EXCLUSIVE: Simplilearn is no longer just helping professionals up-skill, it can now get you hired by Top Indian Companies

It was one of the first to steer its way through a turbulent Ed-tech Space successfully a few years ago. Simplilearn has not failed to surprise us yet again. One of the most effective Ed-tech portals in our country, it is now also one of the first in the online education space to have announced a placement assistance service to bridge the gap between job aspirations of candidates and skill expectations of hiring companies.

With this, Simplilearn graduates will be put in front of some of the top-most hiring companies for listed and un-listed middle, mid-senior, and senior level job openings, based on industry skill requirements. This step is believed to have a potential to make a real difference to the lives of several professionals, who otherwise may not have been able to highlight themselves in front of top companies despite being trained in emerging fields.

Also, with this move, it is being expected that Simplilearn will be positioned among rivals as not just a professional certification training provider helping professionals up-skill, but as one of the only Ed-tech portals in India helping its students connect with employers who are hunting for talent in high-growth domains. On the other side, it will also prove as a boon for companies, considering it is a difficult task for them to find talent in Big Data, Data Science and Digital Marketing - areas where the Indian market still lacks talent.

Ahead of the product launch, Kashyap Dalal, Chief Business Officer at Simplilearn, revealed how JobAssist works, what are the company's plans around it, how will Simplilearn have a competitive advantage with this new product and much more, in an exclusive interaction with Business Insider. Here's what he had to say:

- Can you explain the hiring process via JobAssist right from the time your placement cell showcases the resume of a Simplilearn Graduate to companies till the final hiring takes place?

We are offering JobAssist exclusively to our learners upon successfully completing the course. On course completion, professionals interested in new opportunities will apply for JobAssist through our website. They would be required to share details with our placement team regarding their experience and career journey. Our team actively engages with leading companies in our JobAssist domains and looks at mapping the openings they are aware of with relevant profiles of professionals. It will share the relevant resumes with the companies.

Once the resumes are shared, the companies will further screen the candidates based on parameters such as performance, experience, and other requirements as each company has its own guidelines. Once a candidate will be shortlisted for an interview, a representative of the specific recruiting company as well as someone from the Simplilearn JobAssist team will coordinate with our student on next steps and rest of the process.

The JobAssist process continues for a period of 12 months or until the candidate gets a job offer through the JobAssist process or decides to opt out of the process due to any other career developments.

- Who constitutes the Simplilearn Placement Cell?

Simplilearn Placement cell has a dedicated unit of 10 members that works towards building network with top hiring companies. They also match profiles to relevant openings across these companies to maximise the chances of conversion for students as well as the companies finding relevant candidates. Our team has extensive experience in acquiring talent for Fortune 500 companies and fast growing start-ups.-

- How many Companies have you tied up with so far?

Currently, we have tied up with five leading IT/ITes companies and the plan is to expand these partnerships with all large enterprises and top ranking startups in India across sectors by the end of this year. The hiring companies that we partner with are those focuses on growth areas in the digital economy and have huge need for quality professionals in areas such as big data, digital marketing, cloud computing, mobile, DevOps and so on.

- Will you be facilitating Overseas hiring as well?

We definitely see potential to use our business scale across India and US (as well as Middle East, UK and Australia) to open up overseas opportunities in the near future. At this time, however, our focus is to help our alumni with relevant and exciting opportunities in the domain of their course and career interest.

- Do you charge an extra fee from students to avail the JobAssist service?

Job Assist is a free valuable service provided to Simplilearn learners. There is no separate fee chargeable. The only condition is that this service is available only to students who successfully complete the course objectives and requirements.

- Do you feel by connecting the professional trained by you to companies relevant to their skills, you have closed the last gap in your offerings as an Edu-tech portal?

With JobAssist, we are definitely a step closer to the larger mission in helping professionals and enterprises succeed in the digital work age. Advanced technologies are changing the dynamics of businesses so frequently. It's becoming challenging for companies to keep up with this pace, especially in hiring skilled talent in large numbers. Similarly, job portals and consultancy firms are not equipped enough in processing quality resumes of deserving candidates with technical expertise. At Simplilearn, we want to be the career partner and help in bridging the gap between career aspirations and industry needs.

- With JobAssist, are you looking at having a Competitive Advantage over others who are merely providing education/training in emerging fields?

Our high touch learning model has benefited our learners, which has led us to an industry high course completion rate at 72 %. It was one of our milestones last year and gave us a competitive edge in the professional training space. JobAssist is an initiative that we are very excited about as it allows us to add value directly to the career of our students, not just through providing them the right skills but also by connecting them to the opportunities that exist in high growth industries.

What are your Short-term and Long-term Goals for Job Assist?

The short term goal is to work towards placing all of our learners for the select courses on Big Data, Data Science and Digital marketing for Masters programs as well as the online classroom courses. This will be facilitated by our dedicated placement cell. The mid to long term goal would be to build JobAssist as a platform which companies searching for quality talent in digital economy skillsets naturally veer towards.

Anything else you may want to share with us to write about Job Assist?

We invite all employers who struggle with shortage of skilled talent in areas like Big Data, Digital Marketing to reach out to us and work with us to get access to job ready talent in these areas.

The industry-resource equilibrium remains disturbed owing to India's huge demand-supply challenge. It all boils down to a defunct Indian education system that has failed to keep up with the times as well as lack of job opportunities in the Indian market.

At a time like this, Simplilearn has emerged as a saviour because its skilled Graduates are getting a chance to be in front of companies which require them. It remains to be seen, however, how effective 'JobAssist' will really prove to be and whether it will achieve what it has set out for. Who knows, we may be in for another surprise soon!