The woodpecker is an amazing

bird that doesn’t hesitate to shake

up the calm, forces people to take

notice, and works at its goal with

single minded focus.

Employability skills for underserved youth

News Letter Number 1

Jan 2012

2

EDITORIAL

Inclusive Growth and Role of NIIT Foundation

Back in 2006, NIIT started a group called “Affirmative

Action”. The word originated from the perceived need of

building skills in SC and ST students so that they can take

up jobs in the organised sector, based on their merit rather

than on reservation. That was also a call of the Government

and Corporates and was visible in manifestos released by

organisations such as CII and FICCI.

Taking up the responsibility of driving Affirmative Action at

NIIT, I started exploring what we could do in the area. We

began with very little clarity but a lot of passion on what we

wanted to do. We sought to distil out our target audience,

our charter and our sustenance model. NIIT has globally

established competence in Education Delivery, Content

Development and Technology for education and training

for students across 40 countries worldwide. We decided to

start by finding out how best our core competencies could

be leveraged to impact larger India.

This meant visiting rural India, talking to people already

passionately engaged in similar development work and

experimenting with ideas – old and new. We found that

everyone, without exception, was happy with the idea that

NIIT would be doing something in the social

space. However, almost everyone had a different view of

what should be done and how it should be done. And

that‟s precisely what made defining NIIT Foundation that

much more challenging and interesting.

The numbers were stark – less than 20% of India (primarily

urban) was creating more than 80% of the GDP - and the

facts were disturbing – rural to urban ratio had moved from

80:20 to 73:27 in the last 20 or so years. However, the

population growth in urban areas was primarily in India‟s

slums! The visits to our country‟s interiors revealed that the

„divides‟ in their various forms were the real hindrances to

India‟s inclusive growth. Casteism led to segregation of

population in terms of access to amenities and gender bias

led to differentiation in education for girls. Financial and

technical divides led to ignorance and inappropriate choices

in education and, hence, frustration and downward spiral

for the youth of India.

Another interesting phenomena was that civil

service organizations were at work almost

everywhere we went, and some had been in

existence for a long time in some of the

areas. However, the impact was not visible though

each organization had great case studies. These

were lessons for us on scale, impact and

sustainability of not-for-profit organizations.

Through the last five years of exploring,

experimenting, running operations directly in slums

and small towns as well as working with other non-

profit organizations – I believe we are now more

focused and clearer on what we want to do and

how we are to do it. We have a better picture

about the scale of the operations and we have a

direction for sustainability. We are an enabling

organization, building training content, enabling

on-ground NGOs, giving wings to social efforts of

other corporates, and providing means for

individuals to contribute to social development

meaningfully. Our projects are now firmly in place

and we hope to start reaping the benefits of scale

of reach and impact in the very near future.

This newsletter gives you a window into what we

are doing and how we are doing it. Through this

newsletter, we hope to connect with more and

more people and corporates and we are looking

forward to views, critical inputs and support to take

this mission forward.

Best wishes

Neeraj Agarwal

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Ravi Mehta : An Inspiration

From above:

School where Ravi completed his primary education.

His mother and Ravi at their home

in Dasna, U.P.

NIIT Foundation, Dasna center has been set up

in partnership with Hindustan Coca Cola

Beverages Pvt. Ltd. and Gram Niyojan

Kendra, Dasna

STUDENT SPEAK

After walking past the NIIT Foundation Center at Dasna

many times, Ravi Mehta finally mustered up the courage

to walk in and find out what courses were on offer.

Seventeen-year-old Ravi had just cleared his engineering

entrance exam, but could not join because of monetary

constraints. As the next best option, he wanted to enroll

for the technical courses at a Polytechnic Institute but to

afford the fees he knew he needed a job. So he enrolled

in the Foundation‟s four month job-oriented course.

Extremely shy by nature, Ravi initially found the highly

participative learning methodology daunting; however,

by the end of the first month, his perception changed

and his confidence started growing.

And then disaster struck. Mid-course, Ravi‟s father

became bedridden due to an accident caused injury.

Since his father was the sole earning member, Ravi

wanted to drop out to start earning immediately.

Understanding his predicament, the Foundation started

sending him for interviews while he continued the course.

None of the interviews resulted in a job but they helped

him understand the importance of his course in the

current job market. Therefore, he decided to stay on till

he finished the course.

Today, Ravi is employed with KFC and has also received a

scholarship for his desired course at his coveted

polytechnic.

Ravi, who now envisions working as a manager in a few

years, says “Now I can meet new people confidently. I can

even face any interview and talk very professionally.”

Read the detailed story at

http://bit.ly/whr4tf

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PARTNER SPEAK

Jindal Stainless Limited has established training centers with NIIT

Foundation (NF) at Jajpur (Orissa) and Hisar (Haryana). NF programs are

flexible, and the centers offer tailor-made solutions to match the needs of

the communities and the objectives of the corporate that extend CSR

activities. We chose NIIT Foundation as a partner because of their proven

delivery mechanism, the obvious altruistic reputation in skilling

communities and their focus on making the under-served youth

employable.

There is a need to create many more such centers that would provide an

opportunity to the economically backward. NF centers are empowerment

hubs that impart targeted technical and practical orientation to the

marginalized. Socially responsible corporations should encourage such

initiatives in areas of their operations and influence.

Rajiv Williams

Corporate Head - CSR

Jindal Stainless Limited

Millions are still waiting…

Sponsor a career for youth, a livelihood for a family and hope for the nation!

Get in touch with us at: Giving@niit.com

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ISR (Individual Social Responsibility) is a new concept that in-

transition countries are adopting along with CSR (Corporate Social

Responsibility). NIIT Technologies Limited (NTL) is one of the

pioneering organizations that are combining the two by encouraging

employee volunteering in the social sector. In the last 4 months, more than 100 NTL

employees have contributed time and money to the NIIT Foundation youth, positively

impacting their lives and, consequently, improving their own.

Take the step!

Use NIIT Foundation as a platform to contribute to social change!

Write to us at Giving@niit.com to change India for the better.

Volunteering Organization

SPECIAL MENTION

Reduced stress levels, an improved happiness index and employee

loyalty are some of the results achieved along with contributing to the

loftier goal of nation building. The employees register online through

an internal portal called IGive and avail a paid leave of 4 working days

to work with a social initiative of their choice. At NIIT Foundation, most

volunteers have been engaging in activities related to teaching, creative

writing, awareness spreading and fundraising.

I guess there is all what we volunteers

need (at NIIT Foundation)...this is an

awesome platform for us to showcase

knowledge and skills we have to make

these students perfectly ready for their

future.

Kanika Sharma

NIIT Technologies Ltd.

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NIIT Foundation (NF) is a not-for-profit education society that makes critical

interventions towards upgrading the skill base and employability of the

marginalized youth in urban slums and rural areas. In addition, it works with other

NGOs to offer NF Certification to the NGO‟s beneficiaries.

PROJECT UPDATES

District Learning Centers

(DLCs) focus on imparting em-

ployability skills to under-

privileged, non-working graduates

in rural areas. DLCs are currently

functional in Madhya Pradesh.

Synergy Project set up in

partnership with CII and Delhi

University, focuses on building

employability skills of the Distance

Education students at Delhi

University, with a special focus on

the SC/STs.

Career Development

Centers (CDCs) cater to the

skilling needs of the vast

employable population residing in

urban slums. CDCs are currently

functional in Delhi-NCR, Jaipur,

Mumbai, UP and other cities.

Urban Slum

Youth

NReach builds capacity among

NGOs by providing structured

courseware, training NGO trainers

and providing trainer and student

certifications. This program is

offered nationwide.

Rural Youth

NGOs DU SC/ST

Students

Performance Areas Results in Last Four Years

NIIT Foundation centers 22

Indian states covered 10

Students impacted 27793

NGO partners 75

Volunteer hours 4120

Girl students 43%

Students placed 78%

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GET CONNECTED

At NIIT Foundation, we are building a sustainable model that can provide

employable skills to the underserved youth in urban slums and rural areas. Being a

pioneering effort, it requires us to constantly walk the tight rope between low costs

and high quality and outreach.

Join our mission by sponsoring a needy student, volunteering to spread awareness

in communities, or connecting us to your network. You can start by sharing this

newsletter with all your friends. We look forward to meeting you.

From left: Vandana, Bhupesh, Tulika, Amar, Rinky, Satanjib, Sapna, Swati and Amit

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CENTERS

Noida-51: Lavkush Market, near Post Office, main road Hoshiyarpur,

Sector 51, Noida -201301, Tel: 9811597208; Begumpur : Basti Vikas

Kendra, Behind Begumpur Bus-stop, Malviya Nagar, Begumpur -110017,

Ph. 40580305; Paharganj: 9329/1, Gali No.7, Multani Dhandha, Paharganj

- 110055, Ph. 47506874, 47506873; Prem Nagar : I-180, Prem Nagar II,

70Ft Road, Kirari, New Delhi -110086, Ph. 25185560; Gurgaon : Vishwas

Vidyalaya, Sector 46, near Unitech Cyber Park, Gurgaon -122001, Ph.

7838177728; Mangolpuri: L-625, DDA Flats, (near Mother Dairy)

Mangolpuri, Delhi Ph. 011-27918987; Sangam Vihar : Green Aravali

School, I-4/35, Ratiya Marg, Sangam Vihar, New Delhi -110062, Ph.

26043709; Sunder Nagri: N-25/26, Sunder Nagri, New Delhi -110093, Ph.

22597745; Madanpur Khadar: H. No. 272, Chauhan Muhallah, Madanpur

Khadar -110076, Ph. 29947891; Noida, Steria: D-134, Noida Public

Library Premises, Sector -15, Noida, Steria, Phone : 0120-4346701/02;

Civil Lines: No. 2 Raj Niwas Marg, near Shah Auditorium, Civil Lines, New

Delhi, Ph: 23982620; Ghaziabad: Gram Niyojan Kendra, Adhyatmik Nagar,

Opp. IMS Engg. College. Dasna, Ghaziabad, Ph: 7838177728;

Nizamuddin: MCP School, Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti, Delhi -110013. Ph:

9818942279; Gharoli: C-548, Harijan Basti, Gharoli Extension -110096, Ph.

22628857; Brahmpuri : C-185/36, 1st Floor, Above MTS Office, Main

Brahmpuri Road Delhi -110053, Ph. 22560344; Jawahar Nagar: 2/600,

Jawahar Nagar, Opp. Sanatan Handa Ki Gali, Near Satya Sai College,

Jaipur, Ph: 0141-2650554; Shastri Nagar: DD-82, Vishvakarma Colony,

Nahari ka Naka, Shastri Nagar, Jaipur, Ph: 0141-2309699; Jajpur: JSL

Institute of Industrial Training, Trijanga rehabilitation colony, P.O.

Danagadi Jajpur 755026, Ph: 07735565556; Mumbai:FSC-1,1st floor

shopping complex, opposite Airport high school, New Airport Colony,

(opposite Hanuman road) Airport Authority of India, Vila Parle East

Mumbai- 400099, Ph: 09619619074; Hisar: JINDAL INSTITUTE OF

INDUSTRIAL TRAINING, (Formerly Stainless Skill Training Institute -

Prerana), 126 Green Square Market, Hisar - 125 005, Ph: 07206790140;

Chhindwara DLC: NIIT District Learning Center, near FCI warehouse

Seoni road, Chhindwara Madhya Pradesh- 480002, Ph: 0716 2232228,

0716 2232229; Barkuhi DLC: Barkuhi old VTC building, near SBI Barkuhi,

Madhya Pradesh- 480447, Ph: 0716 1263334

Project Director NIIT Foundation

8, Balaji Estate, Kalkaji,

New Delhi - 110019, India

Email: niitaffirmativaction@niit.com, Giving@niit.com,

Partner@niitfoundation.org

Facebook :http://www.facebook.com/NIITAffirmativeAction

Office: +91-11-4167-5000, FAX: +91-11-4167-5178