Great Learning works closely with industry leaders and subject matter experts to design capstone projects that reflect real-world industry challenges and skills needed on the job. Ensuring project alignment with industry needs is crucial for delivering an applied learning experience through capstone projects.
Some of the key steps Great Learning takes to achieve this alignment include:
Conducting regular skills gap analysis and needs assessment studies:
Great Learning regularly partners with top companies to conduct primary research studies aimed at identifying the most in-demand skills, technologies, problem statements and project ideas directly from industry professionals. This provides valuable qualitative and quantitative data on emerging skills gaps and priorities across different sectors. The findings help Great Learning design capstone projects that target the most relevant and useful skills for career success.
Leveraging instructor expertise and industry experience:
The capstone project instructors and mentors at Great Learning come with 10+ years of professional experience having worked on real-world projects at leading companies. They actively track the latest developments, pain points and opportunities in their respective domains. This deep immersive industry exposure enables them to structure capstone projects as close replications of onsite work thereby training students on the actual demands of the job.
Forming industry advisory councils and feedback loops:
Great Learning has established industry advisory councils comprising senior leaders from top recruiters who provide strategic guidance as well as regular inputs into curriculum and project designs. Additionally, Great Learning organizes frequent interaction sessions where students showcase their capstone work to company representatives and receive feedback to further refine their solutions as per industrial needs. This acts as a closed feedback loop ensuring continuous alignment.
Customizing general projects with company or domain specifics:
While Great Learning has designed many foundational capstone projects covering common themes, it also works with specific industry partners to customize these general projects with company-specific business context, datasets, tools or problem statements. For example, building a recommendation engine for an e-commerce firm using its real transactional data and APIs. This makes the learnings highly applicable and increases the chances of real implementation.
Sourcing live consulting or R&D projects from companies:
In some programs like PG Diploma in AI or IoT, Great Learning onboards actual live projects directly sourced from top product or research companies. Students then work on these real-world challenges under company mentorship just as they would on an actual job. This provides the richest and most immersive industry aligned applied learning experience through capstone projects.
Gathering post-course employer and alumni feedback:
Great Learning conducts surveys of employers and past students to gauge how effectively its capstone projects prepared students for their jobs and careers. It identifies gaps in aligning with latest market needs and plugs them by refining projects based on this feedback. This annual review process ensures continuous improvement and responsiveness to industry changes over time.
Through its robust industry collaboration approach and closed-loop feedback systems, Great Learning is able to design capstone projects that faithfully mirror the real-world application environment and equip students with the most relevant technical skills and practical experience highly valued by companies. This strong alignment with current and emerging industrial needs is a core strength that differentiates Great Learning’s applied learning model and career outcomes. It helps learners gain meaningful professional skills and directly translate their capstone work into greater career opportunities.
Andrew Stroud