The Milind Deora Youth Employability Initiative, is a unique partnership initiative in which Sri Milind Deora, Member of Parliament for South Mumbai constituency, IndiaSkills – a joint venture in vocational training between Manipal Education and City & Guilds, which came together to provide employment opportunities for the youth in a sustainable manner
By Hari Menon, CEO, India Skills
The Background
The youth of South Mumbai have been eager, enterprising and energetic in their endeavours but due to their low level of job-oriented skills, many of them have been unemployed. Shri MIlind Deora, Member of Parliament of the constituency understood that the youth had potential but severely lacked direction and access to opportunities. He realized that providing employability to these youth would transform their lives. The sentiment found support in stakeholders like IndiaSkills and Manipal Foundation. It was a common realization that the potential of Indian youth can be immense and providing employability will be the ideal way to harness it for development of the society and economy, that lead to the launch of Milind Deora Youth Employability Initiative.
One of the objectives of the initiative has been to provide job-oriented skills for the economically challenged youth, by ensuring that they are up-skilled to meet the industry requirements and provide them with jobs that would guarantee a secure future. The project is first of its kind in India, bringingtogether stakeholders of varied interests and unique advantages to successfully deliver the project. High-quality content of world class standards from City and Guilds that was adapted to Indian retail industry requirements by IndiaSkills. The content is delivered through Speakwell, one of Mumbai’s leading Spoken English chains and India Skills. Assessment and training is provided by IndiaSkills Placement opportunities have been provided for students by partnership with India’s leading retailers. Unique evaluation programme was developed to map the skill levels of candidates to the available job opportunities – candidates were provided training to close the necessary skills gap.
One of the objectives of the initiative has been to provide job-oriented skills for the economically challenged youth, by ensuring that they are up-skilled to meet the industry requirements and provide them with jobs that would guarantee a secure future
The Project
IndiaSkills offered industry relevant courses and training methodology that helped a learner get all required skills irrespective of his educational background. Speakwell, one of Mumbai’s leading spoken english chains, ensured quality training infrastructure and faculty. Irize, a dedicated employment wing of Manipal Education ensured that the successful learners had multiple job options across locations.
The evaluation programme was designed on various factors including knowledge, behavioural aspects and biometric data. The data collected from pre and post training assessment was further used to provide insights into bridging the demand-supply gap in the industry. Skill levels of candidates were mapped to pertinent job opportunities and students were trained accordingly. Employer feedback suggested need of more similar initiatives to source skilled entry level employee. Quantified increase in skill level of candidates before and after training was also designed.
In order to map the skills of candidates, a unique programme was designed to ascertain the skill level of candidates by including essential criteria including their knowledge and behavioural aspects
Skills Mapping
In order to map the skills of candidates so as to check their training needs , a unique programme was designed to ascertain the skill level of candidates by including essential criteria of their knowledge, behavioral aspects etc. This was implemented in pre and post assessment of candidates for ensuring optimal placement.
In order to map industry requirements to generate exact training content for target group, IndiaSkills conducted an exhaustive study of current industry requirements and developed course content with valuable inputs from City and Guilds international qualifications. The challenge in placement was meeting region-specific demands of candidates as most candidates were not willing to relocate. Irize did a two-prong strategy in simultaneously procuring job mandates from Mumbai branches of leading retail partners and sourcing the required candidates. The confluence of the right stakeholders resulted in successful adaptation in any region and any industry sector across India.
| Author |
Hari Menon
CEO, IndiaSkills which has been set up with the aim of redefining skills trainingand certification delivery in India
