Innovation and Thought Leadership
Delegates at Quest2Learn
Quest 2 Learn explored AI, climate change, and green jobs with 350 delegates and notable experts.
Career Quest is a web-based game that helps learners explore careers and practice decision-making.
Ikki is available in Gujarati, Odia and English, and has reached 38,552 students.
Quest 2 Learn
This year, our in-house research team dedicated 10 months to travelling across Gujarat, Assam, and Odisha, engaging with young people to understand their perspectives on climate change. This research, titled “From Anxiety to Hope,” was the focal point of our annual summit, Quest 2 Learn, held on October 9 and 10, 2023 which was attended by over 350 delegates. The discussions covered the impact of AI on future learning and job markets, the effects of climate change on education and mental health, and the potential for green employment.
Notable participants included Professor Shermon Cruz, Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), and also the UNESCO Chair Candidate on Anticipatory Governance and Regenerative Cities at Northwestern University in the Philippines, Shakil Ahmed, Country Lead, Bangladesh, Ed Tech Hub and Futurist at Ridiculous Futures and Maneesh Mishra, Executive Vice President, Strategy, National Skills Development Corporation. The conference also featured an exhibition providing an AR/VR-assisted journey into the evolution of schools from the past to the future, along with a preview of youth lives in 2045.
The Quest Learning Observatory (QLO)
It's more than just a workspace; it serves as a vibrant hub for collaboration, creativity, and continuous learning. Designed to foster innovation and community engagement, QLO welcomes diverse organizations and the local community. It is a dynamic center where minds converge to share knowledge, explore new ideas, and envision sustainable futures. With state-of-the-art training facilities, interactive experiential galleries, and a community kitchen, QLO cultivates a culture of shared learning and innovation. Built with sustainable construction practices, including sun-baked earth blocks and fly ash filler slabs, QLO not only supports daily operations but also champions a regenerative approach to education and workplace environments.
Technology Products
Quest App, our online learning platform, is crucial in empowering educators and learners with access to resources anytime, anywhere. Recognizing that each learner has unique needs, we are developing a personalized learning engine that allows users to tailor their learning journey. A pilot has shown a 13% increase in access rates and a higher alignment of course selections.
Our web-based game, Career Quest, is designed to help learners explore various careers by practicing decision-making and understanding consequences in a virtual environment. Through repeated play, learners can refine their decision-making skills and gain insights into real-life scenarios, all while experiencing the freedom to learn from their choices as often as they like.
Ikki – our WhatsApp Chatbot – is interactive, and AI-driven and offers five weeks of self-paced learning content where learners and educators explore coding and computational thinking. Targeted at students in grades 7 to 10, Ikki is available in Gujarati, Odia and English, and has reached 38,552 students.
Collaboratives and Partnerships
Our belief that we can't solve problems alone has never been clearer, highlighting the importance of educational partnerships and collaborations. A study of our collaboration with 13 partners in the school ecosystem showed progress in stronger monitoring and scaling efforts, reaffirming that trust and equality are the bedrock of partnerships.
Testimony to that was the Indian Equitable Ecosystem - spearheaded by Quest Alliance in collaboration with the Scratch Education Collaborative (SEC) which aims to ignite a movement centred around gender equity using computational thinking and coding as powerful tools. It offered 20 fellowships to grassroots organizations across India, supported by Quest Alliance.
The Life Skills Collaborative (LSC), with Quest Alliance as a key partner, has made significant strides in mainstreaming life skills into the skilling and education ecosystem by addressing existing gaps. Our role focused on amplifying grassroots perspectives and voices to support this mission. In collaboration with partners, we collected insights from over 6,000 stakeholders across multiple states and compiled them into a comprehensive report on their perceptions. The Collaborative has contributed to establishing standardised vocabulary, assessment tools as well as research tools on life skills, which are now being widely disseminated to numerous stakeholders.
The Future Right Skills Network is a collaboration facilitated by Quest Alliance and supported by Accenture, Cisco and J.P. Morgan and SAP. The network brings together civil society organizations and state governments in partnership with the Directorate General of Training (DGT) under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and is on a mission to empower young people in Government Industrial Training Institutes with employability skills for the knowledge economy. Our decade of work on trainer development, now championed by FRSN culminated in an invitation to support trainer strategy for the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). Our strategy paper includes key recommendations for creating comprehensive trainer development initiatives, aimed at ensuring high-quality trainers in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training ecosystem.
At the state level, a notable achievement was our partnership with the Naan-Mudhalvan Initiative of the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation (TNSDC), where we developed and implemented a specialized 21st-century skills curriculum for university students. Additionally, in Karnataka we have trained 46 Civil Society Organization (CSO) partners of the Karnataka Skill Development Corporation (KSDC) to incorporate 21st-century skills into their short-term skilling programs.
Unrestricted Funding
This year, we received a transformative, unrestricted grant from renowned philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This significant trust-based funding arrived at a crucial time as we addressed challenges such as climate change, technological advancements, rising inequality, and the rapidly changing nature of work.
The grant enabled us to invest in internal capacity, technology solutions, and innovative approaches, fostering deeper systemic change within the school-to-work ecosystem. The flexibility of this grant provided us with stability, allowing us to take risks, experiment, and develop long-term, sustainable solutions.
Over the past 15 years, Quest Alliance has been dedicated to empowering young learners by revolutionizing learning ecosystems through innovative education technology, capacity building, and collaboration. This funding furthered our mission, enabling critical investments in leadership development, research, and technology-based innovations. Ultimately, this support ensured young people have better job opportunities and could successfully navigate their transition from school to work.
Strategic Plan for 2024-2029
Quest Alliance's strategic plan is driven by a vision of empowering young people to thrive as self-learners and catalysts of economic and social progress. Our mission focuses on transforming learning ecosystems through education technology, capacity building, and collaboration, aiming to instil essential 21st-century skills in both learners and facilitators. Looking ahead, we envision a world where all young individuals take charge of their futures, driving equitable social and economic advancement. We innovate by creating and embedding tech-enabled learning experiences that prepare youth to make informed career decisions and succeed in diverse career pathways.
Publications
