IIT Madras start-up offers free employability skills course to 5,000 EWS students

NEW DELHI: GUVI, a start-up incubated at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad will provide free employability skills to 5,000 Economically Weaker Section (EWS) students. The initiative, ‘Fly High’, will offer technical skills training in the vernacular, according to a statement by IIT Madras.

To recognize emerging women entrepreneurs with remarkable innovations in the edtech industry the start-up is also launching the ‘Sridevi Arunprakash Innovation Award,’ with a cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh, in recognition of its cofounder.

Skills training for students

Students selected under Fly High will be provided “vernacular tech-courses, mentorship services from industry experts” to make them skillful aspirants completely free of cost.

As per the official website only students of 2020, 2021 and 2022 pass out batch, from ‘CSE, IT, EEE, ECE’ streams who have maintained an average of 7 CGPA and above, with family income less than 3 lakhs per annum who have received schooling from government or government aided schools can apply.

Women entrepreneurs

Nominations for the ‘Sridevi Arunprakash Innovation Award’ can be filed on the official website of GUVI. The winner will be decided by the leading edtech industry experts like Ragini Chaudhary, director Investments, Caspian Venture Capital & Private Equity firm.

“The first memorial day of Sridevi Arunprakash was observed on September 20,” says the IIT Madras statement. “Recognizing the barriers of students from weaker sections, the start-up is working to bridge the employability skill gap in IT and Software industry by providing an opportunity to students to upgrade themselves professionally through relevant technical skills.”

Speaking about these initiatives, Arun Prakash, founder and chief executive officer, GUVI, said, “Sridevi always helped me in getting the right frame of reference to see the women in tech and their balancing acts for real-life challenges. This will be a starting point for all of us to walk in the path of her vision for women in tech.”

SP Balamurugan, co-founder of GUVI, added: “These initiatives are our way of paying tribute to Ms. Sridevi and a commitment from us to nurture tech talent and recognize women innovators across India. The entire GUVI team is behind these initiatives to make them successful.”

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