upGrad records 567% hike in CTCs; MBA most preferred domain for recruiters

This year, the biggest rise in the annual CTCs or cost to the company, was around 567 per cent, edtech platform, upGrad, revealed in its annual report. This growth was recorded in the October, November and December quarter for Master of Business Administration (MBA). 
 
upGrad also revealed that MBA is the most preferred domain chosen by recruiters for hiring followed by Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Marketing, respectively. 
 
The data shared by the company also revealed that Bangalore, Mumbai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai are the most popular hiring locations across India. 
 
Commenting on this data, Phalgun Kompalli, Co-founder of the edtech platform said, “We perform in-depth domain research and market analysis before we design our curriculum in partnership with industry leaders and academicians. It becomes easier for us to assess the hiring trends and then accordingly create projects that will empower our learners with accurate hands-on training. It has been one of our biggest strengths.”
 
Kompalli also revealed that companies are showing inclination towards individuals which have a combination of corporate-based experience as well as domain-based qualification. He shared that the cycle time for them (the companies) to get productive is significantly lesser with these individuals as compared to the fresh talent, which in turn keeps a check on the payroll cost with better ROI. 
 
upGrad also shared that about 10,000 graduated from it by doing various courses in 2022. As per industry estimates, Data Science-related job roles are one of the most in-demand tech jobs worldwide and are estimated to be the third-highest paying. They are expected to create 11 million jobs by 2026. 
 
upGrad was founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar and Kompalli. The firm operates out of 30 offices in India across 10 cities. Outside of these, its global offices are located across San Francisco, New York, Washington, London, Singapore, Dubai, Jakarta, Vietnam, Sydney, Melbourne, and Nairobi.
 
In July this year, it acquired another edtech company - Harappa Foundation- for Rs 300 crore. upGrad also announced its plans to earmark $30 million for offline expansion as well as open 10 new campuses in 2023.