upGrad Foundation Launches With a Corpus of INR 500Mn to Focus on Scholarships, Training, Skill Development & Mentorship

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Taking another significant leap to make quality education affordable and accessible, upGrad, Asia’s higher Edtech major, announces the formation of its philanthropic and not-for-profit division called upGrad Foundation, today.

“LifeLongLearning, upskilling, and career enhancements can no longer be the right of only those who can afford it. Online learning has changed the perspective of all working professionals around the world and how they look at career improvements. Therefore, upGrad Foundation wants to take this theme of affordability, accessibility, and awareness to all who have growing aspirations and the Foundation will help adopt, guide and train, at scale. We would like to see teachers, coaches and a million learners who cannot afford or deserve excellence to benefit from the upGrad Foundation in the next decade,” said Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson & Co-Founder, upGrad.

The objectives and goals of this not-for-profit Foundation are wide and include Teachers’ Training, Mentoring & Coaching, Career Guidance, Scholarships, Internships, and Online Student Exchange programs. With the aim to build the largest pro-bono buddy, mentor platform and program portfolio in the world, the initial monetary commitment by upGrad is just a beginning while the Foundation looks at roping in donors, and corporates to grant schemes in the near future and scaling its impact and reach.

The Foundation will focus on all working professionals including 1st Generation learners, women coming back to the workforce, and many in Public Services or the Armed Forces.

“Online Education has given an optionality & choice to millions to pursue their ambitions and in many ways democratised LifeLongLearning. Therefore, we see the Foundation as one more step in upGrad’s vision of impacting careers of millions,” concluded Mayank Kumar - Co-Founder & MD, upGrad.

About upGrad

upGrad - started in 2015 is a pioneer in the online education revolution, focused on powering career success for a global workforce of over 1.3 billion. It is one of the few Integrated LifeLongLearning Tech Companies in the world - spanning the college learner to the working professional from the age group of 18-50 years and across Undergrad courses, Campus & Job Linked Programs, Studying Abroad, short form to executive programs to Degrees, Masters and Doctoral - with a learner base of over 2 million across 100+ countries and over 300 University partners and a robust enterprise business with a client base of 1000 companies worldwide.

upGrad’s Global Learning Engine rests on four pillars - (a) its large repository of original & owned content and IP, (b) its own best-in-class proprietary tech platform, (c) its high touch human led delivery service backed by coaches & mentors, and (d) an 85% course completion track record, backed by a further 80% career outcomes guaranteed performance.

Already termed Asia’s higher EdTech leader it has offices in the UK, U.S., Middle East, India, Singapore & Vietnam, and with presence in many more countries.

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