As the government grapples with unemployment, social enterprises are sprouting across the country to tackle the skilling and upskilling that pose a big challenge to corporate India, especially in the informal sector. The informal sector employs over 90 per cent of the workforce.
LabourNet, one such enterprise, which works among the youth in urban and rural India, has been in the field for the past 10 years, focussing on RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning), and bridging skill gaps in education and entrepreneurship, especially in medium, small and micro enterprises.
“In education, we have three streams — vocational education (a four-year course (for class IX-XII students). a graduate course (B-Voc) and short-term programmes in partnership with corporates,” Gayathri Vasudevan, Co-Founder and CEO, LabourNet on RPL, said in a telephonic interaction.
LabourNet, whose training module includes upskilling and certification, has signed up with 200 brands including Honda and L’Oreal, and provides industry linkages mainly in the form of indirect employment in supply chains.
“We also do onsite training on construction sites, in rubber manufacturing and leather factories, basically creating the ground for RPL apprenticeships,” said Vasudevan.
Skilling and bridge training of existing employees is another area that the enterprise looks into, including upskilling of Volvo bus drivers in Himachal Pradesh.
“Several developed and developing nations are encouraging RPL, and linking them to their core educational system for successful nation building,” said the company, which sees vast potential of an estimated 48 crore employed persons in India.
Currently, less than 5 per cent of these have formally recognised skills.
For vocational education, LabourNet has been working in government schools in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, among others, and has reached over five lakh students since 2012,” said Vasudevan.
However, she admits that the challenges in rural areas are greater due to migration, especially less than class X pass students, who make up for almost 85 per cent of students there.
“Most of these children leave the villages for urban areas to work in construction sites, etc. Only women are left behind,” she said. However, women, too, are joining vocational courses in good numbers in areas, such as beauty, apparels and leather.