New Delhi: Edtech firm Unacademy launched a physical, on-ground store for learners at Delhi’s Pusa road Saturday. This is the first of its kind “experiential store” for the online education portal, which has three other physical stores in the pipeline — to be launched at Jaipur, Kota and Lucknow, by this year.
In an official statement released Saturday, Unacademy — which claims to be India’s largest online learning platform — said it will offer in-person consultations with experts at the just-launched store. The move takes it a step closer to its vision of “democratising high-quality knowledge for all,” the statement added.
The Covid pandemic and resulting disruptions to traditional learning has led to tremendous growth in the education technology, or Edtech, sector in India in the past two years. Earlier this year the sector launched the Indian Edtech Consortium (IEC), a self-regulating body for all Edtech platforms that choose to be a part of it.
While the digital format is the reason for the sector’s growth during the pandemic, Unacademy is not the first Edtech platform to have launched a physical learning space. In February, Byju’s announced the launch of 500 offline coaching centres across 200 cities for students in classes 4-10. The centres were launched after positive feedback on the first 80 centres, which were part of a pilot programme.
‘Democratising high-quality knowledge’
The Unacademy store launched Saturday allows students to browse through the services offered by the firm and “stay updated about their chosen career pathways and connect with like-minded people”.
Special features at the store include an ‘experience zone’ — where tablets and screens will be available with content by Unacademy, a counselling area (where learners could seek guidance on product purchase with experts), an in-house library with relevant resources on courses offered, classrooms and a merchandise section with apparels and stationery.
“The journey which started with a Youtube channel to democratise high-quality knowledge for everyone is taking a new shape with our Unacademy stores today. With these stores, we are taking a step forward towards creating a community of like-minded learners. We hope these experiential stores with expert and educator connects, libraries, classrooms, and much more will help learners gain significant insights into their chosen career paths,” said Gaurav Munjal, Co-Founder & CEO, Unacademy Group.
He added: “We have received tremendous feedback on our products and services, and recognise that a physical experiential touchpoint will benefit them in the long term by fostering trust and confidence.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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Source: The Print
