Amidst the ordinary, rise the extraordinary. Naga Lakshmi Pothuguntla took a career gap of 11 years and now thrives as an associate manager at PepsiCo. Dr. Drakshayani Desai, a former professor, explored data science and is pursuing a career as a software engineer at Prolifics. Visweswari Pitchika took a break when she became a mother, though it was fulfilling to nurture her child, she is now also a Senior Analyst at Capgemini. From Karavaka, a coastal village in Andhra Pradesh, Durga Prasanna Devi is the first from her family to work at a corporate firm. 

All of their success stories led us to OdinSchool, an online upskilling platform that helps young professionals and graduates launch, advance, and change their careers with well-structured, industry-focused bootcamps and live sessions. “The entire program, from curriculum design to pedagogy and outcomes, are aligned to addressing the needs of the current industry,” said Vijay Pasupulati, founder and CEO of OdinSchool, who added that their bootcamps are reasonably priced keeping in mind that upskilling young professionals is the need of the hour. 

In line with this, OdinSchool has launched several new initiatives. Vijay Pasupulati said that early on, since launch in 2021, they realised that graduates and working professionals looking for online education don’t need just the content, but also require guidance and lots of hands-on practice. “Furthermore, through our dedicated placement team, we ensure that our learners transition into industry assets by connecting them with the most relevant job opportunities,” he said. 

Currently, some of their students are working in companies like Tech Mahindra, Swiggy, Flipkart, CtrlS, and Capgemini, among other industry leaders. The company employs around 100+ trainers and speakers who are professors and experts in the field, with considerable experience working in companies and startups. It has currently partnered with over 500+ companies, including TCS, Genpact, Meesho, Expedia Group, ABinBev, Google and others actively hiring graduates from OdinSchool. (see below the list of hiring partners) 

Besides its upskilling bootcamps, OdinSchool also specialises in running induction and employee upskilling programmes for companies.

Career Guidance for Life 

Despite India producing the largest number of engineers annually, there persists a significant scarcity of skilled professionals in the domestic job market. The India Skills Report 2022 by Wheebox reveals that only 50% of the country’s youth are employable. This stark contrast implies that nearly one out of every two Indian graduates lacks the skills needed for employability.

That explains why having the right guidance and mentor makes the whole difference in one’s career growth. OdinSchool director Shruti Jayakumar believes that the engagement that a student shows in an online live class is much more as they can speak to the teacher in real-time. She said that they are, more often than not, making a big career switch and are expected to be a little anxious and in need of guidance. “A 360° upskilling is not just knowing technical knowledge, but learning how to learn, analyse their strengths and weaknesses, presentation and communication skills, which is what we offer in our courses,” she added. 

This shift underscores the importance of continuous reskilling and upskilling for young professionals aiming to stay in sync with the industry demands. This is true especially for women, she said, who have taken long career breaks to look after their family, or professionals who took the axe in the recent mass layoffs, and even freshers struggling to land their first job can take up these upskilling courses and realise their dreams of working for leading enterprises.

In a market saturated with online courses, there’s something for everyone. While recorded classes with certifications are popular, courses provided by OdinSchool and Scaler etc take you through the whole process of learning and practical experience until you land a job. OdinSchool decided to keep their prices affordable, making the courses accessible for everyone.

“It has made it easier for freshers, women, and people who were laid off to upskill without having to pay an arm and a leg for it,” said Jayakumar.  

What about Generative AI Courses? 

With the onslaught of generative AI, the skill gap has become a nagging problem globally, but particularly for the Indian workforce. As per the latest report, 54% of workers believe generative AI will advance their careers, while 62% said they did not possess the skills to effectively and safely use the technology. 

When a majority of companies are looking for talent and diverse skills, and are ready to pay hefty packages for it, upskilling and reskilling is the right way ahead. Andrew Ng’s DeepLearning is doing a pretty good job at offering both paid as well as free courses to developers. Besides, there are tons of free courses available online. So, how is OdinSchool competing with them?

The company has included Generative AI topics to their data science bootcamps and students learn how to use open source generative AI models and tools. Srinivas Vedantam, Head of Product at OdinSchool further elaborates, “Generative AI based application development is covered by industry experts as part of OdinTalks familiarise students with what’s happening beyond the courses. They are also required to build their capstone projects on training and fine-tuning LLMs for specific problems using custom datasets.”  

This is the perks of online learning, where companies like OdinSchool constantly tweak the curriculum to align with evolving trends in the market is extremely beneficial to students looking to upskill.

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