India's HireMee in final race for $5mn XPRIZE contest
BENGALURU-based job enablement platform HireMee on Wednesday said it has made it to the list of 10 qualified teams in the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling global competition.
image for illustrative purpose
New York: BENGALURU-based job enablement platform HireMee on Wednesday said it has made it to the list of 10 qualified teams in the $5 million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling global competition. Launched in June last year, the XPRIZE competition incentivises teams to develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of a quick training and reskilling solution for individuals most vulnerable to employment loss in the US.
"As we saw unemployment reach new heights and some jobs completely eliminated as automation accelerated during the pandemic, the XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling competition became critical in providing pathways to gainful long-term employment," XPRIZE CEO Anousheh Ansari said in a statement.
There were 118 entries from 20 countries. The 10 qualified teams from 4 countries will now move to the Qualified Teams round of the competition.
The 10 qualified teams will evenly split a 'Milestone Prize' purse of $1,000,000. "We sought to tap the best leaders, talent and technologies around the world in solving the critical challenge of Rapid Reskilling that is needed in the world today. We are glad that we have assembled a world class team of professionals," said Chocko Valliappa, founder of HireMee. As part of XPRIZE, training solutions will be offered to 3,500 displaced workers early in the competition by the 10 qualified teams, expanded to help at least 25,000 displaced workers in the last round. The best solutions, if adopted on a nation-wide scale, have the potential of transforming the way workers train for more than 12 million jobs.
"Team HireMee is excited to bring its strengths in execution of effective skill building programs and unmatched scale using digital technology to enable the future of work," said Shirish Pareek, CEO of AMG Partners, a capital investment fund focused on the advanced manufacturing sector.
In Phase 1, Team HireMee has chosen the healthcare sector to demonstrate how medical assistants can be reskilled. HireMee said it has enabled talent assessment of a million youth from 800 towns across India, and connected them to companies.
To date, the company said it has helped recruiters select candidates for over 1,20,000 job opportunities without any cost.