According to India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies, by the year 2021, the country will face a shortage of 230,000 skilled tech workers for 780,000 jobs in artificial intelligence and big data.

“There’s a massive gap when it comes to quality tech talent in India,” says Raj Desai, who co-founded the School of Accelerated Learning (SOAL) with Pratik Agarwal and Varsha Bhambhani. “We realized this while running a networking services company. So we started a learning program that facilitated self-learning skills rather than teaching people how to write code.”

Started in 2017, SOAL has campuses in Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai. Their immersive learning experience is powered by a smart online assistant. Students can dive straight into product-oriented learning by building products akin to Twitter, Slack, and Facebook, among others.

SOAL uses the WhatsApp Business app to handle new inquiries and consumer questions. “Our engagement has gone up by 27 percent since we started using the WhatsApp Business App. Also, the number of queries through the website have gone up by more than 800 percent,” says Pratik.

“WhatsApp makes conversing in real-time seamless and more personal"

According to Raj and Pratik, the quick replies and labels features are great tools that also help save time. In addition, the business profile enables them to showcase important information about SOAL such as the address and working hours.

Varsha says, “WhatsApp makes conversing in real-time seamless and more personal, without the bounds of a formal conversation such as website support chat or a sales call.”

And it’s helping SOAL train India’s next great wave of tech talent.