Online food delivery platform Swiggy on Tuesday announced a skill initiative to offer free learning opportunities to thousands of delivery executives and their children. Swiggy has partnered with Khan Academy, a non-profit educational organisation to provide courses and certifications via its 'Skills Academy’. The company has also partnered with Google to use Read Along, a speech-based reading tool, to help children of delivery partners improve their reading skills.

The academy’s course content has been developed based on a detailed study conducted to understand the aspirations of Swiggy’s delivery executives better.  The findings showed that aspirations range from acquiring skills that will help them perform their current roles better, take on new roles at Swiggy, earn the respect of friends and family, and prepare them for opportunities beyond Swiggy. 

The academy will offer courses on non-functional topics such as spoken English, time management, hygiene and dressing, computer use, personal finance and mental-physical health and wellbeing.

As many as 30,000 children, as well as young siblings, nieces and nephews of delivery partners can choose to access educational support through Swiggy Skills Academy, said the company. Within the first few days of its launch, 24,000 children have already signed up with the Swiggy Skills Academy.

"With Swiggy Skills, we have taken a step in fulfilling our responsibility towards our executives with the focus to create an opportunity for their growth and progress," said Girish Menon, Head of Human Resources at Swiggy.

Mihir Rajesh Shah, Head of Operations at Swiggy said, “In this digital-first economy, our delivery executives must be equipped with skills that support them to grow and be ready for more opportunities. Swiggy envisages a fleet of empowered delivery executives who are skilled, confident, and ready for success both within and beyond Swiggy.”            

With Ians inputs