In the last two years gaming as a sector has grown tremendously on the back of the on-going pandemic. As a result, ed-tech companies have started to look at it as a serious area of business. “We understood that education is going to form a core pillar to drive quality talent in the gaming sector. With time, we plan to solidify our understanding in running the business based on three core pillars – education, community and jobs, thereby defining the functioning of Outscal,” Mayank Grover, founder, Outscal told FinancialExpress online. Outscal is an ed-tech company which offers courses related to the field of gaming.
According to market research firm SensorTower’s data, India grabbed the top spot in mobile game downloads worldwide in the first nine months of 2020, witnessing 7.3 billion installs and marking a 17% share of the installs volume. Further as per, FICCI- EY 2021 report titled Ready. Set. Game On!, the e-sports industry is expected to create more than 11,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2025. It goes on to highlight that the esports industry would create new opportunities in the field such as game design, event management, ethical and legislative laws, esports marketing, league management, among others
Founded in October 2018, Outscal, is an online platform aimed to train and upskill those who are interested about gaming. In January 2019, Outscal started its first group of learners with three members (cohorts). The ed-tech platform claims to have created 20 such cohorts with each comprising of 18-20 students. The platform claims to receive about 3000 to 4000 applications. As per Grover, the platform mainly earns from the program fee and the commission (15% of CTC) charged to the companies.
The ed-tech firm claimed that courses such as the full stack game development program is for those who want to become professional gamers. It is a seven-month program which covers various aspects, starting from IoT to computer science fundamentals. At the end of the program, students work on gaming projects as part of their portfolios. This programme runs on a commission model. “We guarantee a job with a minimum package of Rs 4.5 lakhs and above. Once we get the candidate placed with the company, that’s when they start paying the fee,” he added. As per the firm, the program fee is about Rs 2.5 lakhs excluding GST. While an applicant can join the program by paying Rs 10,000, post being recruitment she will have to pay an easy monthly installment of Rs 9,999 per month for a period of two years. In case some want to pay upfront, the courses cost Rs 1.5 lakh excluding GST. However, in the long run, the plan is to reduce the cost by 80% on the business-to-consumer (B2C) part while building a more sustainable model on the business-to-business (B2B) side. “We plan to start short duration programmes and are already looking to tie up with companies for design and art programmes that are need of the hour,” he added.
On the placement front, Grover claimed that Outscal has achieved an almost 100% job placement rate for people who have completed the program, with less than 10% actually dropping out during the program because of some reasons. “Our goal is to make sure that we have a balance in revenue; for instance, in a batch of 20 people, at least 15 to 16 people get placed so that we can reboot the entire cost of the batch. We have structured the model assuming the dropout rate as well. In the next six months, we plan to increase the intake and supply of candidates, following the number of cohorts per month to at least two and from there to ramp up to three to four cohorts per month,” he added. Outscal has also started a job portal.
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