind GIC Academy
Prashant Tibrewal’s 13+ years of expertise in designing distinctive goods and programmes in the education market has concentrated on generating engaging products for students, particularly in the international education area. In the previous ten years, he and his colleagues have helped over 2000 students get admission to major international colleges and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, through his admissions consultancy businesses, AdmitSquare Consulting and ISBmantra.
He founded GIC with the goal of providing students with an immersive experience, as opposed to the profusion of existing online programmes that bring little value to student learning and experience. Specific academic, industry, and cultural exposure programmes have been designed with this in mind to provide students with specific academic, industry, and cultural exposure. He says, “The idea is simply about giving students a holistic experience through short academic programmes—travelling to new destinations, gaining cultural exposure, adding to one’s academic learning about specific topics and study areas, visiting companies and industries—all of this within 2-3 weeks, at an international destination, hosted by a leading international university! Students have loved the idea of participating in GIC Academy programs.”
Advise for Emerging Educational Professionals
Prashant has advised over 1000 candidates to top foreign colleges such as Harvard, Wharton, Oxford, INSEAD, ISB, and the IIMs as an Education Abroad Expert, with backgrounds ranging from software engineers to chartered accountants. There are three pieces of advice he suggests to entrepreneurs who are looking to create a venture in the education space –
Deliver Real Value: “Education being one of the most critical needs of our children as well as of our country, it is not only unfair to our own future to promote products that do not deliver real developmental value, but also doesn’t make sustainable business sense for an entrepreneur. If you are someone looking to venture in the education or ed-tech space, creating a scalable impact is going to be the key to success.”
Commit full time: “Entrepreneurship is a lot about patience and learning. No idea is perfect. A venture evolves significantly as it goes from the idea stage to the product stage, and continues to evolve with market and customer feedback. Most successful entrepreneurs fail fast and learn fast instead of trying to develop the perfect product on the first go. This entire process of failing and learning requires one to remain extremely patient, determined, and alert, which, more often than not, becomes possible, only when you are committed full time to your dream of building a successful venture.”
Plan long term: “Very often I come across start-up enthusiasts say “No one else is doing it!”. If something has never been done before, or if no one else is doing it, chances are that there is no market for it. It is important, therefore, to research well, and gain good clarity about the scope and purpose of your venture. Creating a venture to seek VC funding is akin to hitting a sixer in a cricket test match without having a solid plan in place. Enthusiasm and short term achievements can only help gain momentary fulfilment.”
According to Prashant,a business plan without solid fundamentals and a long-term strategy is not going to survive the test of time. There are several ventures that do not seek or need venture funding but are still more successful than funded start-ups. He says, “It is important, therefore, to introspect and understand what you would like to achieve through your venture, and to extraspect to acquaint yourself with the ground realities, before you commit to creating a new product or service.”
Offering a Global Approach
GIC Academy was created with the vision of enriching the learning experience and perspective of students at all levels, by providing them with international immersions in multiple areas of study, along with industry and cultural exposure, to help enhance their approach to learning as well as their career.
Prashant asserts, “Our mission is to provide international immersion programmes to students from all social, demographic, academic, and cultural backgrounds from across the world.”
More Study Programs in the Future
While GIC programmes are presently offered in four countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Singapore), the team hopes to add host universities from 20+ countries in the next 2-3 years. Their current curriculum offerings are geared toward students with backgrounds in engineering, business, economics, and social sciences. In the future, the group plans to launch programmes in medical, architecture, sports, fashion, luxury, and other fields. Furthermore, the team sees interesting opportunities to partner with organisations in other nations that want to welcome talent to their local headquarters.
Admitsquare Consulting – https://www.admitsquare.com/
ISBmantra – https://www.isbmantra.com/
GIC Academy – https://gic-academy.com/