India’s Youth Has The Will And Capacity To Drive Our Nation Towards A Beautiful Future: Divya Jain, Safeducate

Please elaborate on the partnership with Seekify. 

As the saying goes, the best partnerships are born in crisis. This is a very strong and deep partnership that truly got born in COVID-19 as we came together tightly for the GoI’s Suraksha Store project (see more on this below).  

The Safeducate vision has always been to be a better version of ourselves constantly. So for years, we have been one of the leaders in the skilling space pioneering digital learnings through prestigious programs such as co-branded MBA programs with a specialization in supply chain management and logistics with more than 40 top deemed to be universities and management schools such as IIM Kashipur & Lucknow, short term industry oriented programs, skill development courses in association with DDU-GKY, NSDC, various sector skill councils etc.  

However, we had not gone deeper into technology until more recently when we partnered with Seekify - a new age highly advanced data-driven learning platform. Seekify has been envisioned by repeat successful tech entrepreneurs and funded by Sequoia’s Surge program. The Seekify partnership has allowed us to leverage the best in class technology to truly build a unique AI-driven platform for India - Safejob. Along with Seekify’s technology, we have invested heavily in our own proprietary technology that personalizes learning towards job readiness and placement.  

How has your business been affected by the COVID-19 crisis? 

Due to the widespread COVID-19 outbreak, educational institutions across the country experienced a halt and likewise, our training centres all over India had to be closed because of the lockdown.

How are you coping with this disruption? 

Amid a crisis that is threatening to cripple the social fabric of the entire nation, Safeducate Learning has come up with an innovative solution of imparting online training to the youth from the comfort of their homes for uninterrupted learning. Almost overnight, we were able to move our thousands of students (and their friends!) coming from villages and other locations across India  on to our digital platform.

Developed by some of the best minds from IIT, Cambridge and Stanford, Safejob is on a mission to resolve the job readiness and placement challenges faced by Indian youth. Our AI-based platform is designed to understand individual requirements and provide a personalized learning experience for every candidate. We believe that India’s youth has the will and capacity to drive our nation towards a beautiful future. Meanwhile, we aim to do our bit by giving them a chance of becoming a contributing member of our society and the workforce. We are also helping the businesses and recruiters with hiring individuals that are job-ready and more likely to succeed.

Coronavirus pandemic led you to what kind of innovations? 

Innovation best happens in extenuating circumstances and we have been able to create an innovative digital solution to solve for India’s demographic dividend problem. We are confident that our innovation will have an impact on the youth of our country.

As discussed, we have created a personalised job readiness and placement platform, Safejob that uses AI to understand students’ requirements in rural India and give them access to training modules in multiple vernacular languages. This is giving them a chance to become a contributing member of the workforce and the country’s economy, which is currently at stake due to the global COVID 19 pandemic.

Tell us about your CSR initiatives. 

We believe in giving back especially in times like this. 

The Government of India has recently launched the Suraksha Store initiative to convert 20 lakh neighbourhood Kirana stores into retail shops for the health and safety of the people amid the global Covid-19 pandemic. Its primary objective is to educate Kirana store owners across the country about the Covid-19 safety guidelines and protocols required to be followed while running their businesses as well as allow consumers to use the Aarogya Setu app to find a Suraksha Store near them and shop safely. In order to train the retailers in a matter of days or weeks, we partnered with Seekify, an early-stage startup working on technology to improve business efficiency. Within a week of ideation, we were able to build the technology required to onboard and train these store owners and ensure that they can be certified to be aware of the Suraksha norms. We onboarded over 8L Kirana stores across the country and provided safety health and hygiene training. The training material was developed and deployed in 8 languages. And, all of this was done while we were all safe and staying inside our homes. 

Also, we are imparting online training to 3000 students a month in association with Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY) as a CSR initiative.  See photos attached of students across the country taking our online classes from the most remote locations (photos already shared with Sagar).

What are your business expansion plans? 

We are just getting started and we will grow most importantly towards helping our students with job readiness and placement support. We will be going deeper in local languages and across Industries.

We are working towards setting up a multilingual live and on-demand platform to offer short term skilling across sectors and profiles for entry-level job positions. 

Safejob is also planning to roll out an online subscription-based training model for corporates like Flipkart offering customised, off-the-shelf live and on-demand training for employees.