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AlmaBetter, a community and cohort-based data science e-learning platform, on Thursday said it aims to train 25,000 data science aspirants by March next year to make them employment-ready. It has allocated a Rs 2 crore fund to encourage more students to take up the subject.

The startup said a portion of the Rs 2 crore fund will go towards scholarships based on merit, financial aid, and paraphernalia like laptops and internet connections towards students’ benefit.

With close to two lakh applicants by 2022, the startup aims to train 2,50,00 data science aspirants in lieu of the 1,10,000 vacancies in the sector today. The company witnesses up to 70 percent of aspirant applicants from non-IT backgrounds.

The financial risk associated with upskilling programmes is a major concern among the Indian youth, especially during the current pandemic. The risk-free and guaranteed placement model will enable aspirants to build a tangible career, and in turn, a robust ecosystem for data science, AlmaBetter Co-founder Shivam Dutta said.

Regarding the threat to the IT job market, he added that with increased artificial intelligence/machine learning-powered automation, the job crunch in the industry will further heighten, making upskilling in data science a necessity to survive in the IT job market.

AlmaBetter’s curriculum is designed considering industry relevance and usage of concepts and tools in the data science domain, the statement said.

The students are edified by instructors hailing from premier institutions and Fortune 500 companies, and by employing innovative and easy-to-grasp methods involving experiments, gamification, and real industry projects, optimal learning outcomes are ensured, it added.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)