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By R. Chandrasekaran
CHENNAI: It is no secret that good talents are hired by big corporations by offering fabulous perks even before they complete their graduation. This leaves very little space for micro, small and medium enterprises to find the right kind of talent. On the other hand, the students that missed the campus hiring struggle to find opportunities to showcase their talents.
Twenty19.com, India’s biggest student internship website that helps college students across the country get practical exposure and learning through internships, help these two groups. The site’s solutions, which are constantly improved based on the feedback, come in handy, especially in this sluggish economy, where more and more students find it difficult to land good jobs.
Twenty19.com was founded by Karthikeyan Vijayakumar, a graduate of BITS, Pilani. He was awarded the BITS Global 30 under 30 Award in 2009 that is given to its top alumni for outstanding contribution. Vijayakumar, who strongly believes in doing work that changes the world, has co-founded Deepam, an NGO that teaches less-privileged children in Chennai. (Deepam won the 2010 EdTech Award for Education Innovation.)
Vijayakumar, who also enjoys running marathons and cricket, is ably supported by Nivedita Bhardwaj, who is the company’s “Business Leader – Courses,” and Jeyanth Kumar, the Technical Head.
In an exclusive interview to The American Bazaar, Vijayakumar, who is also the chief executive officer of Twenty19.com, speaks about the company. Here are the edited excerpts:
What made you to launch this service?
A lot has been said about Indians not getting enough employment opportunities. This is partly because of the students going to jobs after completing graduation without an internship. In India, most of the students reach companies immediately after their education [unlike] in the developed economies. Therefore, we thought of launching a service that will enable both students as well as companies [to] benefit from it.
The dropout rates after the schools are also very high in India. We also don’t believe that classroom provides everything that a student needs. There is more to learn beyond the classroom and attain meaningful knowledge and skills through a live experience in real time before they enter the office room. For this, we have also undertaken a personal visit to number colleges across India and tried to learn their needs and came up with this idea.
Could you explain more on the reference you made about conditions in developed countries and India?
Yes. For instance, employability rate in Germany is the highest in the world. This is primarily because of the fact that the students [get] apprenticeship before any employment. This is not the case in India and it is reflected on the talents of the students when they reach companies. While some companies feel proud to pick the best, others feel that the students’ potential were not as expected. Therefore, we would like to help them get internship before being taken on the company’s roll. In a nutshell, we want every student, irrespective of the sector, to do an internship before entering the office.
How do both, students and companies, meet? Do you arrange for a live meeting?
Initially, we asked the students to register their resumes and the companies were free to pick from the available resumes. But the companies found it tough to pick the resumes because of the huge number of similar available talents and it was hard to choose the best among them. Therefore, we decided to insert some queries by the companies for the students to so that the companies have additional way of understanding the students and the talents in a better way before giving internship.
Does this offer internship to all the students, who have registered with you?
Not really. About 40 percent of the students get internship by answering queries. Still, there are more students who needed out attention. Our interaction with the students made us to come up with different types of courses to guide them before applying for an internship with our registered corporate clients. These courses are meant to help them get internship and ultimately employment.
Do you charge the students?
While we don’t charge them for registering themselves for any internship, we do have charges for taking up our courses. The minimum charge is Rs.149 and the maximum is Rs.1,499, which, we feel is nominal and affordable for the students.
How do the courses work?
We have created course contents in such a way that they have to go through each and every session. They will be required to do a project at the end of every lesson. We do track them through their activities. In case we find that a particular student is not taking active part in the courses provided, our team will talk to the student and address the issues, if there are any.
Will they not buy the projects since projects are available for a cost?
They can’t and will not. This is because of primarily two reasons. One is our courses and projects are interlinked. For instance, if we have lessons in a course, a student needs to do project for every lesson. At the end of the course, these lessons and projects, which go in tandem, will also end. This prevents anyone from buying the projects. Secondly, the students are coming to us only after struggling to find an internship. Our course material is to help students achieve their goal. Therefore, they will not resort to buying projects.
What are the courses you are offering?
We offer courses such as professional email writing, Java for beginners, Android app development for beginners, smart graphic design with Adobe Photoshop, introduction to capital market, internet marketing, and mastering Microsoft Excel. We shall add as and when we see requirement for more courses.
Do you charge companies?
We do charge them for every internship they offer and we also have charges for those offering multiple internships. This is definitely cost effective for them compared to the job postings in a portal or giving an advertisement in any of the press.
Who is your target audience?
We cater to all sectors and all segments irrespective of the size of the company.
Is MSME your primary target given the fact that talented students are weaned away by bigwigs?
Our model may point towards MSMEs as the primary target though our aim is to cover every section. But mostly MSMEs stand to gain because they cannot engage themselves in campus interviews and offer the students the kind of package that any big companies offer. Similarly, they may not have an HRD department to keep searching for talents. Therefore, we fit very well in their scheme of things. However, our focus and aim is to ensure that all our Indian students get internship and increase the employability rate to higher levels in the coming years.
How is the response you get from both the students as well as companies?
The response from both of them is very positive. In fact, our initiative to start courses was mooted by some students. I would also like to share my experience with one of my clients in Bangalore. I met the client recently and of the 12 people working with him, 8 have done an internship through us. This is a testimony to our success.
Can you give me the traffic percentage from each region?
North, especially Delhi and the NCR, is the primary area from where we generate more traffic. About 42 percent of our traffic or students queries come from the north, while the south generates 38 percent and the west 19 percent.
Can you tell me how many students have been provided with internships through you?
We have about 0.18 million registered students and more than 40,000 students were provided successful internships. There are over 5,300 companies offering internship through us. We don’t have the data as to how many students were able to translate their internships into full employment because neither the companies nor the students keep us informed of their progress though we request them to do so. We started getting anecdotes from the students and probably, in six months time, we may have data on how the students are benefiting from our services.
How do you promote yourself?
Initially, we interacted with the colleges and companies by attending various conferences and seminars and pointed out the benefits of offering internship through us. Now the word of mouth is spreading much faster. However, we continue to interact with college students and attend conferences and seminars.
How do you gauge the corporate response?
Right now, we determine our success rate based on how many of them are coming back and taking up our packages.
How did you fund the project and who are the major shareholders?
Funding is from internal resources and about Rs.8 million has been spent and we are making operating profit. I am the major shareholder. However, others, too, have shareholding in the company signifying their commitment attached towards this company.
Do you have any plan to fund your future or expansion plans?
Currently, we don’t have any plans to tap private equity, or venture capital. If the need arises, we may think of it provided if it offers accelerated reach.
What is the market size?
In India, the internship market is valued roughly around Rs.2 billion, while the skill training market is worth around $1 billion.
Can you name some of your corporate clients?
Reliance, Make My Trips, Biocon, AOL and NGOs like Green peace and Teach for India are some of our current clients. We are also in the process of adding some more big names.
Is there any competition for you in this space?
We are the pioneers in this field and the lack of software patent protection allows others to copy our programs and offer similar services. However, we constantly improve upon our services and stay ahead of the rest.
Why do you call yourself Twenty19?
This is basically for the students to symbolize the vibrant and passionate tribe of their late teens & early 20s. This is to identify ourselves more with the students.
Do you plan to expand your areas of operations?
While we will be definitely exploring the possibilities of expanding ourselves beyond India, we want to make sure that we fully tap the available market in India, which we are very well aware of. In India alone, there are tremendous opportunities. We want mechanical, foundries, and auto sectors to use our services and we don’t want to restrict ourselves with one or two sectors.
Surely, the aim of the company is a good one and the much needed one in the context of increased globalization of the Indian economy and the Indians’ desire to search for talents abroad.
To contact the author, email to rchandrasekaran@americanbazaaronline.com
4 Comments
hai.i m gobi coming from trichy.you r joint more std frommore college
nice sort of internships
really
I would like to do internship in twenty19