Knowledge through research and partnerships

Who are we ?

Who are we ?

Quality Education & Skills Training (QUEST) Alliance is a social venture that works towards creating powerful learning experiences for marginalized children & youth to realize their full potential

What do we do ?

What do we do ?

We focus on research-led innovation in teaching and learning

We engage with civil society, government institutions and corporates to demonstrate and enable scalable and replicable solutions in education and vocational training

We provide a collaboration platform to enable knowledge creation and sharing among a growing network of diverse stakeholders

We look to harness the potential of technology and contextualize it to address real world challenges

How do we work ?

How do we work ?

Research Demonstrate Disseminate

How do we work ?

- Learner analysis – to create a shared understanding of needs & challenges in existing delivery models – Design research - to explore innovation in pedagogy, curriculum and assessment to creatively enhance and develop powerful learning experiences – Program evaluation - to critically analyse program outcomes and impact in the context of quality, sustainability, replicability

Research Demonstrate Disseminate

How do we work ?

– Research led program design and incubation through appropriate partnerships – Continuous engagement and monitoring of pilots to identify success factors and re-design constantly – Identify scenarios for scale, adaption to new contexts and sustainability

Research Demonstrate Disseminate

How do we work ?

– Facilitate knowledge exchange and genuine dialogue through physical and virtual meeting spaces – Promote thought leadership by bringing together thinkers and change makers to address cross cutting challenges – Influence policy making by sharing research and analysis from successful and inspirational field experiences

Research Demonstrate Disseminate

How do we work ?

- Learner analysis – to create a shared understanding of needs & challenges in existing delivery models – Design research - to explore innovation in pedagogy, curriculum and assessment to creatively enhance and develop powerful learning experiences – Program evaluation - to critically analyse program outcomes and impact in the context of quality, sustainability, replicability

– Research led program design and incubation through appropriate partnerships – Continuous engagement and monitoring of pilots to identify success factors and re-design constantly – Identify scenarios for scale, adaption to new contexts and sustainability

– Facilitate knowledge exchange and genuine dialogue through physical and virtual meeting spaces – Promote thought leadership by bringing together thinkers and change makers to address cross cutting challenges – Influence policy making by sharing research and analysis from successful and inspirational field experiences

Research Demonstrate Disseminate

Focus Areas

Build robust curriculum and course structures that address learner specific needs while forming the foundation for a transformational experience

Create a vibrant facilitator platform for continuous support and professional developmentDesign and pilot multiple delivery models to ensure quality and relevance in varied learning contexts

Share knowledge and engage with a larger group of stakeholders to mobilize action and policy change through impactful research, demonstration and advocacy

Focus Areas

Our Work in Employability

Over the last 3 years our initiatives have aimed to address facilitator capacity building, curriculum design, developing and piloting technology tools for improving delivery and sensitizing formal educational systems to the importance of building livelihood skills.

We have worked with curriculum designers (International Youth Foundation), non profits (CAP, DRF, Youthreach) and private sector (Alcatel-Lucent, GE, Microsoft)

Multiple tools have been piloted, tested intensively and scaled leading to new directions for research and innovation

Our work in Employability

Digital Lifeskills toolkit aimed to address the pressing need of providing facilitators with ideas and tools for developing their facilitation and subject matter competencies, currently being used in over 80 centers across India, Nepal and Sri-Lanka

Udaan Lifeskills program is a comprehensive 67 module curriculum designed to address the most vital part of employability training to develop critical life skills and workplace readiness skills

Pre-Vocational modules aimed to help secondary school students explore their interests in diverse vocations through subject matter in English, Math and Social Sciences

Research and Innovation

Our Work in Education

Over the last 3 years our initiatives have aimed to explore diverse content design, delivery methods and teacher support and advocacy for change

We have worked with design researchers (Quicksand Design Studio), educators (Vikramshila, Udaan) non profits (APF, EDC, Pratham,) and technology enablers (Drishti, OWSA, )

Non traditional and participatory tools and mediums have been piloted, tested intensively and scaled leading to new directions for research and innovation

Our work in Education

Videoshala is a unique intervention where local community members are trained to produce contextually relevant curriculum based educational video kits for primary school children.

Lifeline for Education is a phone based information and knowledge access system to support teachers in the context of an acute shortage of teaching resources in rural government schools

Teacher centric content for computer aided learning was designed, piloted in 12 schools and distributed in 4000 schools

Knowledge Sharing and capacity building events have been a key medium for engaging in dialogue on issues like instructional design, evaluation and meaningful uses of technology

Research and Innovation

Possibilities for Engagement

Possibilities for Engagement

NGOs : Seed ideas for innovation, share research and implement pilots in the field

Corporations & Academic Institutions : Share resources, knowledge, tools and methodologies to develop and assess a proof of concept

Governments : Provide support to scale up a proof of conceptTechnology companies & labs: Create or adapt technology products and services to provide value for teachers & learners

Non Profits

Corporations

Funders

Schools & Academic Institutions

Educationists & Researchers

APFCAPDRFPrathamOWSAYouthreachUdaanVikramshilaDrishtiEducation Development CenterByrraju FoundationSaathUnnatiInternational Youth FoundationAmerican Indian FoundationHuman & Institutional Development ForumCenter for Learning ResourcesIT for ChangeVideo Volunteers

RAN ResearchRetail BizNirantarCenter for Media studiesRV Educational consortiumALCQuicksandIMRBKozmalone consulting

AccentureGEMicrosoftAlcatel-Lucent FoundationIntel EducationWiproCiscoBritish TelecomEducation Initiatives

Carnegie Mellon UniversitySrishti School of Art, Design & TechnologyDigantarSNDT University

USAID

Who are our partners ?

Who is the team ?

Who is the team ?

Aakash Sethi

Executive Director

Deepak Menon

Research & Innovations

Quicksand Design Studio

Innovations Partner

Deepti Belliappa Ganapathy

Communications Specialist

Aude Joannis

Design Specialist

Radha Ganesan

Instructional Designer

Janardhana KV

Administrative Assistant

Amitav Nath

Programs and Operations

Nikita Agarwal

Program Coordinator

Abhijeet Mehta

Partnerships & Communication

Douglas Bell

LearningSpecialist

Linet D’souza

Finance & Administration

Tina Koshy

Governance & Contracts