Upskilling is the need of the hour. With new technology and trends spawning like crazy, it’s vital to catch up — by upskilling. But this is still a niche market in India and platforms that offer upskilling are a few in numbers. Mythiksha is an upskilling company trying to fill this void.
Developed by IIT Delhi graduate Utkarsh Apoorva and IIM Lucknow graduate Ashwini Ajit Prabhu, Mythiksha School aims to provide a unique format of experiential training to youth from semi-urban and rural India. The company also puts rural women high on its agenda.
Mythiksha was founded a little over six months ago but has managed to pique the interest of over 20,000 students so far. It aims to hit 30,000 enrolments by the end of December 2022.
Recently, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) partnered with Mythiksha to help in its mission to upskill and place one crore of people in rural cities of India.
‘Study now pay later’
“The majority of the students that have enrolled with us come from families that have an annual income of less than Rs 2 lakh, hence our startup is focused on providing upskilling to youth from these families and we run on a study now pay later format. Our course structure, which has milestones, helps them to upskill and then they get a job through our placement network. They can pay us with the money they earn,” said Apoorva.
He added that the platform has seen exponential growth from around 200 enrolments in May to over 3,500 enrolments in October. Mythiksha enrols students through online methods and offline initiatives from tie-ups in colleges to parent counselling to help them grasp the ‘study now pay later’ system.
“Initially, there has been a lot of resistance from the parents. So we have counsellors who speak to the parents and try to help them understand what we teach; and as our registration fee is just Rs 500, it is easier for people from low economic background to enrol,” he said.
Tech and AI
AI is a very important segment of the platform. Mythiksha filters students’ interests, helps them to set milestones, do practical projects and in the end, get placed by matching up their interests and their experience in Mythiksha course with suitable companies through the use of artificial intelligence.
“So our AI model is actually mapping the students’ goals with the kind of training that we provide them and the milestones. Basically, each job is also mapped with a skill. That's how the current process works,” said Prabhu, who handles placement and training at Mythiksha.
Highlighting the issues with college tie-ups, Apoorva said in general, students often don’t know what to do with their learning. This is where technology comes in
“We have taken a very different approach to the training. We take a job role and then build a programme around it. And it's not a collection of lectures, it's a collection of skills, including the most common skills needed in a job description. Each skill has been broken down into multiple milestones. Students earn a particular badge or a particular level of skill, when they have successfully delivered practical projects around that,” added Apoorva.
The startup has partnered with companies like Axis, PolicyBazaar, and Equitas and the AI parameterizes job requirements by companies into skills for students to enrol into and upskill.
Empowering rural women
The mobility of a woman is directly related to empowerment and is often suppressed in society. Mobility is also linked with financial independence, and through Mythiksha, Prabhu aims to provide young girls from rural India an opportunity to upskill and aid their mobility.
“In rural India there is always this thing about getting the girl child educated till a BA degree at the most and then get her married. I’v seen that girls have a lot of potential but there are patriarchal and societal restrictions. Our team works in helping the girls break the restrictions by talking to their parents, showing them role models and telling them how upskilling can help,” Prabhu added
The platform currently has a ratio of 40 percent female students and 60 percent males. To give women priority, the platform also has some placement opportunities that are only for women and is also working on getting together an all-woman team to encourage and help more girls.
