Grab Thailand reaffirms its GrabForGood mission by continuing GrabAcademy programme for the second year under the theme of “Enhancing and Sharpening Skills for the New Normal”. The programme aims at preparing driver-and merchant- partners as well as everyday-entrepreneurs with knowledge and skills for the changing business landscape in the New Normal era. The latest additions to this year’s programme includes two new initiatives. Firstly, the “business reality show,” in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce, invites celebrity experts from various fields to share their knowledge and experiences with restaurant owners affected by COVID-19 who will be competing for a 100,000-baht prize. Secondly, the “five-minute bite-size training courses” are created to serve the time-constrained lifestyles of driver-partners. The educational online courses have been revamped into bite-sized formats that can be completed in five minutes, allowing driver-partners to turn their waiting time into an opportunity to learn as well as enhancing their skills and knowledge anytime anywhere.

Mr. Worachat Luxkanalode, Executive Director of Grab Thailand said “GrabAcademy programme was initiated and officially launched in Thailand in 2020. Through the partnership with the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), the online knowledge sharing programme is aimed at providing knowledge and uplifting skills of driver-and merchant-partners as well as everyday-entrepreneurs free of charge. Over the past year, the programme has received positive feedback, with over 30,000 participants each completing 8 courses on average.”

“For 2021, we are continuing GrabAcademy for the second year under the theme of ‘Enhancing and Sharpening Skills for the New Normal’. This year we are focusing on developing new learning formats and updating the new content in the educational courses to be more suitable for the needs and behaviours of driver- and merchant- partners in the current situation as well as preparing them for the changes and new business opportunities in the New Normal era.”

The highlights of GrabAcademy Year 2 programme are as follows:

“GrabAcademy Reality Show” knowledge and entertainment in one shot: In addition to existing online courses continuously developed by Grab to enhance merchant-partners’ knowledge and business capabilities, the company has joined forces with the Ministry of Commerce this year to host a business competition in a reality-show format, named “GrabAcademy: Building Careers with the Pros”. The program brings together celebrity experts across various fields, such as Bam Pitipat, a famous MC, Ple Nakorn, a comedy actor and owner of “Sail To The Moon By Nakorn” restaurant, Pompam Niti, a famous host and owner of “At Ta Rote” restaurant, Gunsmile Chanagun, a rising star and owner of “3 Meena” restaurant, Golf Kantapat, a content creator from the channel “Golf Was Here” and Yardpirun, a top influencer. All of them will be sharing their experiences and skills with the six contestants, owners of restaurants that were affected by the pandemic who will be competing for a prize of 100,000 baht. The program will be released every Friday at 5PM. starting on Friday, November, 12 2021 via Grab’s social media platforms, including YouTube and Facebook.

“Five-minute bite-sized training courses”, educational content for driver-partners: After a successful pilot program of the “Five-minute bite-sized training courses” with driver-partners, Grab has found that most driver-partners wish to enhance their skills and knowledge. However, having to regularly work against time, they do not usually have enough time to participate in web-based long-form training courses. The only time they are available is when they wait for the order. GrabAcademy Year 2, therefore, has revamped the course format to serve the needs of driver-partners by installing the content onto the Grab Driver application and creating “Five-minute bite-size training-courses” which feature bite-sized and easy-to-digest content that can be completed within five minutes. With this new format, driver-partners can spend the time waiting for orders at restaurants to gain new knowledge and useful skills. The application currently offers 55 educational courses, including service training, language lessons for service such as basic English and Chinese, and finance-related courses such as financial planning, basic tax planning, and debt management.