Success is an ongoing process and an everlasting journey, says Mr. Pramod Maheshwari, Chairman and Managing Director, Career Point University

Mr. Pramod Maheshwari, Chairman and Managing Director of Career Point Ltd., Chancellor of Career Point University, Kota, and Hamirpur, talks about his whole journey, gives valuable advice to students and talks about his future goals.

Ques 1: Being the founder of Career Point Ltd, kindly tell us about your experience in the education industry and what makes it the best industry to work in?

Ans. Well, the education sector is one of the most dynamic and versatile sectors to work in. Every day, this sector presents enormous opportunities not only to educate but also to learn. When an educationist works for the society, he brings a lot of positive change which impacts not only a family, society or nation but the entire world. In my opinion, education is the only way to improve the lives of the people, which makes it best sector to work in.

Ques 2: How do you prepare students to face the challenges of modern organizations and global standards successfully?

Ans. In the current scenario, Experiential learning, Global Exposure and Preparing students as per industry needs are the keys to success. The overall focus is to inculcate critical problem through an optimal blend of theory, practical and live projects that lead to practical and experiential learning and make students industry ready.

Ques 3: You started Career Point as a small tutoring company in a small garage with just 50 students and now it coaches more than 25000 students every year. Tell us the struggles you faced behind making Career Point a huge success.

Ans. First of all, success is not calculated as big or small as these are just achievements. Your achievements could be quantified in terms of small or big but not success, as it is a journey, not a destination.  It is an ongoing process and an everlasting journey. Achievement of a particular goal at that moment is a momentary success which gives you energy for new goals and that’s the way this journey goes on. Yes, every time it is not possible to get the desired results, as ups and downs are part and parcel of this journey. You need right people, right resources, the right environment and right policies to make an ideal institution. The dynamics of coaching industry is strange and is affected by poaching of not just faculties but even good students. We have faced this major challenge in this industry.

Secondly, in the service industry, you need right manpower and resources at the right time which are a mismatch and a major challenge.

Despite these facts, it is obviously a great journey and a glory of success. We started from a tire godown with 51 students to now 25,000 students’ and this means a lot of success stories and case studies. I found Career Point in the year 1993, just after the completion of my B.Tech from IIT- Delhi. Later my elder brother, Mr. Om Maheshwari, who is also an Engineer, joined me with two of my younger brothers, Shailendra Maheshwari and Naval Maheshwari. Shailendra is taking care of entire academics as Director – Academics and is popular among students as SM Sir. He was also a meritorious student like me since the beginning and has done his Engineering in Electronics and Communication. Since then, there is no looking back. We developed a full-fledged coaching system with the Best Faculty Team, Study Material, Academic System and Ultimate Personal Care. We are imparting coaching for Pre-Engineering (JEE Advanced & JEE-Main), Pre-Medical (AIIMS, AIPMT & State PMTs) and Pre-Foundation (7^th to 10^th + NTSE / Olympiad). Later, we forayed into higher education through two Universities-Career Point University, Kota, and Career Point University, Hamirpur.

Ques 4: How do you create a student centric environment in your organization?
Ans. Well, each and every member of our team is concerned for our student’s success. Our philosophy is “Where Care leads to Career” and all our activities are designed with a student centric approach. We have a mentor-mentee system where on every 25 to 50 students, one teacher is assigned as a mentor who takes care of any academic and non-academic issues of students during the entire academic cycle.  We conduct open sessions and also separate student welfare cell to take care of any personal need or support of students. Moreover, any student can meet any Director or Senior Management within office hours on simple request.

Ques 5: Being an entrepreneur, tell us about the struggles behind starting your own venture and some advice for the aspiring entrepreneurs of our country.

Ans. The first step of deciding and starting your own venture is very difficult in life. Keeping the same energy level and enthusiasm to pursue goal despite various unexpected hurdles is another major challenge.  My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is that you must have a fire in the belly to become an expert of the sector in which you are aiming to start your business, keep your solutions as simple as possible, aim big but act in pieces, release your product versions as soon as possible and take feedback from the market. Be flexible to act fast on market feedback, have a good team and be a good team player. Have a mentor who also has interest in your company & sector and you must be risk tolerant person who can deal with uncertainty and are resilient.

Ques 6: Being an IIT Delhi alumni, you would agree that IITs form the cream layer of the educational institutes across the country. Do you agree that the other universities across the country are coming at the level of IITs or will there always remain a difference in terms of quality education?

Ans. I don’t see any difference in the quality of education delivered by IITs and other Universities.  See, IITs have an unfair advantage as they get the best brain of the country hence obviously they are able to produce finest engineers. But at the same time, we must acknowledge that all IITians are not successful and not all successful persons are IITians. 

Ques 7: How do you integrate value based education with your curriculum?
Ans. Students learn by doing or experiencing live projects. Through this, we ask them to develop something beneficial to the society. Being a responsible educational institution and importing services from Pre-school to Ph.D., we understand institutional social responsibility and always try to be a part of such events. The significance of value based education is only when you connect it with something tangible purposefully. If we ask students to create something useful for society, then only they understand these values. The ten universal values are Wisdom, Integrity, Justice, Co-existence, Service, Devotion, Contentment, Love, Peace and Trust which is an inevitable part of society and mankind. No one can teach these values forcefully to anyone.

Ques 8: How does your curriculum, particularly for the engineering institutes, ensure best practices of the industry?

Ans. Our focus is to inculcate skills as per the need of the industry – We teach what industry needs. It is a learning by doing, by experiencing through live projects. Our teaching pedagogy is imbibed with Expert talks, Lectures, Industrial Visits, Live projects, Research-led approach and an Optimal blend of theory and practice.

Ques 9: What goals do you have in your mind for your institution for the next few years?

Ans. Well, we are into entire strata of education value chain from Pre-school to Ph.D., every unit is important to us whether it is Coaching, School Education, Career Point Gurukul  (Residential School and Coaching Campus) or University.  Every unit is having its own significant niche and particular goals. We want to grow holistically with some internal set targets which not only includes numbers but the impactful results in terms of selections in various competitive exams, placement of students in University, outreach and quality services with set benchmarks.

Ques 10: What message do you have for students who wish to join your institution in the near future?

Ans. First of all, have faith in Career Point System and its teaching methodology. We are definitely abided to provide quality educational services. Our focus is the success of our students on all fronts, be it academics, research, placement or exposure. We are striving hard to provide the excellent platform to our students.