CHENNAI: With schools shut and sports practices canceled, homeschooling is now the new normal across most families. Children are home more than they were ever before and while these unprecedented times of being confined can be constricting, the lockdown has presented a suitable opportunity to exemplify to kids that tools, beyond academics, are vital to lead a successful and fulfilling life, especially in a corporate set-up.
Catering to this need is Clever Harvey, an institution of online education facilitators who teach skills required by most modern corporate jobs through their junior MBA programme for children. “We have designed this course to help kids develop their commercial acumen and get this exposure at a young age. Most kids are aware of jobs that doctors, engineers or even architects do, but few are aware of what a CEO or CTO does. Through this series of ten sessions, we hope to make them understand the skills required by these positions,” says Sriram Subramanian, CEO of Clever Harvey.
Already in practice, Clever Harvey has reached out to over 150 children. “Kids from Mumbai, New Delhi, Guwahati, Chennai and other cities, have enrolled into the programme,” says Madhu Agarwal, co-ordinator, Clever Harvey. The sessions are held on a Zoom call every day, in batches. Each batch has around 10 children and each session lasts for two hours. The kids are made to work with each other to solve or complete assignments, which inculcate the value of leadership in them. “These kids have never met each other. They may come from completely different backgrounds. When they work together, they learn to accept fresh viewpoints and ideas, before making a decision. This is ideally what a team lead does before reaching a conclusion,” she says.
“I completed the Chief Marketing Officer programme from the junior MBA series. We learned about different target audiences and how to reach out to them. Our facilitators showed us multiple advertisements as examples of how companies marketed their products. The best part is that we get to work on our own projects. We had to come up with our own products to advertise. It included doing market research and understanding our target audience,” says Nirvana Sanghi, a class 8 student from Pune. He attends school sessions from 9 am to 12.30 pm, and then begins his session with Clever Harvey at 2 pm.
While there is no handbook that can prepare a child for life, it is the process, many parents believe, which is more important than the outcome itself. “Being a marketing professional myself, I have always believed that my daughter should be aware of all the things I do. I found out about the Junior MBA programme via Facebook. When I went through the course material I deemed it apt that my daughter enrol. Ever since we have had interesting conversations when I help her solve her assignments. Sometimes I discuss real issues we face in the office and she comes up with viable solutions,” says Jitesh Bajaj, father of Nishita Bajaj, a student of the Junior CEO programme. Seeing the positive changes, he now plans to enrol Nishita in the junior CTO programme as well. “The more knowledge she has about the corporate world, the more equipped she is to survive it,” he opines.
About the programme
The Junior MBA programme offers three courses — namely Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) training, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) training and Chief Technical Officer (CTO) training. The contents of each programme are covered over ten days. Children from classes eight to eleven can enrol. The programme is priced at Rs 5,000 for one course. For details, visit: https://www.cleverharvey.com/