Generation India Foundation: Connecting Youth With Employers, After A Training Bootcamp

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of skilling and upskilling in the current job market. It is vital that individuals, businesses, and governments work together to provide workers with the skills they need to succeed in the new normal. With the right support and resources, workers can remain employable and thrive in the changing job market.

Generation is a nonprofit organization established with the aim of transforming education to employment systems to better prepare and support people for life-changing careers. In less than eight years, Generation has grown rapidly to meet the challenges of global unemployment and has since impacted over 70,000 people across 170+ cities and 17 countries.

Generation India Foundation (GIF) was launched in 2015 to tackle the dual challenges of a lack of trained workforce and non-employability of large sections of India's youth. 20,000+ learners (58% female) have been trained in India so far, with 91% of graduates placed in jobs three months after graduation and 81% remaining employed three months later.

Generation ensures high quality skilling through the unique 7-step methodology, which is a comprehensive set of best practices designed to improve each step of the skilling value chain. This methodology emphasizes outcomes over inputs and places a special emphasis on quality of training, placement, retention, tracking learners for a year to ensure their success. Generation works closely with government entities, local training partners, and employers to achieve large-scale impact.

Throwing light on some recent initiatives

PROJECT AMBER (Accelerated Mission for Better Employment and Retention) is a joint initiative of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and Generation India Foundation (GIF) under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). This project is co-funded by MSDE (under the SANKALP programme) and private philanthropy and aims to train 30,000 youth, 50% of whom will be women trainees. The training will be conducted in post-COVID resilient job roles, over a period of two years. Generation’s holistic 7-step skilling methodology will be utilized to drive higher quality skilling, improved employment, and retention outcomes.

Along with improving employment outcomes, it is anticipated that the project model will create systemic impact for the Indian skilling ecosystem.

Generation ensures higher placements and higher industry engagement

Placement is usually a weak link in skilling initiatives, but Generation has a solution for this. The organization identifies industries and job roles with a high scarcity of talent and launches job roles only after aggregating demand. They map 1.5x vacancies per learner for each batch before beginning the cohort, ensuring that all learners who graduate from their programs have adequate job opportunities. Generation also involves employers in the entire process of training, from curriculum creation to guest lectures during training, to build strong relationships between learners and industry.

Increasing possibilities through the use of technology

Technology is playing a significant role in improving skilling outcomes at Generation. They have partnered with several technology platforms that aggregate jobs from various employers across India, allowing them to provide opportunities to their learners even from organizations with whom they do not have direct partnerships. Generation uses Salesforce and Power BI for data analysis and programmatic decisions and TORSH for trainer monitoring. The tech courses use Canvas, allowing learners to access content in an interactive manner and track their progress.

Helping Training Partners perform better

The level of skilling varies vastly across Training Partners, Centers, and Geographies and this affects the quality of skilling and outcomes. Generation offers comprehensive support to its Training Partners to ensure high-quality training, through Train the Trainer workshops, monitoring, and improvement efforts. The support ranges from enhancing the skills of trainers and center staff to facilitating connections with recruiters. The goal is to attain positive results such as high completion rates and successful job placements for trainees, achieved by focusing on classroom instruction, employer engagement, and leadership's adoption of best practices.

Collaborating with Private philanthropy and CSR

In order to train students, Generation seeks funding from Philanthropies, CSRs, or the Government. This enables Generation to reduce the per learner cost for donors and deliver higher outcomes. In the past few years, several organizations have chosen Generation for their CSR contributions towards skilling. With many of its funders, Generation also forges deeper strategic relationships in order to jointly create more value for its learners.

Future plans and long-term goals

The future plans of Generation India over the next three years include the successful implementation of Project AMBER, exploring innovative means to encourage greater CSR and employer participation in skilling, and venturing into more aspirational roles for skilling, including tech and green jobs.