Pune-based skilling company Paathshala Learning Solutions Pvt Ltd that currently derives bulk of its revenues from corporate training is looking at its programmes designed for academic institutions as the business driver over the next five years.
The firm expects its revenue mix to swivel as it is targeting to hit Rs 100 crore top-line by 2020, co-founder of the firm told VCCircle.
Rajib Chowdhury, one of the two co-founders of Paathshala, said, “Education is set to grow multiple times and that’s where our future is.”
Paathshala has presence in both corporate training and skill development programmes for college students and teachers.
The corporate training arm that counts Deutsche Bank, State Bank of India among others as clients, is the key revenue churner for the firm, generating around 85 per cent of the total. The firm expects this to change with the education unit contributing that much in five years.
In the education field, it has multiple platforms—SeTU for school children, Yogya for college kids and Acharya for teachers.
Masti - Ghar Ghar Main Paathshala, is a micro-playschool concept from Paathshala designed for women entrepreneurs.
“The aim is to give the women in Tier-II & III cities in India a low entry cost entrepreneurship opportunity wherein they can convert their home into a playschool,” said Chowdhury.
He said the company is entertaining those people who can start with a minimum investment of Rs 1.5 lakh and upwards depending on the space needed to be converted into a micro playschool. With a plan of setting 10-12 playschools in each city, the company is looking to target 87 cities in Tier-II & Tier-III in the next couple of years.
The company is also running SeTu, an in-curriculum programme for schools. At present, a school is paying Rs 20-75 per student per month as fee for the programme which deploys neuroscience and neuro-linguistic programming based activities.
The firm has introduced this programme to more than 3,000 students in schools in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and Ghaziabad in UP. It aims to reach 20 lakh students across the country by 2020.
The plan is similar for its skill development programmes among college students and teachers. For college students, it will be charging Rs 2,500 per student for a 60-hour contact session. However, a blended programme using virtual tools can drop the cost down to Rs 1,500.
On the other hand, Paathshala’s teacher training programme named Acharya will be fetching Rs 3,500 per person. “Reaching 60,000 college students through Yogya and 50,000 teachers through Acharya is our aim for the next five years,” said Chodhury.
To implement these programmes, the company is looking for 120 business partners across the country who will also become shareholders in Paathshala. “Each of them will have to invest minimum Rs 5 lakh and we will provide them all our tools and trainings.
They will also get a share of the revenue coming out of the three programmes,” he added.
Launched in 2012 by Chowdhury and Sonal Seth, an ex-employee of Hutchison Global Services, Paathshala registered a turnover of Rs 18 lakh in 2012-13. “We have registered turnover of Rs 1.06 crore for 2013-2014, Rs 1.7 crore for 2014-2015 and targeting to close at Rs 2.2 crore for 2015-2016,” said Chowdhury.
Chowdhury has over two decades experience spanning hospitality, travel, telecom and BPO sectors. He had earlier served Hutchison Global Services, Virgin Mobile, Reliance and Convergys.
An alumnus of the Institute of Hotel Management & Catering Technology, Chowdhury said corporate training clients mainly benefit from café style speed training methodology. The company is the Indian franchise partner of UK-based
Cafe Style Developments Ltd which has introduced this technology.
The course involves over 500 experiential learning activities with each having duration of 15-30 minutes. “These themed programmes are designed and are applicable to any industry, whether it is ITES, retail, hospitality, healthcare, banking etc,” Chowdhury said.
