Zoho Schools of Learning Grows, Opens New Campuses in Tharuvai and Kumbakonam.

Zoho Schools of Learning (ZSL), the unique educational initiative of SaaS giant Zoho Corp., is broadening its horizons with the launch of two new campuses in Tharuvai and Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. This expansion builds upon the success of its existing centers in Chennai and Tenkasi in providing an alternative pathway to tech careers for high school graduates.

The impact of ZSL is evident in the stories of its alumni. Kumaresan M, a graduate of a government high school in a small village near Tirunelveli and the son of a daily wage worker, joined ZSL in 2015 after realizing conventional higher education was financially out of reach. Today, he thrives as a front-end developer at Zoho. "What might have been a future in local jobs transformed into a career at Zoho that has sustained me since 2016," Kumaresan recounts, highlighting the life-changing opportunities ZSL provides.

Over the past two decades, ZSL has played a pivotal role in shaping Zoho's workforce. Remarkably, approximately 10 percent (2,000 individuals) of Zoho's current 20,000-strong employee base are high school graduates who bypassed traditional degrees to embark on careers at the company after completing ZSL's two-year program.

Established in 2005 with a modest cohort of six students and two teachers, ZSL was conceived as an alternative to conventional college education. Its intensive two-year program comprises a year of classroom instruction followed by a year-long internship at Zoho, providing invaluable real-world experience. Notably, ZSL operates on a no-fee model, even offering a stipend to its students, thereby removing financial barriers to quality tech education for deserving individuals from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. The expansion to Tharuvai and Kumbakonam signifies ZSL's commitment to extending its transformative reach to more communities in Tamil Nadu.

HBL