Facilitating the Road to Change

According to 'World Population Prospects: The 2015 revision' Population Database of United Nations Population Division, India has the world's highest number of 10 to 24-year-olds at 242 million, even ahead of China, which has 185 million young people. Moreover, the 68^th Round Survey Report by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) reveals that there are 10.8 million unemployed young men and women.

As per AISHE 2014-15, there are 760 Universities, 38498 Colleges and 12276 Stand Alone Institutions in the country. However, the number of underprivileged youth in India who lack education and proper guidance is so huge that according to some reports only 15% of the young graduates passing out of colleges are employable; the rest are branded unemployable.

It is crucial for the energy of the underprivileged youth to be adequately channelized with proper direction to aid economic growth and nation-building and to avoid their addition to family woes, social stress, and national misery. There is also increasing concern among the leading employers of the country, about the dearth of ready-to-deliver employees. A Planning Commission of India study reveals — that of over half of the young men and two-thirds of the young women surveyed, reported interest in skills training. Heeding at this, National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) was established in 2009. The significance of the issue has spiraled to such an extent that the Indian Prime Minister set up "Skill India" on a mission mode in 2015.

Once children grow up and get primary education, receiving the right skills and becoming employable is critical for them. Else, even after getting an education, the youth from less privileged communities can remain in the vicious cycle of poverty and sometimes can slip onto the wrong path. As per the National Crime Record Bureau, a total of 41,385 juveniles were apprehended during 2015. Smile Foundation saw the skill gap and brought The Smile Twin e-Learning Programme (STeP) to life. Making the youth employable is also in sync with Smile's philosophy of life-cycle support.

In Aug 2007, Manishankar Aiyer, then minister of HRD in the Central Government inaugurated the program in Delhi. Inspired by the vision and objectives of the program, Delhi based UBN Foundation joined in with early support to the program by committing themselves to IT infra support for the first 38 centers. Beginning with two pilot projects with UPS foundation support in Delhi, STeP quickly expanded to 30 centers in the first five months. The struggle in the early days was to identify right grassroots partners for the project, who understand the objective and are committed to maintaining the quality of the program. At the end of the six months, when inaugural batches started to graduate — placements started. Café Coffee Day and Croma were happy to absorb the first batch of students from STeP.

Today the program boasts of 32,000 Alumni and almost 20,000 plus youth working across the retail sector (>150+ organizations like Café Coffee Day, Domino's Pizza, Westside Stores, ICICI, HDFC, Reliance Retail, Big Bazaar, Spencer, Croma etc.). The reach has extended to cater to almost 3500 youth per year through its network of 91 STeP centers which are operational across 38 cities in 19 Indian states of India.

What makes STeP unique and hugely successful is that it addresses the need gap from both the demand and supply side. This mini MBA is not just a medium of education, but a mean of nurturing the mental health and personality development of the underprivileged youth, facilitating them to do their part in making the world a better place. The program has succeeded, where most 'vocational' training courses fail, i.e. to address the requirement of soft skills needed at the workplace and making the candidates confident through comprehensive training on personality development.

The program was made more practical with industry exposure as a part of the curriculum, in the form of short visits to the premises of potential recruiters and seeing things first hand. The program is run in partnership with community-based organizations / NGOs, wherein Smile ensures uniformity through program structure, quality monitoring, and curriculum while the local partner brings in uniqueness based on local resources and requirements. To ensure the quality of the program, Smile Foundation conducts 'training of trainers' program that focuses on augmenting teaching skills in Information Technology and English, among other subjects.

Smile Foundation also operates a Centralised Placement Cell that works with potential employers from different sectors to understand their needs, analyze them and create opportunities for students, both through on and off-campus placements. STeP has tie-ups with more than 200 renowned brands that offer employment to the students. They also do professional career counseling sessions that aim to help the students choose the right domain of employment in tune with their skills and job expectations. Most of the candidates trained at STeP centers evolve into first-generation organized sector professionals becoming an inspiration for their siblings, upcoming generations and communities at large.

(Disclaimer: Santanu Mishra is the Co-Founder and Executive Trustee of Smile Foundation. The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)