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Edtech start-up upGrad on Tuesday launched 100 per cent Vidya Shakti Scholarships to aid women learners. The scholarship aims to offer quality higher education to first generation and tribal women, women from the armed and police forces, female NGO workers, female journalists across Tier 2 cities and beyond, and female wards of defence and police personnel, along with blue-collared women.
Chosen candidates be offered upGrad programmes across Data Science and Digital Marketing disciplines as per their preferences, along with 1:1 mentorship and coaching facilities at zero cost.
The Vidya Shakti Scholarship has been created to support a million women candidates from the remotest parts of the country, starting with 15 states. As a starter, upGrad commits to upskill over 15,000 women candidates over the next 3 years with its courses that will be offered under the 100 per cent and up to 70 per cent fee waiver categories.
Led by Sanjay Kumar of upGrad, the company has partnered with over 10 NGOs — including SEWA Bharat, Vidya Poshak, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Degree College, Anvarat Foundation, VigyanShaala, Yuwa India, Eklavya Foundation and Welspun Foundation among others — for the inaugural batch of candidates.
“We want to enable the aspirational successes of our women learners, especially the ones who qualify as the first-generation learners of their families. While we have started the first leg of the program with a limited reach, we will scale up this initiative over the next 3 years to make it a national-level program. We want to empower India’s women with world-class education for unleashing their highest potential,” said Mayank Kumar, Co-Founder and MD, upGrad.
Renana Jhabvala, Chairperson, SEWA Bharat, added, “These scholarships are extremely important as there is a huge gap between the skills that girls have and their aspirations. Secondary and higher education has increased tremendously among girls in the last 15 years and, paradoxically, work force participation has fallen. One reason for this is that school and college education do not meet market needs. With upGrad’s Vidya Shakti Scholarship, these poorer girls, first generation learners, will be able to get jobs they aspire to.”
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