Since March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic locked most industries down, edtech has seen massive growth. Edtech platform Great Learning, which has helped over 20 lakh learners globally upskill themselves in new-age technology and business management skills, saw its user base grow by five times since September 2020.
The Great Learning Academy offers over 750 free courses in English and Hindi across domains such as data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, IT & software, cloud computing, marketing & finance, digital marketing, interview preparation, sales, BD, and so on.
Hari Krishnan Nair, co-founder, Great Learning, told FE that over the past year or so while 45% of the users were college students from India, the remaining 55% were early and experienced working professionals from across the globe. “Introduction to Digital Marketing, Data Science Foundations, Java Programming, Excel for Beginners, Smart English for Professionals, Python for Machine Learning and Front-end Development are some of the most popular courses and are witnessing demand globally from countries including India, the US, Canada, Bangladesh and more,” he said.
Great Learning has also entered the job assessment market. Nair said: “Access to quality job opportunities for students from smaller cities has been traditionally limited. Campus placements in colleges in these cities were negatively impacted during the pandemic, making it difficult for students to land jobs. CareerBoost is our attempt to help students, freshers and early-stage professionals from across the country showcase their talent and land high-quality jobs.”
With the launch of CareerBoost, freshers in India are now able to access comprehensive career support and relevant job and internship listings. Since its launch, over 1,000 Great Learning hiring partners like Hexaware, Nielsen, Vodafone, Informatica, Dell, Tech Mahindra, Virtusa, Capgemini, and others have offered opportunities to aspirants on the platform.
Nair added that with organisations increasingly hiring freshers, platforms like CareerBoost can significantly contribute towards bridging the skills gap. “The idea behind CareerBoost is to provide the right handholding, career guidance and high-quality career opportunities to freshers,” he said. “By undertaking the various tests that are available on CareerBoost, students get a sense of the skills corporates are looking for while hiring freshers and early-stage professionals. Those who possess such skills can go to the next stage and bag these opportunities right away, while others can identify the areas where they need help, upskill themselves and then land these opportunities.”
Today, lakhs of college students from across India are benefiting through CareerBoost. “More than 10,000 job vacancies and internships are posted monthly, with opportunities up to Rs 36 lakh per annum from recruiters,” Nair said.
As far as challenges faced by organisations when it comes to freshers’ on-boarding are concerned, Nair said that the pandemic has made it tougher. “Earlier, companies had their own physical training facilities for skill development and absorption of company culture, but now all of this needs to be done online. New employees also used to learn a lot by observing their seniors and bosses, but this is something that is not entirely possible today. This is the reason that the importance of quality virtual training has gone up significantly. Your training partner should understand both your skill-related demands as well as the culture, to be able to deliver results for you. This is where companies like ours come in,” he said.
There are over 10,000 job vacancies on the CareerBoost platform, and the key skills registering high demand in the current scenario are software developer, quality assurance analyst, database administrator, full stack engineer, business development executive and data analyst. Primary skills required for roles in these and similar domains include Java, Python, SQL, HTML/CSS and soft skills like effective communications, ability to work collaboratively in a team, etc. “We are witnessing maximum salary increases this year for software development and data analyst roles, with marquee organisations such as Informatica, Netskope, Dell and MuSigma offering aspirants salaries up to Rs 10 lakh per annum,” Nair said.
Source: financialexpress.com
