Unicorn in edtech Vedantu has laid off around 200 contract and full-time employees. This comes as firms continue to cut costs as the late-stage funding situation tightens.
According to a corporate representative, approximately 120 of these people are contract workers, with the remainder working full time.
Almost the majority of those laid off worked as assistant teachers for the company’s academic teams.
“We have over 6,000 employees, out of which roughly 120 contractors and 80 full-time or 3.5% of the total strength are academics or assistant teachers, which were being re-evaluated,” the spokesperson said. “We have an annual contract with them, and at the beginning of every academic year, we follow a process of load rebalancing where we rejig pertaining to these roles, based on our growth expectations.”
Vedantu has been concentrating on lowering the cost of its courses in order to keep up with the declining demand for online education as more offline learning centres emerge.
Artificial intelligence, voice synthesis, and content creation have all been utilized to reduce course costs. It is also using technology to cut overall expenses, which is one of the reasons for the reorganization, according to the corporation.
“With more technology intervention, restructuring of the class format, and changes in the categories, we relook at these roles of our academics and assistant teachers. As we synchronize our growth goals for this year, we are also hiring more than 1,000 employees in various teams, including over 100 for similar positions,” the spokesperson added.
