Bengaluru: “Never stop fighting until you arrive at your destined place – that is, the unique you. Have an aim in life, continuously acquire knowledge, work hard, and have the perseverance to realize the great life”, said our former President and scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. Proving this point is Odisha’s own Sumanta. As a son of a farmer and house wife in a small village in Odisha, his options seemed limited but his determination to make a better life for himself led him to gain the right skill set and land his dream job as a software developer.
Sharing his story, Sumanta said, “Back in my hometown, I had to take up a job of a tractor driver when I was a 12th grade student. This was necessary to continue my education.” He continued working through his Bachelor’s degree as a part timer in a BPO. Even after his graduation, he struggled to secure a job. Without losing heart, he grabbed an opportunity as an Operations executive in a startup. He earned Rs.15000 per month in this job. However, having witnessed poverty all his life, he was determined to change his fate.
Sumanta’s flare to carve a better life was lit when he applied for Masai School. Unafraid of hard work, he stayed in the Masai School campus almost 24*7 to ensure that he gave his 100%. He would visit his 2 BHK accommodation, which was shared by 10 guys, only once a week. He had only 2 pairs of clothes and even that thought did not deter him from reaching for his dreams. Today, Sumanta has been working as a Front-end Developer in Revvsales earning almost 3.5 times the package he had earlier.
In India, the education system does not cater to all individuals on an equal level. To access quality education for a common man, the challenges are numerous. Social status and financial barriers are common hurdles in receiving quality education. In an attempt to break this cycle, Masai School has integrated the Income Sharing Agreement (ISA) model as a business practice. In definition, an income share agreement (or ISA) is a financial structure in which an individual or organization provides something of value (often a fixed amount of money) to a recipient who, in exchange, agrees to pay back a percentage of their income for a fixed number of years.
At the outset of the meet, Prateek Shukla, Co-founder and CEO, Masai School, said, “Having an engineering degree today is no guarantee for a job or a career. It is essential that people learn the right skill set and inculcate a mind-set of constant learning in this world of changing technologies.” He further added, “Companies today are beginning to see the value of skills over degrees ensuring that more such opportunities for aspirants like Sumanta. He is not an engineer by degree rather a developer with skills that he can deploy in his job every day. Through Masai School’s programs, our aim is to help more such individuals build their dream careers.”
Masai School began operations in the month of June 2019, in the city of Bangalore. At present, it also has a branch in Patna and plans to graduate 2000 students in the next 10-12 months. They offer an on-campus program on full stack software development in addition to a newly added online coding program. The on-campus course consists of 30 Weeks, 1200 hours of Coding, 100 hours of Soft Skills, 100 hours of Logic, 20 Guest Lecture, 2 Demo Days, 2 Hackathons, 20 Projects, 100 Challenges and 10 Mock Interviews. Additionally, the part time course consists of 600 hours of coding, 30 hours of Soft Skills and 60 hours of building mathematical abilities in the time period of 30 weeks. Along with this, the course also brings 24 Guest Lectures, 2 Demo Days, 2 Hackathons, 10 Projects, 50 Challenges and 5 Mock interviews. Masai School will be graduating its 3rd and 4th batch of students shortly.
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