YOUTH 4 JOBS FOUNDATION – INDIA

INNOVATION PRACTICE - 219

Vocational Training - Leading Directly to Jobs in the Open Labour Market Innovations in Vocational Training and Workplace Solutions for Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in corporate - Focus on Training, Employment and Inclusion Gopal Garg, Co-Founder, Youth 4 Jobs Foundation, INDIA +91 9949995202 gopalgarg.y4j@gmail.com

CONTEXT

• Youth with disability, especially in the villages, are an

under-served population.

• Youth4Jobs has created a template for Vocational

Training for youth with disability and linking them to

organised sector jobs.

• The initiative mainstreams recruiting young people with

disabilities by highlighting the business case of hiring

them by recognizing their Abilities.

• In the process, the organisation has demonstrated a

scalable and replicable model for the policy makers .

• The work is important as the “Sustainable Development

Goals (SDGs)” cannot be achieved unless the unreached

are made employable.

2

Critical Challenges Faced

• Widely dispersed in the rural areas

• Education levels are also poor

• Aspire for Government Jobs

• Low Skill sets

• Speech-Hearing impaired candidates come with poor English skills

PwD Youth

• Deep set Attitudes about Disability

• Some feel it’s expensive to hire

• Others think it may have a negative impact on their existing non-disabled staff.

• Many companies did not have accessible offices

• Others were not willing to invest in infrastructure to make the PwDs productive

Companies

• Training Design: Trainings have to be customized for different disabilities

• Special trainers are difficult to get and expensive

• Building their self-esteem & skills required by the industry in 60 days requires dedicated trainers.

Trainings

3

The Government, on the other hand, believed in giving subsidies and doles. These were so high in some states that it acted as a deterrent to the youth to work and be independent. Also, livelihood funding went for projects which employed disabled youth to make phenyl, soap powder etc since they believed this was what they could do best!

4 4

>100,000 community members advocated on Ability in Disability

Awareness campaigns on Employment prospects

Tie-up with Grass-root level civil society organizations

Tie-up with Government for last mile community outreach

Work closely with Associations of persons with disabilities

Community Outreach and Advocacy

Short-Term Market Linked Vocational

Training 200+ workshops delivered covering

5,000 managers

Emphasis on skills and job-role matrix

Low cost Workplace solutions and adaptations are co-created with companies

PwD candidates are more productive & it makes business sense to hire them

Improves morale of non-disabled staff

Work on HR policy of corporate to ensure it accommodates PwDs

Corporate Sensitization Workplace Solutions

“I was always rejected for employment as companies told me they had to make too many adjustments for me. Today I work for a major company that is so happy with my work that I have been promoted to supervisor. I never dreamt I would stand on my own feet one day, earning a decent salary.”

—Venkatesh, Y4J Alumni at KFC BPO, Speech and Hearing impaired

45-day vocational training

One-week traineeship in companies

Training modules are designed and customized in partnership with companies and future employers

Adapted methodology to deliver for different kind of persons with disabilities.

Assessments & Certification (Recent Tie-up with Microsoft)

SUMMARY OF INNOVATIVE PRACTICE

>7,800 Young People with Disabilities are Trained

5

Started with 1 centre and scaled to 20 centres in 3 years

.1 million Community members are advocated on “Ability in Disability”

150+ Corporates have hired trained persons with disabilities

>5000 Corporate Managers have undergone Disability and Inclusion Sensitization Workshops

10 States

Youth4Jobs has delivered significant results in the past 3 years

20 Centres

10+ International/National Reports released on promoting Employment of Persons with Disabilities with Best Practices

7 Awards Recipient of International/ National Awards

20 million+ As per 2011 census;

Actually 3 times more as per World Bank

Youth 4 Jobs 3 Years Journey

6

Stage 1: Building the Model

• Leveraging the government network for mobilisation

• Setting up a training centre

• Inviting companies to hire because of the business case

• Developing the template of the entire value chain

Stage 2: Validating Template Across 3 Disabilities

• Expand corporate network to more than 50 companies

• Introduced simple workplace solutions

• Scaling-up no. of centres

• New Models developed tailored to market needs with close industry collaboration

• WISE: Work Integrated Soft Skills and English

• GET (Graduate Employability Training)

Stage 3: Scale-Up

• Spread across India in 10 States with 20 Training Centres

• Corporate base increased to 150+ companies

• Large NGO network leverage to reach the community

• Industry association as partner: In the retail sector, Y4J has co-founded a brand “Pankh” with B. Nagesh, Chairman, Retail Association of India and TRRAIN.

• Policy: Founder on Governing council of Government and CII council for disability

Value Chain/Process to close all the GAPS – Template for Scale

Outreach (Mobilization through

PwD federations)

Screening (Matching youth

qualification, disability & aspiration with trainings )

Targ

et G

rou

p

Training Design (Designing the trainings as per employers & market

needs)

Trainin

gs

Training Center (Y4J own or with Partners)

Training (Skilling PwD youth for competitive

advantage in job markets with support of Special Educators and

Technology)

Placement (Linking the trained PwD youth with Employers)

Post placement support (Support for sustenance in first month in case of relocation to

cities for employment)

Clinical Support (Medical checkup, Corrective

treatment & providing assistive devices as required by the PwD

Candidate)

Alumni Meet (Network of Alumni and support

system for lifelong learning through Higher Education & Career

Advancement)

Market Scan (Industry reach out)

Role Mapping Study (Studies for mapping jobs with different

kinds of disabilities)

Sensitization (Sensitization workshop for

companies on abilities of PwDs & advantages of hiring

them)

Ind

ustry

Advocacy (In the companies to hire the persons with

disabilities)

&

7

Training Program: Class Room Training, Exposure Visit, OJTs

45 Days Class Room Training includes Soft Skills, Communication Skills, Computers, Sector Specific Training, Yoga, etc.,

15 Days On the Job Training

Guest Lectures by corporate managers

(Photos below depicts this process)

8

Innovative Process in a factory to enable them to hire PwDs

9

Role Mapping Face to Face Interview

Sign Boards Safeguard Jacket for Visibility Sensitization Workshop

Safety Training

Photo depiction of the process: Role Mapping, Sensitization Workshop, Facilitate Interview, Safety Training, Work Place Solutions

Y4J work with a French Multinational Company in south India

Companies and Sectors

10

Hospitality Retail Banking &

Finance BPO Textiles

IT/ITeS Travel & Tourism

Telecom Health Care Manufacturing

Impact on Youth

11

37%

17%

39%

1% 6%

Retail

Manufacturing

IT/ITES

Media & Animation

Textiles

Analysis of 7,000 PwD Youth Trained by Youth4Jobs

Use of Savings from Income

Nature %age

Clearing High Debts

32

Savings 22

Assets 15

Education 25

Health 06

Impact on Company: Google, Hyderabad

12

Diversity week – sensitisation workshop to 50 Googlers Hyderabad

Volunteers meet Y4J alumni to profile their high impact stories

Presentation to the Facility Team: Compass, ILFM, Apollo

Formal MOU for hiring youth to begin with in the facilities area

Systematic plan drawn up

13 youth with locomotor disability & SHI (Speech-Hearing Impaired) working

Plan to take inclusion to 25% of 650 facility staff in the next two years.

Case Study: Automobile Company Valeo, Chennai, India

13

Mandate was to demonstrate PwD hiring as a Business Case and not CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)

Campaign was launched in the plant with 400 workers to give name for this initiative of inclusive hiring – Finally chosen PROJECT ABLE+

Intensive Role-Mapping and Role Matrix was drawn to look at all the possible roles for adaptations with different disabilities

Entire process was laid down including sensitization workshop for people from senior management till supervisor, safety training

Innovative approach to safety evacuation and other work place solutions to improve work efficiency

Uniform equipped with Reflectors for easy identification of people with disability and their supervisors

In last 1 year 27 people with disability got recruited and we planned to scale up to 50 people

It’s getting replicated in other 7 plants of the Group Company

Recently , in France, the same plant where we did the intervention got an Award for best Inclusion Globally among 250+ plants

Winner of Access Livelihoods Asia 2015 Award

The Fetzer Institute, USA

NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller award

Winner of the Bihar Innovation Forum II Award under Skills Development category in association with The World Bank

Founder Meera Shenoy was invited to speak about Youth4Jobs at the prestigious TEDxBerkely.

Founder Meera Shenoy was recently inducted into the Happiness Hall of Fame in a function held at Stanford, the only Indian to be inducted at the ceremony.

Founder Meera Shenoy was recently awarded the Vocational Excellence Award by Rotary Club.

Recognition and Awards

14

Policy Work and Research Studies by Youth4Jobs

15

Actively involved in framing the policy for skilling persons with disability with the Government of India

“Road to Inclusion – Integrating PwDs in Organizations” White Paper by Y4J and Boston Consulting Group (BCG), commissioned by SCPwD (Sector Skills Council of Persons with Disability), Government of India. It was released by Mr. Patanjali Keswani, Chairman of Lemon Tree Hotels.

Nominated as best practise by UNDP & World Bank publications

Featured in Harvard Business review & Stanford Social Innovation Review(SSIR) blog

Commissioned a ILO Report on “Persons With Disability & The Indian Labour Market: Challenges And Opportunities”

Did a Report in association with Indian School of Business (ISB) on “Sensitization Training to Build Inclusive Workforce”

Did a Report in association with The Taj Group of Hotels on “Employment prospects for persons with disability in Hospitality Industry”

Did a Report on “Role Mapping for Persons with Disability at Ford Motor, Global Business Services, Chennai, India”

Way Forward

Y4J plans to be a Knowledge Hub through which best practices can be disseminated to NGOs & interested organisations.

By 2020 Youth4Jobs aims:

– To sensitize 1 million community members on ability in disability

– To be a 1 stop shop offering companies customized solutions to build an inclusive workplace

– To sensitize 1,00,000 company representatives

– To train 20,000 PwDs and connect them to Jobs

In order to achieve the above: – Set-up more training centres, own and with partners

• Youth4Jobs plans to set-up new training centres in the States of Delhi, Odisha, Chhattisgarh – Expand to different disabilities with partners:

• Y4J is partnering with an organisation to set up a knowledge repository for intellectual disabilities – Expand corporate network and industry partnership:

• • Reach out to more corporate and sensitize them on the business case of hiring persons with disability

Training of special educators program: Special educators have no understanding of skilling programs or markets. Y4J is developing a program for this important gap

Content Customization for different disabilities: Using mixed mode learning for streamlining content across centres

Work with volunteer networks : Y4J will expand its work with volunteer networks like Tata’s, Infosys etc.

Piloting new technologies which enhance learning and work

Third Party impact studies for continuous improvement and dissemination to policy makers. 16

OUR HAPPY YOUTH IN JOBS!!!

Thank You gopalgarg.y4j@gmail.com

+91 9949995202

www.youth4jobs.org