By giving young people from all backgrounds the opportunity to gain internship and work experience, virtual internship programs like Forage, Multiverse, and Riipen are meeting the demands of a more digital workplace.
The most crucial consideration for graduates looking for work has been prior work experience. Less than 80 million internships are actually completed globally among the 260 million students enrolled in higher education. Many students consequently think that they did not receive enough career support from their colleges. Another problem is that many of the best internships are out of reach owing to distance and time zones.
Edtechs are addressing this gap, though. By providing all students with access to global, structured internships that can be completed at any time and anywhere, for instance, Virtual Internships eliminates all of these barriers as well as many more. Additionally, it enables businesses to build international talent pipelines and enables universities or governments to support certain audiences, improving employability results and improving return on investment.
Virtual Internships has collaborated with more than 12,000 businesses from 100 nations to support students at universities all over the world. Hambro Perks, together with other investors, led a $14.3 million Series A round recently announced by the company.
READ ALSO: Apple starts manufacturing iPhone 14 in India
For instance, virtual internship programs pair students with internships at businesses ranging from start-ups to blue-chip corporations and promise a match within a month. AWS, Carrefour, Dentons, GAM Investments, the Asian Development Bank, and Bio Pharm Dongsung are a few of the companies that it hosts.
According to the site, at least 70% of interns will have the chance to collaborate with a founder or C-suite executive directly. The site also provides students with an employability training called CareerBridge before and during internships. Throughout and after their internships, students will have access to weekly check-ins, group discussions, webinars, and coaching calls. An invitation to continue working for their matched employer is extended to about 25% of students who complete their internship through the site. Within three months of beginning their internship, 70% of them were hired on a full-time basis.
Concerning Virtual Internship
In order to assist students in finding internships in Asia, Ed Holroyd Pearce formed CRCC Asia in 2006; approximately 10,000 students have now joined the organization. In 2018, he eventually collaborated with Daniel Nivern to launch Virtual Internships.
"We discovered that there was a whole desirable skill set that candidates may gain through a remote or virtual internship and that this also lowers typical hurdles to internships, such as logistics, cost, family or school commitments," says Ed.
They launched Virtual Internships to assist students in finding opportunities wherever they were after realizing there was a significantly greater market of students who wanted to complete foreign internships in 2018.
By working with colleges and governments to offer guaranteed internships with a high chance of progressing to employment, the platform stands apart from the competition.
Since its launch, Virtual Internships has increased its revenue from $100,000 in the fiscal years 2019–2020 to $4.1 million in 2021–2022 with the goal of reaching $10 million by 2023.
The majority of its income comes from universities who offer virtual internships as part of their programs. It also works with governmental entities and academic route programs.
A different edtech platform
A digital business called Multiverse is on a quest to create a superior replacement for formal education and workplace training. The established college and university system can be substituted with the apprenticeship programs provided by Multiverse. Multiverse focuses on three key areas: measuring potential beyond academics and work experience to recruit apprentices; offering excellent job-focused training through applied learning programs; and helping diverse groups of people build strong social capital and professional networks through a thriving community both online and off.
Venture-backed companies like Forage are among the rivals that provide five- to six-hour virtual job experience programs.
Another is Riipen, which organizes assignments and industry competitions for students to finish with teacher guidance.
Related
