Project Urja - Training and Employability Initiative by HDBFS CSR Initiative in Partnership with TechnoServe

India is rapidly urbanizing and by 2030, over 400 million people are expected to live in cities. One in every four urban household lives below poverty line. For example, in Mumbai, 10 million out of 20 million residents in slums. Increasingly, youth from poor backgrounds are pursuing higher education and represent an opportunity to pull their families and communities out of poverty. However, due to poor quality education and an absence of networks, only a fraction of disadvantaged youth who graduate from college are able to obtain formed sector job. 

Vinay Bhole, Proncipal, Model College, Dombivli says – ‘The basic challenge was that students were not confident about the interview skills but after the implementation of the project. They have gained a lot of confidence. Under Project Urja, TechnoServe has provided excellent training to our students and they got placed in various companies.’

TechnoServe’s ‘Campus to Corporate’ program works with disadvantaged youth to place them in a long term corporate careers.

Dr. Asha Menon, Principal, SPN Doshi Women’s College, says – ‘Placements were a problem for us. Joining with TechnoServe gave us a direction of how to go about it. The syllabus was good, we could find placements where exactly the students were absorbed. It jumped from 20% to 60%-70%, which was good enough for us as an institution. Most of the students in our college comes from socially not-so good background, therefore the job they would get definitely is going to help them create something more for their family.’

Before the implementation of the program, whenever the placement drives happened in the college, the usual feedback said students are lacking of soft skills. That has now changed because of TechnoServe’s initiative. From Model College, Dombivli, around 40 students enrolled for TechnoServe’s training, 38 students have already been placed. Students have had 360 degree change after being trained.

In 2018-19, TechnoServe trained 1000 students; 80% of the beneficiaries being women. 700+ students have been placed in formal sector jobs.