NEW DELHI/PUNE: Short-form video sharing platform TikTok on Thursday launched its ‘#EduTok Mentorship Program’ for the Indian digital community in New Delhi. Through this initiative, TikTok has forged a collaboration with leading social enterprises, ‘Josh Talks’ and ‘The/Nudge Foundation,’ to launch a mentorship programme.
A panel discussion was also held. The panellists included Toppr Senior Vice President Aveg Agarwal, Josh Talks Co-founder and Director Supriya Paul, actress and fitness icon Sophie Choudry, The/ Nudge Foundation Head of Programmes and Initiatives Saurabh Adeeb and popular #EduTok Creator Dr Animesh.
Together they spoke about the current landscape, different formats in education, benefits of online learning, the flexibility that comes along with eLearning and how this shift is helping mentors in reaching students at the grass-root level.
The programme is aimed at supporting first-time internet users to gain knowledge by giving them access to high-quality educational content created by TikTok creators and educational organisations.
As part of this mentorship programme, Josh Talks will organise 25 #EduTok workshops, where 5,000 creative individuals will be shortlisted and invited to attend a hands-on learning workshop delivered by an existing and popular #EduTok Creator.
For the workshops, The/Nudge Foundation will also tailor-make content. The workshops will be organised over six months starting from October 2019 until March 2020. The workshops will be held across six states that include Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Jammu. Each workshop will accommodate up to 200 users and will be conducted in the states’ regional languages.
#EduTok is an effort to further highlight TikTok’s commitment to propel India’s creative economy and its contribution to the lives of digital natives. Till now, over 10 million pieces of content were created and shared using the #EduTok hashtag.
Atul Satija, Founder & CEO, The/Nudge Foundation said, “Digital education is becoming a critical tool to support new learning approaches and to bridge the gap between industry demand and the skill ecosystem. TikTok effectively optimises learning opportunities, as it offers access to a variety of tools, all under one roof, therefore providing a fulfilling learning experience. The motivation behind the Mentorship Program is to equip our future workforce with relevant and cutting-edge ideas. We are very excited to get an opportunity to collaborate with TikTok and Josh Talks.”
Aveg Agarwal, Senior Vice President at Toppr, said, “It is encouraging to see that organisations are harnessing digital tools to transform India’s education industry. Toppr is happy to collaborate with campaigns such as #EduTok and do meaningful additions that can help students learn better. Partnering with TikTok is our effort to continuously improve pedagogy and democratise access to better learning.”
Gunjan Taneja, a popular fitness creator on TikTok, said, “Campaigns such as #EduTok shine a spotlight on how one should never give up the quest to learn and how one can succeed if they have the grit and determination to work towards their goals. My fellow creators and I are looking forward to training young brilliant minds and motivating them to work towards their passion.”
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EVENT
- Through this initiative, the leading short-video platform will collaborate with Josh Talks and The/Nudge Foundation to educate 5,000 young individuals through a mentorship programme.
- TikTok also unveiled a strategic partnership with leading educational institutions Toppr, Made Easy and GradeUp to further promote eLearning on the platform.
- TikTok also recently tied- up with VOOT, one of India’s most popular OTT platforms, to launch the first #EduTok chat show ‘Work It Up’ with Sophie Choudry.
- Over 10 million pieces of content were created and shared to date using the #EduTok hashtag which has secured over 48 billion views.
