INTERVIEW: President of Career Launcher Sujatha Kshirsagar
By
Vishal Bhidu
Sujatha Kshirsagar is the President and Chief Business Officer at Career Launcher whose belief is imbedded in the philosophy of Empowering Minds through Education. She has been a banker for 17 years serving across reputed leading brands such as the Standard Chartered Bank and ANZ Grindlays Bank before devoting herself to the cause of empowering through education. In this interview, the President of Career Launcher explains the embedded philosophy behind the institution considered a household name in India where it equips students towards career building and future plans ahead of its launch into Mauritius through its subsidiary CL Educate Africa along with its local partner Campus Abroad. She also discusses Career Launcher’s plans for the island while explaining its presence across Africa and the Middle East region. Career Launcher has been present in India for 28 years, across 200 locations and has served over 800,000 students.
- Career Launcher is one the biggest brands and a household name in India which perhaps every parent or child is familiar with as it helps hone the skills to deal with the intricacies to empower through education. Having shaped lives for the past 28 years, can you give a peek to the local people who may not be well versed pertaining to the background of Career Launcher and its role towards career building?
In Mauritius, through our partnership with Campus Abroad’s founding team, we are extremely keen to make a telling contribution over the next decade. Just as we have done in other countries including India, the Middle East and South Asia, we can impact every single student and family that has an aspiration to pursue higher education from top global universities; we aim to become the go-to place for the next generation by impacting education and careers.
Career Launcher is very keen to work with institutions, including schools and universities as well as the government to help improve the educational and macroeconomic outcomes over the next decade. This could take the form of teachers’ training, curriculum building, educational technology play or placements, school and university transformational programs as well as launching online courses for universities, not just in Mauritius but in taking flight to other parts of Africa as well.
2. According to media reports, Career Launcher has announced plans to foray across countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Africa which according to my guess Mauritius is now an obvious choice as it hits Rs 207 crore revenue. The question is: Why Mauritius?
Why Mauritius? As we know, the country is an exceptional melting pot of cultures and is an excellent soft landing spot for a company like Career Launcher as we build our plans and teams for the African continent. So, we see Mauritius posing as the great anchor point for Career Launcher for the entire African continent. In other words, it’s a gateway.
And while we do that, we also are looking at the Mauritius subsidiary of Career Launcher which is CL Educate Africa in striving to become the vehicle for building a sustainable, long term and deep-impacting business in various parts of Africa. We are already present in East Africa for Phase 1 of our growth.
3. In terms of value addition and cutting-edge solutions, how do you think Mauritius can benefit set in the context where education is becoming increasingly digitized with AI, machine learning, and data science taking into account your role in promoting online education and beyond? How do your services plan to approach exams and deepen capacity building beyond the traditional teaching methods?
Career Launcher sees the digital transformation of education as a great opportunity to revolutionize learning. Deep personalisation executed at scale is possible through EdTech deployment. Student outcomes’ including excellent scores secured in standardised tests and getting admissions into top colleges form the single most important measure of our impact. That has always remained the touchstone of all that we do.
We are dedicated to being at the forefront of innovation, ensuring that its benefits to Mauritius trickle not only to a digitized education but also to a dynamic, adaptive, and globally relevant educational experience. Our commitment to excellence drives us to continuously explore and implement innovative solutions that help empower students and educators alike.
4. Are there future plans to leverage Mauritius as a strategic position to tap into the booming African and affluent Gulf region as a long-term objective taking into account local aspirations of an education hub?
Yes. Career Launcher is already a firmly established player in the Middle East region for over two decades. The company has a small footprint in Kenya and Nigeria.
As CL Mauritius, our goal would be to become a go-to place for anything to do with careers and education in the next 3-5 years.
Our commitment to excellence, cultural sensitivity, and innovation uniquely positions us to play a transformative role in helping achieve the aspirations of Mauritius as a distinguished education hub in the long term.
5. Can you share with us the transformative role played by Career Launcher to help shape and empower students?
CL helps young students in grade VIII or IX (equivalent is form 4 in Mauritius) to identify his or her aptitudes, interests, and personality as they start making choices that set the foundation for career success. We ensure that parents are always integrated into this building process to make it an important project for the entire family where they are offered parental education sessions at relevant stages.
The student is enabled to succeed at SAT, and IELTS College, encompassing course shortlisting, letters of recommendation, at the undergraduate levels, GRE and GMAT pertaining to the graduate level. CL also helps support the student’s growth in relevant psychometrics and personality development modules at various stages of his or her career progress.
6. Earlier you mentioned the name CL Educate Africa offering sustainable and long-term solutions. Can you share how you arrived at the name and the broader objectives behind this philosophy for Global CL and its desired impact on the continent?
CL has a rich legacy spanning over 28 years and is a renowned institution as far as enabling careers are concerned. Our expertise as an institution along with all her programs, content, technology and student success stories are now accessible to the youth and their families in Africa.
7. In India, Career Launcher offers courses spanning over 6-9 months with some popular courses spanning from 3 months-2 years. How does Career Launcher from a global perspective plan to approach courses in helping to suit the local needs in Mauritius, albeit on the continent? Can you share your success story in a huge market like India?
Career Launcher has been offering courses for students taking part in SAT, GRE, and GMAT exams as well as undertaking admissions consulting for over a decade and a half in multiple geographies across the globe. Our students are drawn from the US, Europe, the Middle East, Far East, and Africa. We also have had physical centres in West Asia for almost 20 years now.
We are now looking to strengthen our physical presence through partnerships with local businesses and entrepreneurs to offer high-touch face-to-face as well as online programs in East Africa to begin with, along with Mauritius.
In India, for example, we are present in over 200 locations and servicing 80,000 students at any given point in time. We are keen to replicate that success in Africa, the youngest continent in the world.
