Allen Layoffs: Allen Career Institute has reportedly laid off its workforce by 60-70 positions in the sales department of its medical test preparation arm, Allen NExT, since December of last year. The layoffs have occurred across various centres, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Panchkula, according to a The Economic Times report citing sources. Additionally, the report mentions that Allen NExT's offline teaching activities have been suspended.
According to the report, Allen NExT's workforce had dwindled to 30 employees by mid-April. It further noted that the majority of the 90-100 affected staff in the two departments were recruited between January and July 2023. Following a shift in leadership within Allen NExT's sales division in September, the cost of its course plummeted from Rs 45,999 to Rs 3,000 in January, an employee told ET.
A student from a medical college in Bidar, Karnataka, expressed dissatisfaction with the course material, stating that it did not meet the expected level of comprehensiveness for preparing for NEET PG, the entrance exam for postgraduate medical programs, as per the report.
“They sold this course to me for over Rs 10,000, but a month later they slashed the price to Rs 3,000, and on the website it is retailing at Rs 45,999,” Siddhant Jadhav, a third-year MBBS student in Bidar Institute of Medical Sciences, told ET. “I was very disappointed initially… The course has missed out on foundations within topics relating to ENT and laparoscopy. I have raised these complaints but to no avail for a month now,” the student said.
Introduced in April 2023, the Allen NExT app is a coaching platform designed to prepare students for postgraduate entrance exams at medical schools. These exams include the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) PG, the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET), and the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE).
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