She did post graduation in English, took B. Ed and cleared State Eligibility Test (SET) to chase her dream of becoming a school teacher. Though Unnimaya Nalappadam, 28, of Kanhangad in Kasargod secured a job of a guest teacher at a school in Kannur in 2020, her temporary service was terminated within a few months after the school switched to online mode due to Covid.
A year later, despite getting an entry in filmdom through national award-winning movie “Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam” in 2021, Unnimaya wasn’t ready to give up her passion for teaching.
After two years of hard work and dedication, Unnimaya now runs her own online learning web portal “learnersfriendly.com” that brings in a revenue of over Rs two lakhs a month.
It was an idea to start a YouTube channel, to train students preparing for SET, on her way back to home from the school on the last day of her work that changed her life. She discussed the idea with her husband Charan Vinayik, a sound designer, and launched the YouTube channel Learnersfriendly in November 2020.
“My aim was to make at least Rs 2000 per month. Because I need some money for myself. The YouTube channel was just an attempt. But as I posted my first video explaining the purpose of the channel, people started to follow it. When I started to upload classes on each paper, more students began to follow the channel. Within a month, over 100 students joined my online class,” Unnimaya told “Open Digest”.
Unnimaya is really indebted to her first batch of students because it was their whole-hearted support that gave her the confidence to further expand the online classes. “My mother passed away the very next month of launching the online classes. I was emotionally lost but my students stood with me and cooperated with me. They gave me enough time to get back to my routine. The first batch of students could deliver the best results when they all cleared the SET in their first attempt. It was a great achievement for us,” she said.
Buoyed by the tremendous response from the people, Unnimaya launched the web portal “learnersfriendly.com” in 2021 which has now emerged as a major online training portal for SET, NET and K-TET exams generating a revenue of over Rs two lakhs every month.
“While other major training centres charge Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 for each course, we only charge Rs 6000 to Rs 8000. We have so far given training to over 6000 students. Around six to eight teachers work with me to provide online classes,” she said.
Unnimaya, who is settled in Kochi with her husband and child, is planning to expand the operations of the web portal by adding training for more courses. “Majority of our students are women. So, we offer online classes as per their convenience. We will be adding more courses in the future,” she added.
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