Australia as a top global study destination. 🌎

The QS Best Student City Ranking 2024 is out! 

 

This year, five Australian cities are ranked among the top 30 student cities globally: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra. 

High university rankings, a diverse student mix, high desirability, a vibrant jobs market, affordability and a positive student voice have all combined to continue to position Australia as a top global study destination. 🌎 

Read more: https://lnkd.in/es_bRqW8 

KPMG to invest $2B with Microsoft to develop AI for firm

KPMG announces a multi-billion-dollar investment in Microsoft’s generative AI and cloud services that will accelerate the use and development of generative AI for KPMG’s audit, tax and advisory clients and its 265,000 people globally. KPMG CEO Paul Knopp joins Caroline Hyde to discuss on "Bloomberg Technology." (Source: Bloomberg)

Ark CEO Cathie Wood speaks to KPMG CEO Paul Knopf - who shares that the firm  is to invest $2B in generative AI and Cyber and cloud solutions in partnership with Microsoft for its audit, tax and advisory clients - and expect it to return in excess of $12B for the firm!

There has been many disruptions in the accounting profession over the years- from ledgers to PCs to accounting software such as MYOB and XERO. These disruptions did not replace jobs but generated economic activity allowing business  to grow.

Paul believed that we are in an era  of the greatest technology disruption that he has seen in many decades - and believes the workforce will grow over the years - with generative AI - employing more  Cyber Professionals, Data Scientists,

Analysts and Auditors - letting AI do more mundane tasks and enabling people to be upskilled to do more interesting things !

 The firm looks forward to partnering with Microsoft to embrace this technology!

Workers will need to be lifelong learners - says Simon Dewar of BSI E’learning and is looking forward to be partnering with Kala Philip, CEO of BSI Learning Institute and Cassandra Parton, CEO of Microsoft training Partner, NEXTTECH Learning, with a view  to help upskill and reskill these humans in areas such as Generative AI, IT and Cybersecurity.

Security , governance and architecture is key for organisations to build and run their businesses. Ongoing training and a mindset of lifelong learning is key to the future of work - says NEXTTECH Director , Craig Saphin

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2023-07-12/microsoft-s-2-billion-ai-partnership-with-kpmg-video

The Opportunity to upskill and reskill people in India

India is busy constructing roads, tech campuses, airports and factories and growing by 6% a year  - but its education system leaves  a lot to be desired / says the Economist 

500m of its people are under 20— there is India’s brainy elite getting quals and the best education but for most Indians they are jobless and do not have the basic language literacy and numeracy skills! 

This could bring India’s economic development to a premature stop.

Why? 

What are some of the root causes of this lack of education ?

It’s the teachers - says the Economist

Teachers are poorly trained and badly supervised: 

• a survey of rural schools found a quarter of staff were absent. 
• Officials sometimes hand teachers unrelated duties, from administering elections to policing social-distancing rules during the pandemic.

Why is Vietnam’s kids doing so well ? It’s the teachers -  they are better prepared, more experienced and more likely to be held accountable if their pupils flunk.

The good news is that there has been a splurge on infrastructure. A decade ago only a third of government schools had handwashing facilities and only about half had electricity; now around 90% have both. 

Since 2014 India has opened nearly 400 universities. Enrolment in higher education has risen by a fifth.

BSI is proud to help solve this wicked problem by being a part of a collaboration between Australian and Indian educational institutions! 

BYJU is in Pain 

In the meantime , India’s biggest ed-tech firm has been slashed from 22b -6 b as a result of non compliance and a $1.2b debt around its neck ! 

Byju’s, who is trying to fix this problem of educating Year K-12s - and says it educates over 150m people worldwide . Deloitte has resigned  for non compliance -  resulting in many of its backers directors to resign Prosus, Peak XV Partners and ! 

Investors in BYJU include Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital, General Atlantic, Prosus and Tencent.