Emeritus Partners With Vahani To Provide Education And Upskilling Opportunities To Young Women Through INR 1 Crore In Scholarships

* Scholarships to programmes from world class universities will teach women future skills to create career opportunities

Emeritus, the global leader in making high-quality education accessible and affordable to individuals, companies, and governments worldwide, has announced a scholarship programme for young women through Vahani, an NGO dedicated to educating talented students from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds. Through this programme, INR 1 crore in scholarships will be provided to Vahani Alumnae to access Emeritus’ education programmes offered in partnership with world-class universities across technology, data analytics and digital marketing fields, as a gateway for women to enter into various industries of the economy.

According to the World Economic Forum, due to the lack of opportunities, 45% of women in India aged 15-29 years are not engaged in any education, employment, or training. This contrasts with only 6.5% of men. Access to upskilling and education programmes are critical to providing young women with the tools and skills to succeed in the workforce, opening up career and employment possibilities. Women’s education, training and upskilling is critical to the growth, society and economy of India as a whole. The increasing interest to undertake upskilling programmes to create future job opportunities is evident at Emeritus where over 40% of the learners across programmes are women and the company believes this number will continue to grow year-on-year. 

Speaking about the scholarships for girl students, Ashwin Damera, Co-Founder and CEO, Emeritus said, “At Emeritus, we believe that education is transformational and we are on a mission to make it more accessible. We are proud to partner with Vahani, to help women across India learn new skills to unlock career opportunities and bridge gender gaps in skill training.”

The scholarship programme is an extension of Emeritus’ commitment to increasing access to education to marginalized and underserved communities. In 2021, Emeritus launched a partnership with Vahani which included individual scholarships and one-on-one mentorship for Vahani Alumni. Through this tie-up, Emeritus team members have been on boarded as Vahani Mentors, who provide one-on-one guidance to their mentees twice a month, thereby helping them choose better career paths.

Ms. Reeva Misra, Founder and Chairperson of Vahani Scholarship, started the NGO with a vision to create an India where the most gifted children could flourish, especially children from underserved socioeconomic backgrounds, religion or gender. Identifying a gap in the accessibility to quality higher education, Misra founded Vahani Scholarship to support the underserved. Vahani’ s mission is to build future leaders of change, fund the education of deserving women and children, and mentor and nurture them towards their holistic development. Vahani also conducts skill-building workshops, provides one-on-one mentorship, psychological counselling, English classes and assistance in procuring summer internships.

About Emeritus

Emeritus Executive Education offers customised and open programmes in India, Singapore, Dubai and other global locations in collaboration with IIM Lucknow Executive Education, IIM Calcutta Executive Education, ISB Executive Education, amongst other leading Institutes. Our world-class executive education programmes, supported by eminent programme experts, provide an immersive learning experience integrated with actionable insights and practical business applications. The meticulously curated programmes are delivered in a different range of formats; in-class, online, as well as blended programmes. Our extensive portfolio also includes short 2-4 day in-class workshops, online courses of 2-3 months duration as well as comprehensive learning journeys that run over 6-9 months, customised to an organisation’s requirement. The Emeritus Group has more than 1,400 employees globally and offices in Mumbai, New Delhi, Shanghai, Singapore, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London, and Dubai. The company is backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Leeds Illuminate, Prosus Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Bertelsmann, Accel and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Learn more at emeritus.org/in

About Vahani

Vahani Scholarship is a non-profit organisation founded in 2014 that recognises the importance of opening doors for the exceptionally brilliant underprivileged children in India. Vahani Scholarship educates extremely talented students from low socioeconomic backgrounds for their undergraduate degree. We are sponsoring 50 class XII students annually on the basis of merit and income. Vahani started providing scholarships for Undergraduate Programs in India in the summer of 2016 and this year in 2022 we onboarded the seventh batch. Vahani has sponsored 189 students across different disciplines in premier Institutes and Universities in India, like IITs, NITs, DU, NLSUI, Maulana Azad Medical college to name a few.