How many young professionals coming out of tertiary education feel the time they spent on their degree has not prepared them for the world of work?
When Aaron Fuchs completed his mechanical engineering degree at Yale University in 2010, he felt blessed to have gotten an Ivy League education, but soon after he started working, he realised he had not been prepared for what lay ahead.
So he decided to start his own university.
Now 33, he says: “I left varsity with an incredible four-year degree, but the learning experience wasn’t as fun or as relevant as I thought it would be.
“When I started working, I was ready to be a high performer and I put in the hours, but I was still feeling frustrated because I didn’t have the skills to achieve my best.”
This led him to start the iXperience programme in Cape Town seven years ago.
“I love learning and if you’re hungry to learn, you need an environment to support that. I wanted to create a different paradigm of learning that would be relevant and would blend learning with practical experience so that what you’re learning in class ties in with reality,” he tells ITWeb.
I love learning and if you’re hungry to learn, you need an environment to support that.
Aaron Fuchs
iXperience offers short courses and internships in tech (in cloud computing, data science, web development and full stack coding, among others), and business and creative disciplines from its campuses in Cape Town, Lisbon, Berlin and Tel Aviv. The school has nearly 2 000 alumni and partners with the University of Virginia in the United States to offer accredited qualifications.
iXperience has two offerings: iX Abroad and iX Remote. Both offer a few weeks of tuition followed by an internship at a company chosen by the student. iX Abroad offers students the opportunity to study at any of its international campuses and intern in those cities. This programme has now been put on hold and all of iXperience’s campuses around the world have been temporarily shuttered. This saw the school pivot to an online environment in three weeks. iX Remote was launched in South Africa in April.
The virtual programme is offering in-demand courses in tech, such as web development and data science, and also has business and creative streams. iX Remote uses online tools such as Zoom and Slack to conduct classes over two weeks and the virtual internship over four weeks.
The school says it has seen an uptick in applications for the remote programme since lockdown (it currently has around 520 students), especially in 4IR-related skills.
Fuchs believes the key to preparing students for careers in 4IR-related industries lies in ensuring there are trained educators, internet access and equipment for all students.
He also emphasises the need to create support systems for students, encouraging them to come to online lessons.
“The country’s universities have handled the disruption well because it's been a complicated shift considering the different wealth brackets and environments students come from,” he says.
He cites the University of Cape Town as an institution that embraced the shift, and where it’s envisaged that students will only return to campus next year.
“The pandemic has forced a lot of innovation. But I’m glad it’s happened so that the infrastructure to enable online learning can be built. It’s a positive shift for our country.”
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