BETA Park to start early next year

Chhimi Dema 

Bhutan Education and Technology Academy Park (BETA Park) will open early next year offering technology-based learning and development campus.

BETA Park, which was launched on November 11, will take in more than 400 learners to enrol in diploma courses such as business management, start-ups and entrepreneurship, computer science and IT, and cyber security.

The diploma in computer science and IT covers fields like networking, web-designing and e-commerce. The duration of the courses varies from 10 months to 12 months.

According to the Project Director, Kezang, BETA Park is designed as a self-sustaining ecosystem that will cater training, learning and development for tertiary education as well as a tech Park community, where start-ups and incubation will be housed. He said that the BETA Park aims to contribute to resolving the gap between graduates and the industry demands in the market.

“We are trying to resolve that issue by providing more experiential and practical oriented courses in the campus,” he said.

The pandemic, he said, had taught that technology was the solution forward and had indirectly woken up everybody, especially in the education sector. “We are complementing that and taking it to a level of higher education and deploying technology to provide holistic education, which will be in some cases fully virtual or fully classroom or blended,” he said.

BETA Park’s chief learning and development officer Meenu Subba said that the education model set for learning at BETA Park was following the 70-20-10 model.

In this model, 70 percent is experimental learning, 20 percent of social learning and 10 of formal learning, she said. Experimental learning consists of practical, assignment research, case studies, field visit internships and exchange programmes.

Social learning includes guest lectures, conferences, focus groups, peer works, group works and assignment mentorships and formal learning with seminars or lecturers.  The Park also provides facilities such as student residence, transportation, sports and recreational facilities among others.

“We want to personalise learning, enhance student engagement, and fuse different ways of learning,” Meenu said.

BETA Park courses, officials said, are based on the London Institute of Business and Technology (LIBT).