Unnati - Bangalore

One organization I had the pleasure of visiting while I was in Bangalore was Unnati.

They have the following model: They take in new batches of students every 3 months. Train the students for 90 days and then place them in corporate jobs.

Anyone can qualify - there are no educational requirements of entrance tests. You only need to be over 18 and poor. This includes people with physical or mental impairments.

Jobs are pretty decent paying - between Rs. 4000 - Rs. 13000 per month.

They place people in a few areas where they see enough demands - these include BPO jobs, hospitality, security, etc.

Training, boarding and lodging is free for the candidates (it costs Unnati Rs. 12,000 per student).

The skills the kids are taught are: English, Computers, Life values and Business skills

A little depressing, but if you want to do well in India today, you need to know some English. The kids they pick up frequently come from rural areas and can't say a word in English when they start. I got to see a class of kids who had just started their training. I can testify that it was hard for most say 3 sentences about themselves in English.

While access to computers is still hard to get in India, if you have decent computer skills - even simple data entry, you improve your earning potential dramatically.

In Life Values, they try to teach you about the right values in life - I don't have their full list, but it included things like punctuality, helping others, etc

In Business skills, they include topics like interviewing....

The first question I asked Rameshbhai (who is the brains behind this), was whether the companies were hiring these kids as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and he was quick to respond - "Absolutely not". Companies are looking for employees who have these skills and are happy to pick up these candidates and keep coming back for more.