{Startup Watch: Board Infinity} Creating Job-Ready Talent from Tier 2, 3 and 4 Cities

India is a country where the pressure to perform starts early. We all know that sinking feeling in our stomach as exams and job interviews close in. Not every student is able to get into the top colleges of the country or are able to get into colleges in the metropolitan cities.

However, they compete in the same job market once they graduate. Such students often find daunting challenges waiting for them as they find themselves unprepared in comparison to more successful candidates in terms of skill sets.

To help these youth by upskilling them, Board Infinity, a career exploration platform, creates job-ready talent for employers with the help of industry professionals. The Tech Panda spoke to Sumesh Nair, Co-founder of the startup to find out the pain points that they are trying to solve.

As per our research, people from tier 2, 3, and 4 cities, as well as people passing out of colleges from tier 2, 3, and 4 ranked colleges in metros, do not have the right kind of exposure or understanding on the job market demands or skill sets

“Primarily, there are three pain points that students, who are in transition phase after passing out of the college or working professionals, face in the early stages of a professional life; career-fit, i.e., whether one fits in a job role, skill sets required for the job role and how to learn that, and lastly, the route to follow to enter the industry or a particular kind of job role,” he explains.

He also reveals that students from tier 2, 3, and 4 cities in India need a little more guidance before entering the job markets.

“As per our research, people from tier 2, 3, and 4 cities, as well as people passing out of colleges from tier 2, 3, and 4 ranked colleges in metros, do not have the right kind of exposure or understanding on the job market demands or skill sets. Moreover, not every university has an alumni network to help them in providing long-term value,” he adds.

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Board Infinity is trying to provide a solution to these problems by first, providing direction to students on what career fits them and the right skills needed to be acquired.

“We help them acquire the skills in close to 4-6 months, which completely depends on the nature of the program the customers opt for,” he says.

Secondly, after the completion of the program and when customers are job ready, they help them find the right job and get them placed as per the skill sets they have acquired.

A Platform for Knowledge Exchange

Board Infinity creates job ready talent for employers with the help of industry professionals. It aims to build a platform for knowledge exchange of industry professionals with extremely short focused programs ranging from 10 hours to 150 hours to make people employable in specific job roles depending on their needs.

With part training and a job outcome linked business model, the platform aims to solve the issue of employability in a unique and sustainable way. Learners need to pay partly for the training while the rest is charged once the student is placed in an organization.

The highlight of the platform, apart from the industry grade curriculum, is its personalized coaching sessions and an opportunity for individual mentorship from industry experts throughout the program. Students are also provided with career guidance, mock interviews, role coaching, resume reviews, placement preparation, future roadmap, social profiling, and linked reviews, etc.

Board Infinity Origin

Nair reveals that the intention to start Board Infinity came from a personal space for both him and his Co-founder Abhay Gupta, who hail from tier 2 cities. They also understood the journey of student life while pursuing a career and coming into the competitive world.

“In our journey, we saw a huge mismatch between what is being taught in colleges and the skill sets required by the corporate industry. This gap has been in existence for a long time without solving this problem at a large scale. Thus, as entrepreneurs, we recognized the gaps that exist both from the perspective of students and enterprises,” he reminisces.

In our journey, we saw a huge mismatch between what is being taught in colleges and the skill sets required by the corporate industry. This gap has been in existence for a long time

They also learnt from previous organizations where they worked about how interesting bootcamp models can be for training hired resources.

“We both were involved in training and mentoring new recruits for a long period of time in our organizations,” he says.

 More Than 25,000 Learners

Today, the startup works with customers across 180+ cities and towns in India. 50% of their customers are from non-metros. They boast of approximately 100+ companies looking to hire learners every month.

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They have a Net Promoter Score (NPS) close to 60, which is usually 45 in the industry (for paid ed-tech users). With more than 1200 expert panels, they claim to be the highest industry expert led platform in the country solving employability issues. They are working with more than 320 hiring partners across India. They are associated with more than 25% of IIMs in India and institutions like XLRI for imparting highly specific career training modules.

“We have positively impacted the career of more than 25,000 learners in various capacities. In the last three years, we have become one of the dominant players in the market in the early career segment. We grew 400% last financial year in our overall revenues,” he concludes proudly.