I am fundraising to give Vocational Skill Training to underpriviledged students

Story

Sirisha, at 22, has completed her graduation, but found it difficult to get a job. She had to settle with a small job that required little or no skills. The feedback from most interviews was that she lacked the technical skill required for the job. Her graduation degree did not come to her rescue. She realised that the degree was just a piece of paper and that she really needed to work on her skills to land up in a job. This is when she came across Abhyaas awareness drive on Skill Development initiatives of the Government. She immediately enrolled into the course, passed her assessment successfully and has now found a job with her new found skills.

Thousands like Sirisha are out in the job market with a degree, but no skills. Though the government has subsidised the skill trainings to a large extent, they still find it difficult to pay for the assessment, denying many like her, the opportunity to learn a skill and make a career. Crowdfunded from sponsors like you, this amount can potentially support 200 candidates from poor & marginalised backgrounds, often first generation learners from their families. These youth are shown ample opportunities after their vocational training & land up in jobs suitable to the skills they learnt.

The Problem

Skilling & providing employment the Youth is the single biggest challenze facing the country today. While the government has introduced myriad schemes to support various skilling initiatives, there is a serious lack of awareness about these schemes. Even when people are aware, some of them do not take up the courses because they cannot afford the part fee they are supposed to pay. While the government subsidises and provides the amount for training, the assessment fee is supposed to be paid by the student. This excludes them from these initiatives.

Currently, we are running the following course under the

Electronics Systems, Design and Manufacturing Industry (ESDM) scheme of Department of Electronics (DeITY, Government of India and the assessment fee is Rs 1500/- per candidate.

Course Name: Field Technician - Computer Hardware & Networking

How are we different and why should you fund us?

We do understand that the skilling sector has gone through a lot of turbulence on account of lack of proper monitoring & professionalism. This has resulted in numbers only on paper with no considerable difference in gainful employment. We started this initiative only after building a basic ecosystem comprising the Training Organization (us), Relevant Industry & NGOs. We have tied up with relevant Industry Partners who have also advised on fine tuning the curriculum.

What do I plan to do with the funds?

The funds will be utilized to fund the assessment fee of 100 select & deserving students from the disadvantaged backgrounds to start with. This will be done through a combination of a screening test & background check. This will become a revolving fund since the assessment fee is refunded by the government on successful completion of the assessment. Even assuming a 60% pass ratio, this amount can easily fund upto 200 students for their assessment fee.

FAQs

The detailed scheme document can be downloaded from here

http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/ESDM_Approved_Guidelines_Scheme1_02_07_2015.pdf