TechCurators’ solution for skill deficit: AI-enabled recruitment and upskilling framework

Upskilling has become the need of the hour in the Indian jobs market. Many recruiters consider college degrees insufficient to meet industry requirements, with a study by Wheebox assessing that half of all graduates in India will be unemployable in the future. Advancements in AI and other emerging technologies too have changed the hiring landscape.

IIT Delhi alums Harneet Singh, Nandini Marwah, and Kshitij Goel realised there was a need for a solid framework for recruitment and upskilling across industries.

“Existing solutions were very generic, with very little guarantee of results. We conducted surveys to find companies that mostly use resumes as a proxy for the skill, which has no credibility and does not answer whether the person truly possesses those skills,” Singh tells YourStory, adding that resume-based hiring leads to unconscious biases as they are poor indicators of on-the-job performance.

There was also a disconnect between the skill sets imparted by educational institutes and those companies required. 

“Even universities were not able to make their students industry-ready as they lacked the right tools and subject matter expertise to identify the areas where they needed training and upskilling,” explains Singh, who earlier worked with Wipro CCLG and Flipkart and also consulted at various HR-tech startups. 

The trio quit their jobs to start TechCurators in 2019. 

The B2B assessment and upskilling platform leverages AI and cloud technologies to help companies in their technical hiring process, such as evaluating the right candidate or upskilling an employee post-recruitment. 

The Delhi-based startup, with offices in Bengaluru, Dubai, Delaware, and San Francisco, onboarded its first client within three days of inception. It has since enabled over 10,000 freelancers, including subject matter experts, content writers, and website developers, to earn a living by paying them to provide content in text, audio, video, and animation, as well as in AR-VR. 

The 120-member firm has helped more than 5,000 people living in Tier III and IV cities, and villages to earn from home. 

Making students job-ready

TechCurators, a flagship company of the TC Group of Companies, trains students in a B2B2C model through Learn and Earn and Intern to Hire programmes. 

These programmes enable students to earn while studying in school by working remotely. For instance, the startup’s ‘Project K-8’ enables class 11 students to develop content in a range of subjects including coding, content writing, app development, graphic design, and 2D animation, among others. 

Through the Intern to Hire programme, the company offers internships for school and college students. Based on their performance, they may receive a pre-placement offer from the company.

“Universities continue to use outdated teaching methods with little emphasis on job market readiness. Students are not receiving hands-on training in the latest technologies, such as cybersecurity, ServiceNow, and Salesforce, which are important for advancing their careers,” the co-founder explains.

Currently, the platform's custom learning and assessment solutions, including two types of course development—off-the-shelf courses and custom-made courses for universities—are utilised by over 500 universities, publishers, and e-learning organisations across the US.

It has also created a proprietary generative AI tool to prepare students for interviews by providing real-time feedback.

Upskilling players on growth trajectory as AI, layoffs up demand for learning

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Upskilling players on growth trajectory as AI, layoffs up demand for learning

Leveraging AI

TechCurators leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning frameworks to develop hiring and e-learning solutions using a model built from data on over 10,000 students across India.

The startup’s AI-enabled LXP (Learning Experience Platform and Assessment) engine generates a custom recruitment framework mapping the competencies required for a particular job role, including the domain, skills and subskills of a potential candidate. 

The engine offers organisations three key data points: the current proficiency levels of employees across various skill families, the required proficiency levels for different job roles, and the learning content needed to upskill employees. 

It measures progress through role-based assessments and offers recommendations for designing an upskilling strategy based on inputs such as target audience, geography, and job roles. The learning content developed covers skill-based tests, case studies, technical labs, and project-based coding assessments.

The LXP engine is utilised by over 500 global organisations, including TCS, Adani, and Capgemini, to upskill their workforce across 2,000+ industry-relevant skills. Its clientele also includes 147 Fortune 500 companies.

It also enabled a UK-based HR consulting firm to expand to the Indian market by developing Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) preparation modules, assessments, and technical domain content.

For universities, TechCurators has developed custom training courses on generative AI, cybersecurity, Salesforce, data science, and cloud technologies in collaboration with subject matter experts and corporate trainers. These courses are designed only after assessing students' skill sets using its proprietary framework.

The startup also creates on-site training courses for the blue-collar workforce in collaboration with sector skill councils like NASSCOM and ASCI. It is available in all 22 official Indian languages as well as some international languages like Spanish, German, French, and Portuguese.

Future plans

The upskilling startup differentiates itself with a focus on generative AI education.

“AI offers us a great opportunity to revolutionise education and career development. We enable people to become proficient in Generative AI,” Singh says. 

Going ahead, Singh believes that a student's pedigree or college background will hold very little significance. 

“The gaps between IITs and other technical colleges have reduced after COVID-19. This has further reduced in the current market scenario. Due to this, the skill set and practical application would help a student get better opportunities,” he adds. 

A report by Omidyar Network India suggests that upskilling could add over 100 million people to the Indian workforce, boosting GDP and propelling the economy towards the $4 trillion mark.

The TC Group of Companies operates in over 25 countries, including the US and Dubai, and crossed Rs 100 crore valuation in March this year. It comprises five companies operating across sectors: education, e-learning, assessment, HRtech, cybersecurity, cloud development, and generative AI.

The startup has raised $8.4 million from angel investors. 

TechCurators plans to launch proprietary training courses and specialisation courses for more universities. 

“We will be launching more generative AI solutions focused towards students this year,” Singh says.