Swiggy announces initiative to provide career growth opportunities to delivery partners

Mumbai: Food delivery platform Swiggy on Tuesday announced the launch of a new initiative 'Project Next', aimed at providing career growth opportunities for its delivery partners while accelerating restaurant onboarding.

A part of the platform's skills development programme, which offers skilling, training, internship, and employment opportunities in its value chain, Project Next has already transitioned its 100 delivery partners as sales executives who have onboarded nearly 360 restaurants in the last five weeks, the company said.

In the coming months, the company said it plans to transition hundreds of delivery partners across 150+ growing markets, such as Vadodara, Amritsar, Nashik, Agra, and Dharwad.

With the new initiative, delivery partners will take on a new role within Swiggy, it said, adding that they will be responsible for onboarding and managing the company's restaurant network, especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

"Swiggy works with nearly 4 lakh delivery partners across India. To empower this group, we launched Project Next under our Swiggy Skills initiative. This program helps delivery partners transition from "blue collar" to "white collar" workers," Swiggy Food Marketplace CEO Rohit Kapoor said.

Project Next is the latest scheme under the 'Swiggy Skills' initiative announced earlier this month with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

Under the initiative, Swiggy will facilitate online skill development and upskilling of almost 2.4 lakh delivery partners, and the staff of their 2 lakh restaurant partners, and collaborate towards the discovery of opportunities for employment for 3,000 individuals in restaurant operations, and various aspects of retail management, according to the company.