New courses will teach the gig workers how to start their own business
Delivery riders in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam will be offered two online courses to help them upskill and start their own businesses, thanks to a collaboration between Mastercard and Grab. The courses will be provided to small business owners in a bid to help them penetrate the digital economy.
"Many Southeast Asians working in the informal sector aspire for more, but the reality is that a lot of them do not have the means or the opportunity to access quality training programs," said Cheryl Goh, group head of marketing and sustainability at Grab. "Through our partnership with the Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth, we hope to give gig workers and small businesses a boost to get started."
The courses are named Driver Entrepreneurship Toolkit and the Small Business Toolkit. They comprise 20 short video lessons that offer practical steps to address the challenges faced by first-time entrepreneurs and small businesses. The training videos are available for free to all Grab Partners on GrabAcademy through the Grab Driver and Merchant superapps.
Read more: Gig workers or freelancers – what's the difference?
The development of the two courses came about after a survey of 34,000 driver-partners across the three countries found a desire for more L&D. The survey found that the most desired training topics among drivers were:
- How to grow the business and increase profits
- How to start a new business
- How to market the business online
"I'm interested to know how to start a business with just a small amount of capital. Today, many people don't have the budget due to the pandemic. I also want to know how to expand a business without having to shell out huge capital," said one driver from the Philippines.
Read more: 'POWERR Act': Bill calls for gig workers to be recognised as regular employees
Following the survey, Mastercard and Grab engaged with local small business experts, including Tumbu, WISE, and Bayan Academy, to develop the online courses.
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"Grab and Mastercard's digital upskilling initiative enables us to provide relevant, flexible yet structured training modules at scale," said Tumbu Accelerator CEO Dewi Meisari.
Payal Dalal, Senior Vice President of Social Impact, International Markets, Mastercard Centre for Inclusive Growth, said they were also happy to work with Grab on the programme.
"Mastercard is delighted to work with Grab on this initiative that will boost digital capacity and inclusion among aspiring entrepreneurs and small businesses post-pandemic," Dalal said.
Mastercard was named as the Best Companies to Work for in Asia in 5-Star Employers of Choice. Read the full report here.