From aspirants to students to teachers! The coaching hub of Kota is not only transforming JEE and NEET aspirants into IIT, NIT and medical students, but also hiring some of them back as teachers once they complete their education, giving them salaries that many in corporate jobs in big cities would envy.
Annual packages ranging from Rs 50 lakhs to over Rs 2 crore, a fast career growth, a stable job and work-life balance are among the forces that attract fresh engineering and medical graduates to the top coaching institutes here rather than to big corporates.
RK Verma, Managing Director and Academic Head at Resonance, a prominent coaching institute, said his institute runs a an extensive training programme for fresh graduates who are hired from IITs and NITs.
“We hire around 150 fresh graduates in a year, mostly from IITs and some from NITs. This is not a new experiment but a very successful model. The candidates have different driving forces — a handsome salary, a good career growth and a stable life,” Verma told PTI.
He said when they go to colleges for hiring they look for teaching aptitude.
“Many of these graduates had already begun teaching when they were in college. With the boom of the online medium, many of them upload their videos explaining certain concepts. We look for these factors while hiring,” Verma told PTI.
Verma said the coaching institute then take them through a rigorous training programme to prepares them the challenges ahead.
“They don’t start teaching from first day,” Verma said. “They are trained to match up with the standards of those already teaching. Mock sessions, doubt classes, individual mentorship — the fresh graduates work on these areas during one year of training.”
The trainees are paid a stipend of Rs 6-8 lakh per annum. But once they complete the training, the salaries offered ranges anything from Rs 25 to Rs 50 lakh which can go up to Rs 2 crore within a span of two-three years, depending upon the performance and results, he said.
A spokesperson for coaching giant Allen Career Institute said the majority of fresh graduates hired by them are their former students.
“We hire fresh graduates as trainees and retain them after successful completion of the training. Majority of them are our former students only and they like the city,” he said.
Once an industrial hub, Kota is now home to a Rs 6,000-crore coaching industry. Over two lakh students move to Kota annually for preparing for competitive exams such as the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for engineering and the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges.
According to Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, 13 of their students have already been hired by various coaching institutes during the ongoing placement drives.
Similarly, 22 students from IIT Guwahati were hired by coaching institutes last year (2021-22). The numbers for 2022-23 session aren’t available yet, the institute said.
“Coaching institutes do hire fresh IIT graduates for the teaching profession and other profiles. Masters students, particularly M.Sc graduates prefer a teaching job,” said Lalit Pandey, Head, Centre for Career Development, IIT Guwahati.
However, not all IITs are keen on inviting coaching institutes for placements.
“With an aim to break the myth that IIT aspirants need coaching, we purposefully kept coaching institutes away from the campus during our placements. However, many of our students still get off-campus placement offers from these institutes,” said an IIT director, on the condition of the anonymity.
A faculty member at a prominent coaching institute in Kota said he was hired from an IIT campus five years back.
“I had not studied in Kota before.I prepared for JEE in Delhi. When I graduated, I chose to work with the coaching institute and I don’t regretted. I am currently drawing a package of Rs 90 lakh per annum.
“Many of my batchmates are working with big corporates at the same package in Gurgaon and Bengaluru but I did not want a fast-paced life. Here it’s slow and steady. Every single student getting selected gives me a different motivation,” he said, requesting anonymity.
