Kerala start-up offers courses in vernacular languages

Amid crises faced by the students and the educational sector in the state due to the pandemic, a startup from Kochi has taken a different path and has been offering courses in vernacular languages other than English and considers the financial conditions of students in an empathetic manner while putting together their fee structure.

While most online learning platforms are offering courses in English, Avodha, a vernacular upskilling platform, is offering 20 courses in regional languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. Six courses are also available in Hindi. Through Avodha, the student pays a small amount upfront which is roughly one-fourth of the overall fees and the remainder is paid after the student gets a job related to the course they have studied, the company said in a release. Besides software courses, Avodha has recently entered the hardware field, making it the very first start-up in India to offer hardware skill development, the company claimed. Hardware online courses that Avodha offers include mobile, laptop and A/C repair engineering.

Joseph E George, who heads Avodha, said students can change the course if they have not finished 30 per cent of a particular course, and they will not be charged for changing course. "We don't want money to be a barrier to students who are exploring their passion. Although each course costs Rs 12,800 in total, students only have to pay Rs 2,800 upfront. The rest can be settled once they find employment through their platform," he added. Avodha offers 23 upskilling courses, including coding, digital marketing, and accountancy. The company currently employs 500 people and 1,500 freelancers and has around 70,000 students. The company has a job platform where many Corporate firms including TCS, Infosys, Bank of Baroda and SBI Caps offer entry-level jobs to students. Avodha also uses advanced Data Science to be able to map the skill gaps in a person's profile, using which they are able to create an ecosystem wherein the system recognizes the skill gap in Individual profiles and builds learning and testing solutions accordingly, the company said.