Karigar Ladder: Turning Hidden Skill Into Opportunity

Walk onto any construction site in India and you will find workers who can lay a perfect line of bricks, set tiles without a gap, or read a structure the way others read a page. Many have spent years perfecting their craft. Yet ask them to prove it, and they have nothing to show. No certificate that matters to an employer, no payslip, no record. On paper, a worker with a decade on site looks no different from someone who arrived last week.

It was this gap between real skill and recognised skill that caught the attention of Vasishth Somani, a student at Greenwood High International School, Bannerghatta, Bengaluru. His answer is Karigar Ladder, an initiative that gives experienced workers a credible way to prove their skill and step into better, more secure jobs.

A Talent Without a Trace

In informal construction, years of experience leave little trace on paper. Most workers are hired through contractors, often without any formal record of their work. With no way to show what they can do, skilled workers often stay in the same role, on the same wage, year after year.

Vasishth saw that the problem was not just that skill went unseen. Better-paid roles also demanded skills these workers had never had the chance to build.

Making Skill Visible, Then Putting It to Work

Karigar Ladder is built around a simple idea: make skill visible, then put it to work.

Skill that goes unseen is skill that goes unrewarded, and Karigar Ladder exists to change that. The journey starts with a hands-on test of their trade, revealing the skill years of hard work have already built. From there, experienced trainers brought on board by Karigar Ladder sharpen that skill through a specialised program. And at the end comes the moment of proof, a final assessment that turns hidden talent into a standard employers can trust.

Then comes the step that changes lives. Workers are matched with partner builders based on trade, location and role. Employers run their own interviews and hire on merit. And if a first match doesn’t work out, the worker is matched again, because, as the program believes, one unsuccessful interview doesn’t mean an unskilled worker.

The model costs workers nothing. Employers pay only after a worker is hired and joins the job, which means Karigar Ladder succeeds only when its workers do.

From Cash Wages to Company Payrolls

The results speak for themselves. More than 600 workers have been trained and certified through Karigar Ladder, and more than 500 have moved into better jobs, supported by a growing network of more than ten partner firms.

For many of these workers, it has meant something they had never had before: their first formal job, with a company payroll, Provident Fund, and ESI. These changes bring financial security and long-term benefits that reach not just the workers, but their families too.

Recognition from the Government

The impact has not gone unnoticed. The Government of Tamil Nadu’s Labour Welfare and Skill Development Department has honoured Vasishth with its Certificate of Excellence in Workforce Innovation. The department is also exploring how his approach could extend to other sectors in construction.

Officials have noted how unusual it is for a placement effort to come with builders’ written commitments and such close work with workers’ unions, a sign of the trust Karigar Ladder has built on both sides of the hiring table.

Building the Ladder, One Step at a Time

The name says it all. As an experienced worker climbs into a better role, he opens the way for the next to follow. What began as a student’s idea is becoming a lasting path where skill is seen, recognised and fairly rewarded, one worker and one step at a time.

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