Empowering Digital Marketers with Language Skills: An Upskilling Case Study

Customer Background: 

upGrad’s Digital Marketing Bootcamp is an intensive six-month program designed to kick-start the careers of fresh graduates and working professionals who have between 0 and 3 years of experience. Offering over 200 hours of live instruction in the Digital Marketing domain, the program emphasizes both technical expertise and interpersonal skills. Participants benefit from comprehensive training and the opportunity to connect with more than 300 hiring companies. Despite these advantages, a significant challenge arose: many students found themselves lacking the essential language and communication abilities needed to excel in interviews and thrive in the workplace.

Challenges: Help Job Seekers Overcome Language Barriers 

upGrad aimed to help students overcome language barriers and enhance their communication skills in English, but the execution posed several difficulties. The challenges included recruiting and training top-tier instructors, crafting an effective curriculum, and managing large pools of students using a reliable technology platform.

Solution: Partnership for outcome-oriented online classes

To address these challenges, upGrad formed a partnership with Yuno Learning, a company renowned for its outcome-oriented communication skills classes. Yuno provided live, online, personalized instruction, specifically tailored to help upGrad students enhance their communication skills and build confidence. This collaboration allowed upGrad to offer a job guarantee program, a unique initiative that was powered by the strength and effectiveness of Yuno Learning’s specialized communication classes.

Implementation: Personalised Communication Skills Program Executed 

Yuno Learning’s live classes platform was chosen after careful consideration for its seamless and engaging learning experience. It allowed UpGrad students to attend live classes taught by top-rated trainers. The program consisted of a rubric-based pre-assessment of each student in a 1-to-1 format to benchmark their current levels of communication skills. This was followed by 46 hours of live classes over 23 weeks.

The classes were planned to ensure that students practiced speaking in the classes, with close feedback from the trainer. Their weaker areas were highlighted periodically, and actions were taken to overcome those areas through additional exercises and activities. The theory was also explained for understanding grammar rules and their implementation while speaking and writing.

There would be a weekly status call to discuss operational challenges encountered and resolutions. Every 4 weeks, the UpGrad delivery team would receive a learner-progress update from Yuno’s academic team. At the end of the program, each student completed a post-assessment, using the same rubric as in the pre-assessment.

Results & Impact: Successful Students 

Four cohorts and over 200 students later, many of upGrad’s students have found placement, while others are in the process. Students praised the quality of teaching and the professional atmosphere of the classes, with notable mentions of instructors.

For example, one student, Asma, highlighted the high-quality teaching and praised the instructor, Reena’s solid understanding of the subject matter. Another student, Sheetal, appreciated the instructor, Mina’s deep knowledge, student engagement skills, and exceptional content delivery.

Conclusion: Partnership to Improve Career Prospects 

The collaboration between upGrad and Yuno Learning exemplifies the transformative power of targeted educational partnerships. By identifying a critical gap in communication skills among students, and addressing it with precision through personalized, live online classes, both companies were able to create a pathway to success for hundreds of aspiring professionals. The innovative approach not only allowed upGrad to offer a job guarantee program but also enriched the student experience, fostering confidence and competence in a vital area.

Here’s what upGrad’s Manager, Radhika Dua has to say about us:

“Working with Yuno Learning has been an exceptional experience. Their commitment to providing top-notch soft skills training has truly transformed the way our learners approach their professional life. The courses and training materials were comprehensive, well-structured, up-to-date, and relevant to the outcomes that learners want. Thank you, Yuno Learning, for being an invaluable support in our learner’s journey to success.”

Students’ testimonials and the tangible results in terms of placements reflect the success of the initiative. The partnership stands as a testament to the impact that can be achieved through collaborative, outcome-oriented solutions. It’s a model that underscores the importance of adaptability, innovation, and responsiveness to student needs in the dynamic field of professional education and job preparation. The upGrad and Yuno Learning alliance offer valuable insights and inspiration for educational institutions and companies seeking to bridge the gap between learning and employability in a rapidly evolving marketplace.