Skill Development and Employability
To see a life transformed Not because you gave a person charity; but because you taught them a skill they could market—is among the most joyful feelings imaginable. At Jaypee, it’s one we live through each day. At the Industrial Training Institutes set up by the Group, unskilled young men and women are taught skills ranging from operating lathes and construction machinery, to repairing cell phones and other electronic devices. While some end up joining us, many go on to work for other entities, or set up their own businesses.
Of all our rural employability initiatives, perhaps the most moving are the ones that teach rural women simple skills that almost invariably end up as life transforming events on a scale that seems out of proportion with the efforts expended. The elevation of a woman’s status from someone who does the menial chores around the house, to a respected, earning member who contributes significantly to the family kitty, can be utterly empowering. And that’s what makes all the effort it takes to overcome centuries of bias seem completely worthwhile. Over the last two decades, the many dozens of sewing courses conducted by our trainers have produced hundreds of empowered women who have gone on to start their own micro-businesses, using the sewing machines given to them free at the successful completion of the course. In fact, many today are so successful, they employ as many as a dozen women they have further trained themselves. The seeping success of this initiative is now being duplicated across multiple locations, by teaching women other skills that can generate an income, like making papads and vadis, washing powder, incense stick and candles. Several SHGs have been formed which also undertake minor infrastructure projects in the villages as a source of income generation.