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TARA Livelihood Academy –
Providing Livelihood Security through Training and Capacity Building
The Indian Skill Gap Problem W hile the global population is ageing rapidly, India with one of the youngest populations in the world is at a strategic advantage. The benefits of a large labour force can be leveraged to accelerate economic growth through skill development, thereby creating a demographic dividend. However, India faces a serious problem of lack of availability of skilled labour. Bulk of the labour force in India (about 90 per cent) working in the unorganised sector is largely untouched by any kind of formal training. The quantitative dimension of India’s skill development challenge is that 80% of the new entrants to the workforce have no opportunity for skill training. According to a study conducted by the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) - out of the 12.8 million people joining the workforce in India every year, the existing training capacity is only to train 3.1 million people per annum.The workforce in India can be categorised as highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled, with a majority falling in the last category. Out of the last category, most of the people belong to marginalised and poor families. They do not have the means to pay for any sort of skill training and rely mostly on agricultural or local livelihood opportunities which are gradually diminishing. Hence these marginalised youth suffer from either not having the skills to be employable or in some instances, not being able to signal their availability for jobs matching their skills due to the existence of an inefficient marketplace for lower rung of jobs. This is especially true for ‘low end white collar jobs’. It is expected that India’s Gross Domestic Product will grow at a rate of 8% per annum over the next few years. For an economy to sustain this growth rate, it is essential that the potential workforce be exposed to some form of skill training. Recent trends in the employment composition in India indicate that the workforce is migrating from the agriculture sector to the industry and services sectors. This structural shift towards higher productivity sectors requires up-skilling of the labour force and bridging the skill gap. The Prime Minister’s ‘National Council on Skill Development’ has endorsed a vision to create 500 million skilled people by 2022. At present, only about 2 percent of the workforce has skill training. In urban as well as rural India, the volumes of school and college drop outs, unemployed, unskilled and unemployable people are huge. TARA Livelihood Academy (TLA) To create sustainable livelihoods at scale, TARA
Livelihood Academy (TLA) was set up in 2007 as a business unit by
Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), which is a part of
the Development Alternatives Group. Realising the importance of capacity
building, TLA provides vocational training, life skills, employability
skills and entrepreneurship skills to help rural and urban youth, women,
school and college drop outs to settle either in a career or set up
micro, small or medium enterprises.
Business Model of TARA Livelihood Academy In order to provide skills to a wide spectrum of target groups, TARA Livelihood Academy (TLA) has three current lines of businesses (LOBs) and business models which are as follows: • Employability Skills (Revenue model comprises of fee collection from the trainees or the fee is sponsored by the employers or under Corporate Social Responsibility) Ø Life Skills TrainingØ Vocational TrainingØ Self-Employment Training• Entrepreneurship Development (Fee collection from the individuals) Entrepreneurship for Beginners Ø Enterprise Management for Existing EntrepreneursØ Business Expansion for Enterprise Associations• Executive Training (3-5 days Certificate Courses. Fee paid by individuals or companies)
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TLA is Certified and Recognised as: • TLA is ISO 9001:2008 Certified Business Unit for vocational training, skill development training and placement support services • Vocational Training Provider for Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh under the Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) • Implementing Partner of Madhya Pradesh Government’s Districts Poverty Initiative Project (MPDPIP) • Authorised Training Partner of Retailers Association’s Skill Council of India (RASCI) • Authorised Training Partner of USHA Sewing School imparting quality training in stitching and tailoring • ILO’s Partner for delivering Start and Improve Your Business (SIYB) Curricula • Training and Placement Partner for Kwality Walls, New Delhi • TLA is part of the Marico Social Innovation Acceleration Programme 2013-15 • TLA is one of the top 3 HP LIFE Centres among 349 Hewlett Packard Centres around the world • Innovation Alchemy, Bangalore is providing hand holding support to TLA for scaling up its business model Some of TLA’s clients include: GAIL (India) Ltd., HUL Kwality Walls, Hewlett Packard (HP); Noida Power Company Limited (NPCL); Bajaj; Government of Madhya Pradesh (DPIP Project); NABARD; University of Applied Sciences, Austria; ILO etc. |
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This kind of segregation ensures that the rural-urban mix is adequately serviced in various geographies. Since its inception, TLA has been operational in the Bundelkhand region of Central India (seven districts in Uttar Pradesh and six districts in Madhya Pradesh). TLA has 25 training centres spread across Bundelkhand which help in enhancing its reach and creating impact at the ground level. It has contributed to the region’s economic growth by promoting opportunities for decent jobs and new enterprise creation. TLA has successfully built capacities of more than 22,000 people in Bundelkhand. Around 60% of these TLA trainees have been successfully linked to sustainable livelihood opportunities. TLA’s business strategy is based on three important elements-quality and profitability, relevance in the individual’s life and overall impact on society. In keeping up with its primary focus on sustainability, TLA strives to create resource efficient, green enterprises based on the basic needs of the local population. Till date, TLA has helped create 1,200 green jobs in sectors such as dairy, agriculture, construction, renewable energy, recycling and waste management. q |
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Case Study of Srimati Jyoti Prajapati from Raksha, Jhansi District, Uttar Pradesh TARA Livelihood Academy (TLA) specifically supports women through livelihood creation, which is the most effective route to their empowerment. Srimati Jyoti Prajapati attended TLA’s 3 months beautician training course. It cost her Rs. 2500. After that, she started her own beautician training cum parlour centre in September 2013. She also became TLA’s partner for assessment and certification under a revenue sharing model for other trainees undergoing the beautician course. Jyoti has also partnered with TLA and mobilised more women in her vicinity to undergo this training. She is now economically independent and has plans to open three more beauty parlours over the next 6 months. |
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Manisha Mishra
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