Corporate offers a hand up for students in towns, villages of Tamil Nadu

After completing her Class XII a few years ago, Lakshmi Priya from Sivakasi faced financial constraints that prevented her from pursuing higher education. Despite her circumstances, she persevered by folding matchboxes to earn a meagre income. “I have always done this work – folding matchboxes. Many families in Sivakasi and surrounding areas do this work, from home,” said Ms.Priya who is now 19 years old. “I always wanted to learn something related to Computer Science. We did not have a proper teacher for this particular subject at school. But I managed to score 95%,” she said.

After completing her Class XII a few years ago, Lakshmi Priya from Sivakasi faced financial constraints that prevented her from pursuing higher education. Despite her circumstances, she persevered by folding matchboxes to earn a meagre income. “I have always done this work – folding matchboxes. Many families in Sivakasi and surrounding areas do this work, from home,” said Ms.Priya who is now 19 years old. “I always wanted to learn something related to Computer Science. We did not have a proper teacher for this particular subject at school. But I managed to score 95%,” she said.

One day, while browsing she stumbled upon details pertaining to Freshworks STS Software Academy (FSSA) on YouTube and decided to immediately apply for it. And, she was eventually selected into the academy too.

“During my training at the academy, I developed a recipe app that I shared with my colleagues. Once I completed the training, I attended an interview through the academy and got placed in Lumel Technologies,” she said.

In the last three years, FSSA has trained several students, like Lakshmi Priya, from tier-2 cities and rural areas of Tamil Nadu. And all of them are now working in Freshworks and other start-ups.

Freshworks STS Software Academy (FSSA) is a transformative social impact initiative by Freshworks, providing a zero-cost two-year programme for motivated students from low-income families. With a focus on software skills and career readiness, FSSA ensures placement opportunities at Freshworks and other leading MNCs for a successful career in technology.

Shanmuga (Shyam) Anandaraman, Director of Social Impact, Freshworks said that the students are given study materials, including books and laptop. They also get a monthly stipend of ₹10,000. “The students are selected through a rigorous process which includes an online test, followed by an in-person interview,” he said.

Citing examples about the success of this academy, Mr.Anandaraman said: “In the first batch, there were 53.8% male students while the rest were women. Of this 84.6% were first generation learners (first in family to get education beyond school) and 38% were from a single-parent household. We absorbed everyone from the first batch into Freshworks.” Now we are allowing other firms to hire from here, he added.