upGrad has announced the Intern-Zip programme, an initiative to train around 1 lakh learners in the current fiscal and accelerate talent mobility while bolstering Indian Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme - announced in the Union Budget 2024-25.
The skilling major has created a specialised course with 9 comprehensive modules /virtual classrooms targeted towards individuals aged 20-24, and coming from non-tax-paying family backgrounds.
The course comes at no cost for the first 1,00,000 learners. For corporates and subsequent learners, the cost for the specially designed fully online course will be INR 20,000. The Scholarship pool is planned for INR 200cr. upGrad has made additional investments towards operations including research, content, and faculty to ensure the product is tuned with the right pedagogy for delivering right outcomes. The initiative will also enable top corporates access skilled/ready-to-deploy talent at a set fee.
“Skilling is no longer a product, but a necessity that must be scaled beyond traditional income slabs to empower individuals from all walks, and Hon. PM’s ambition is bold and absolutely well timed. With India’s growing population and with talent migration that’s happening from Agri to Formal jobs, it’s critical for us to build an infrastructure that could equip larger groups," said Ronnie Screwvala, Co-founder & Chairperson, upGrad. “With this initiative, we’re empowering a whole new community of aspiring individuals to get trained adequately and get placed across leading organisations / GCCs / partner companies, leaving a stronger economic mark,” he added.
Focused on three key areas, modules will cover Technical Savviness, Soft Skill Mastery & Professional Development; skilling individuals in tools such as Microsoft Office (Word, PPT, Excel) and ChatGPT, including softer aspects like effective communication, problem-solving, time management, professional grooming, and optimising networking techniques in person /on social media.
