Helping youth upgrade skills to be job-ready

SOS Children's Villages of India, India's largest self-implementing child care NGO, has facilitated productive employability for over 1,820 youth of the country through its skilling programme. Over 970 youth, including 497 women, in Hyderabad were skilled in a wide variety of domains like Digital Marketing, Computer Applications, Engineering, Nursing, Nutrition, Hotel Management, Beauty Assistant, Networking Administration, Supply Chain Management, Fashion Designing and Apparel Construction, to name a few.

Skilling, reskilling and upskilling are vital, especially in post pandemic times, owing to loss of jobs; emerging jobs in the market, post the pandemic; and reduction of salaries. Education and Skilling are an important part of the Basket of Care Solutions that SOS Children's Villages of India has designed in order to deliver customised solutions to the most pressing challenges the country faces. The impetus for the initiative in India stands enhanced, also because of the country's rich demographic dividend. Under its programme, the NGO has set up Vocational Training Centres across the country helping young people upgrade themselves with necessary skills, and has stepped in with financial support, re-skilling and upskilling opportunities, which have facilitated employment opportunities and better sources of income.

Sumanta Kar, Secretary General, SOS Children's Villages of India said, "The pandemic has caused a jump in unemployment rate, highly impacting vulnerable communities. We felt the need to equip and empower individuals, especially youth and caregivers. We offer necessary skill upgrades though Vocational Training Centres, across the country. We have witnessed an incredible response, with over 85-90% of youth finding placement opportunities with leading companies. We have received constant support from both government bodies and corporates to train and help with employment opportunities, allowing youth to adapt to the changing work environment."

"I lost my father when I was 14 years old to a severe illness. Following his death, my family was in dire straits due to which I was unable to pursue higher education. I got to know about the skilling programme by SOS Children's and after necessary evaluation the organisation enrolled me in the ITES – BPO course, at TWG International Institute, under the section IT for Girls.

After successful completion of the course, I was placed with a BPO firm as a customer service executive", said Deepthi, a youth beneficiary.l Over 970 youth were skilled in Hyderabad, including 497 women

l 1,820 youth were skilled in a year; 1,164 were successfully placed with an average salary of Rs 15,938/- per month in 2021