“Businesses that address critical gaps in society are more likely to create lasting impact.”
Entrepreneurs Today reached out to Shveta Raina, founder and CEO of Talerang, an organisation that is dedicated to making individuals work-ready in India. Founded in 2013, Talerang has been able to reach more than 30 million students so far and has trained more than 500,000 learners with its copyrighted career readiness curriculum. With a 99% placement rate, employers have rated over 80% of Talerang graduates as work-ready.
Before founding her own company, Shveta worked at McKinsey & Company in New York, where she founded and led the Female Business Analyst Mentorship Program for North America. Shveta was also the youngest Director at Teach For India previously.
Finding the Gap
A Harvard Business School graduate, Shweta was awarded the Horace Goldsmith Fellowship for Social Enterprise. It was also during her stint at Teach For India that Shveta first saw the unpreparedness of the students. Regarding the work she did at Harvard Business School, she says,
“I led an independent research project under the guidance of Professor Das Narayan Das to find a solution to India’s employability crisis, which grew into Talerang. My findings were shocking—only 3% of Indian graduates were considered work-ready by employers. This gap between academic knowledge and real-world skills inspired me to start Talerang with an initial grant from Harvard’s Social Enterprise Initiative.”
With a Magna cum Laude degree from Brown University in Applied Mathematics, International Studies, and Economics, she has also written a weekly column for Dainik Bhaskar and has spoken at Tedx, the Harvard India Conference, UN Young Changemakers, and the Women Economic Forum. The two seasons of her podcast, Bano Job Ready, can be found on Amazon Audible.
About Talerang
Talerang was founded as Shveta recognised a gap in the academic knowledge of individuals and the reality of the work world. Since the inception of the company, the mission has been to ensure that every graduate is work-ready and can easily get their dream job. In an experiment, they found out,
“Under 60% of students felt ready to take on a job. Less than 50% of students had mentors they could seek out. They also spoke to leading CEOs and HR heads at organisations such as the Tata and Birla groups, only to find that companies were equally worried about the work-readiness crisis.”
Soon they decided to go online following a visit to several colleges in Andhra Pradesh in the hopes of reaching a wider audience. Today, Talerang Online, launched in 2018, provides high-quality models and various industry-recognised certificate programs, with internship opportunities at 400+ corporate partners including the Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra Group, Godrej Group, Teach For India, Avaana Capital, Z3 Capital, Technoserve, Think Through Consulting, Schindler Group and more.
The training methodologies include studying various Harvard cases, proprietary assessments, interaction with guest speakers, industry exposure, custom learning journeys, 21st-century hard and soft skills training, and personal mentoring for holistic professional development.
After the pandemic, they shifted operations to a hybrid mode and are offering bite-sized certificate courses and tailored initiatives with TATA, Kotak Kanya, and many other corporations.
Competitive Edge
One of the things that sets them apart in the market is the research-based approach to making individuals career-ready. Till now, their programs have achieved over 40% skill boost and 95% approval ratings. They have also recently done a 1,000-person training for a Big 4 firm with a 4.9/5 rating. The corporate training programs have also served more than 100 top organisations like Deutsche Bank, Avendus, Tata Projects Limited, Tata Advanced Systems, Tata Trusts, Prof Jim, Mahyco Grow, Tvarit Gmbh, NRB Bearings, as well as a Big 4 firm with a 99% acceptance rate for new hire onboarding.
They have also worked with UNDP to prepare around 7,500 low-income female students for the workforce, achieving a 99%+ satisfaction rate. Talerang’s partnership with Kotak Education Foundation has also trained close to 1,000 students with the help of numerous scholarship programs, leading to a self-reported 25%+ improvement in communication and problem-solving skills. Additionally, a government initiative with Maharashtra and Ernst & Young trained ~6,000 students, resulting in a 93%+ satisfaction rating and a 48% boost in resume and interview skills.
Toil and Trouble
Talerang’s journey has not been easy to gain a footing in the market. Shveta reveals,
“Many students and parents initially focused only on degrees rather than real-world skills. We addressed this by proving our impact with research-backed data and employer testimonials.”
Another major challenge for Shveta was to scale high-quality, personalised training while maintaining the effectiveness of the programs. These challenges were overcome by making use of technology.
Additionally, convincing employers to trust a new training model was difficult, but as 80% of graduates consistently outperformed industry expectations, the firm built a strong corporate network that now actively hires from its programs.
Major Wins
Till now, the company has reported a 53% increase in work readiness of the individuals, a 47% improvement in communication skills, and a 45% boost in problem-solving abilities. It also has a strong media presence, broadcasting 100 episodes of Bano Job Ready on Amazon Audible and publishing over 150 articles in leading national publications.
Some of the industry recognition Talerang has gotten so far includes awards from the Harvard New Venture Competition and Kalaari Capital’s K-Start.
Shveta was also recognised as India Inc’s Rising Woman Leader by The Economic Times, Woman of Courage by India Today, Young Womenpreneur 2017 by the DICE Ecosystem and the Governor of Maharashtra, Women Entrepreneur of the Year at the Inbush World Summit, Woman Achiever Award by the Women Economic Forum 2022, global Diaspora NEXT Social Entrepreneurs 2020 and the DMA Woman Changemaker Social Innovation Award in 2022.
The Journey Ahead
Moving forward, some plans include developing career-readiness platforms that are AI-driven to make Talerang accessible to 20 million students annually. She further adds,
“We aim to collaborate with more corporates specifically Global Capability Centres (GCC), foundations and government initiatives in collaboration with State Governments to bridge the employability gap at scale.”
Her other plans include expanding their reach beyond India and helping emerging economies with the same challenges as in India.
Even though the journey has been tough, one thing Shveta has learned is that
“Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster. Staying persistent and adaptable is key to long-term success.”
As she signs off, she reminds the emerging entrepreneurs,
“Surround yourself with a strong team, mentors, and supporters who believe in your mission. Also, measure your impact and let your results speak for themselves.”
