Top 5 Benefits of Pay After Placement Courses

Introduction

If you had asked me about the benefits of pay after placement courses around 3 years back, I would have labelled you as a maniac for comparing some ‘course’ with a full-time college degree.

According to the Economic Survey conducted in 2023-24, only 51.25% of fresh Indian graduates are deemed employable. This means half of fresh college graduates are not readily employable. (Mint)

According to a report by Business Insider, 80% of engineers are unemployable, which reflects the lack of industry-ready skills recruiters seek in a potential employee. (Business Insider)

I paid somewhere around Rs. 7.5 lakh for a 3-year college degree (Yes, I’m not an engineer!). After facing close to 17 rejections for a mere marketing internship role, I invested another 1.2 lakhs in a digital marketing course.

Fortunately, the 1.2 lakh secured me an entry-level position in the competitive market to kickstart my career! That’s the current scenario of today’s dynamic job landscape - no skills, no jobs!

That’s exactly where pay after placement courses come into the picture! Equipping unemployable youth with real-life practical skills that employers seek in an employee.

Let’s study the top 5 benefits of pay after placement courses in a bit more detail.

Dagger in the chest - Student loans

Mainstream colleges and universities have almost become an alternative to luxury hotels as fees skyrocket with every passing year. Affording a college-level education has almost become impossible for the average guy out there.

That gives birth to students opting for the path of education loans, a major business in India. In 2023-24 alone, Public Sector Banks (PSBs) disbursed Rs. 28,699 crores in education loans for higher studies.

This was a stunning 14.8% increase from 2022-23, where PSBs disbursed 24,997 crores. (Money Control)

According to the RBI FSR for June 2024, 3.6% of education loans were announced as NPA (Non-Performing Assets), which translates to around 3.5 lakh students failing to repay their debts.

Even among the ones who graduate, 60% of them fail to secure a job due to their skill gap.

According to the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), around 25 lakh students graduate each year in India. According to Trader Economics, India’s employment rate was 46.90% as of Q1, 2024, which means around 13.27 lakh students fail to secure a job every year! (Trading Economics)

Hefty college fees and their failure to provide placement opportunities have put students in a downward spiral over the coming years.

That’s where the term pay after placement originates - the beginning of a new era called ‘outcome-oriented’ education.

So what is Pay After Placement?

Pay After Placement is a mutual agreement between the student and the institution offering pay after placement courses that entitles the student to study at zero upfront cost and pay the fees only after they land a job with a suitable salary threshold.

This is typically done by a financial agreement called an ISA (Income Share Agreement), where you (the student) agree to pay a certain amount of money to the institution every month from your salary till the entire fee is covered.

In short, you start learning at zero upfront cost, finish the course, get placement assistance, get placed at a certain salary bar, and then pay back the course fees in monthly instalments.

Especially in India where bad education loans are on the rise, pay after placement courses provide a debt-free alternative to access quality education with no financial risk to students.

In contrast to the traditional educational model, outcome-driven education institutes such as Masai School have come up with pay after placement courses in areas of Data Analytics & Full Stack Web Development.

So, let’s dive in deep to understand the benefits of the PAP model.

Access to quality education at zero upfront cost

Money is no longer a barrier to accessing quality education in India. Regardless of your financial background, anyone can enrol in these courses and start learning, provided they meet the eligibility criteria and pass the entrance exam, which is not much of a hassle.

While traditional colleges demand hefty fees and no placement guarantee, the new-age alternative - pay after placement courses offers you higher education and makes you industry-ready at zero upfront cost.

This is a huge opportunity to provide financially weaker students with an equal opportunity to success, adding a layer of fair advantage.

Outcome-Oriented & Skill-Based Learning

Let’s hit some stats. According to Money Control, nearly 83% of jobless Indians are youth. The unemployment rate in India was 8.5% in August 2024, up from 7.9% in July 2024. In June 2024, female unemployment was recorded to be 18.5%, which is higher than the national average.

In June 2024, the labour participation rate (LPR) was 41.4%. The LPR is the percentage of people in the working-age population who are either working or looking for work. (Sources -  Trading Economics, Forbes India)

Why is there a huge gap between the demand for jobs and the supply of students? Lack of skill-based learning and practical education. The majority of fresh college graduates are not fit for professional roles in the industry. Companies hiring complete freshers without practical experience must invest heavily in training.

1. According to a survey conducted by Mettl, companies in India spend an average of Rs. 41,838 per employee on Learning & development (L&D). The average spend per employee also depends on the organization's size and needs. (Economic Times)

2. Infosys takes roughly 2.5 Lakhs to train a fresher for around 16 weeks. To further the claim, T.V. Mohandas Pai (Head of HRD at Infosys) said in a statement that the company spends around 750 crore a year on training its workforce. (Business Standard)

3. The average annual investment per company on L&D in the IT and IT-BPM sectors is around 1.97 crore. (Money Control)

Outdated curriculums, lack of practical knowledge of the modern industry and how they function, and lack of hard and soft skills are all factors contributing to the rejection of candidates in interviews.

That’s why pay after placement courses are noticing a visible paradigm shift in the education sector, with its core focus on imparting practical skills that recruiters seek in an employee, with the entire curriculum designed in a way that fits the approach required by a company.

At Institutes like Masai School, you are equipped with the latest tools and technologies that help you stay afloat in the dynamic job market.

Besides getting hands-on practical knowledge and real-world projects, every curriculum adapts to on-the-fly changes to accommodate you with any on-demand skills and tools that potential employers might seek in your respective domain.

Placement Assistance

Unlike traditional colleges that have no direct link with guaranteeing you placement after graduation, pay after placement programs take a completely different approach.

Any institute that offers a PAP mode of learning takes accountability for its students, as their growth depends highly on the number of students they have.

These institutions have a good number of hiring partners that they connect students with once the students have passed their final evaluation test and are eligible for placement.

Even if you’re not able to make it through all the interview rounds, you remain in their hiring pipelines and automatically get connected with the set of potential recruiters when the next opportunity arrives.

Companies are more keen to hire candidates from these institutions as they are equipped with the right skills and knowledge they are looking for and do not invest heavily in their training.

On the contrary, recruiters have a skeptical mindset scrolling through hundreds of resumes on online job portals, for two major reasons - lack of skills and practical knowledge (not industry-ready), and heavy investment needed for training.

That’s another reason why pay after placement programs have a much higher placement rate than mainstream colleges and universities.

Pay Only After You Get a Job

Most students are constantly under the pressure of repaying the hefty student loans they have taken for their higher education. However, the catch is they need to have a stable-salaried job for that, which they are failing to secure due to the skill gap.

Pay After Placement courses eliminate the risk of financial burden with the post-job fee structure. You only have to repay the course fees when you crack a job above a specific salary threshold, which is 3.5 LPA, as per Masai School.

If you land up anything below that, you don’t have to pay a single penny for the course. With this fee setup in place, students no longer need to worry about bad debts and focus entirely on learning and upskilling.

Career Growth

A majority of college grads are not working in their file of study, the survey says. Owing to industry-relevant curriculum, students passing out from pay after placement programs typically get placed in high-paying jobs with great chances of future growth.

Whether you want to upskill to land a job or change your domain to tech, pay after placement is the new normal that is set to disrupt the traditional education system.

The minimum salary threshold ensures you start your career on a high note and move forward and upwards from there.

Takeaway

By discussing the top 5 benefits of pay after placement courses, I hope it has been clear that these programs are truly the need of the hour and what our education system needs.

The PAP model encourages the need for reform in the traditional education system and adapts the outcome-oriented education model, which has a plethora of added advantages, including minimizing the unemployment rate and completely eradicating the concept of ‘unemployable’.

However, you need to do thorough research on your part, and analyze which pay after placement programs might be the best fit for you.

Additionally, if you have plans for further education or walk down the entrepreneurial path in the future, pay after placement might not be the best fit for you as these courses require you to work a job immediately after you pass the course, so you can repay the course fees.

Pay After Placement courses have been the messiah for students in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, allowing them to skill up without breaking the bank.

If you’re looking to build a professional career or switch your job domain without paying a fortune, institutes like Masai offering pay after placement programs are the right fit!

Head over to our Full Stack Web Development and Data Analytics course to know more!