Bengaluru EdTech firm allegedly takes loan in students’ names, fails to offer jobs; students protest

NEW DELHI: Protests were staged outside the Bangalore EdTech company, CareerLabs, after the firm allegedly cheated the students by taking their money with a promise of providing job opportunity. The company has taken crores of loans using the credentials of the affected students, the All India Students Association (AISA) said.

The protesting students demanded the CareerLabs CEO to either give Rs 4 lakh per annum job in the same company or cancel the loan taken in their name.

The firm on the other hand had asked the students to pay Rs 1.50 lakh along with penalty if they decide to discontinue the course.

The students protesting were enrolled in the internship-based hiring programme. The AISA posted a video of Uzma from Maharashtra explaining her ordeal. She said that the recruiters from CareerLabs came to her college and promised 100% job offers at the end of the internship course. However, she claimed that they had asked the students to pay Rs 2 lakh as the fee of the course in instalments. The company allegedly used their digital signature to secure loans without their consent, as per reports.

A protest was held in Bangalore today by students defrauded by CareerLabs- an EdTech company near their office. The company has taken crores of loans using the credentials of the students with the promise of giving jobs. Listen to Sharan from Kalaburgi speak about his ordeal. pic.twitter.com/clu3v656D3

— AISA Karnataka/ಐಸಾ ಕರ್ನಾಟಕ (@AISA_karnataka) August 2, 2023

Later, students were instructed by the Bangalore-based EdTech company that they will have to pay Rs 22,139 in the first 6 months and Rs 12,000 - Rs 13,000 in the next six months.

Uzma said, “We moved to Bangalore to join the course. But soon realised that the firm was not providing the required training. We used to just watch YouTube videos through their application the whole day and a few programmes to debug later during the day. Other than this, no other training was given.” On the contrary, the offer letter had detailed course training listed.

Students were asked to work from home after the completion of the course. On August 16, one year of the course will be completed, but we have not been offered any job.