Edulight- lighting up the world through skilling under DDUGKY

Edulight- lighting up the world through skilling under DDUGKY

Education is the foundation for the development of any individual. Without any formal or informal education it is impossible for any one of us to earn a livelihood. Formal education ruled the roost till a few years ago. Times have changed now and vocational education and skilling have gained recognition. In fact they have been recognised as vital for earning a livelihood. Acquiring skills has become even more respected today.
Government keeping pace with the times has come up with several schemes for skilling. The DDUGKY- Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana is one among them. Under this scheme rural youth are provided training in various skills like retail, hospitality,  voice BPO, accountancy,  tally etc through PIAs, ( Project implementation agencies). Edulight is one among these Institutes.
Education has always been their forte but now they are catching pace with skilling too. The company had the foresight to recognise the growing need for skilling and decided to support and train students on various skills. Having reached a benchmark in the skilling world it was easy for them to become a Project Implementation Agency (PIA) for Deendayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDUGKY ) the skilling programme for rural youth under the Ministry of Rural Development. They set up a centre at Taloja and have trained about 400 students from Konkan division including beneficiaries from Thane, Palghar, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. 70 % placement of those who are trained is the standard  norm under DDUGKY and Edulight has been able to place  over 90% of students trained by them.
Retaining the placed students, instilling a sense of belonging in them is extremely important. Most of the students trained at Edulight have continued to work for a year in the same place. They therefore decided to have a first of its kind alumni meet and recognise the students they had trained and placed through DDUGKY.
A well- organised event was planned on 8th May to recognise the placed students at a big hotel. Apart from the students, the heads of the company where they were employed were also invited. To my surprise I was lucky to share the dias with Mr. Velumani of Thyrocare, Mr.Bhide of Ajjicare and the Manager of DTTS.
Four students, Yogesh, Shailesh, Kanchan and Sharad shared their experience on how happy they were to get this opportunity to train at Edulight which transformed their world. The teachers at Edulight were so good that it was possible for all of them to speak with confidence. They were grateful to Edulight providing them with attitude, skills and knowledge.
I had the privilege and pleasure of felicitating about 25 students. In my brief interaction while distributing certificates I was happy to see each one of them brimming with confidence.
It must have been extremely satisfying for Edulight too as an institution to witness the growth of their students. They had been placed in reputed institutions like Thyrocare. Mr.Velumani's matter-of-fact and simple speech was an inspiration by itself. Without mincing words he acknowledged the role of government schools and the midday meals being the foundation of his education. He also belonged to a poor family and his mother made a living by selling milk. However he had come up through hard work and struggle. He had to suffer a lot as he was a fresher without experience, came from a village and didn't know English. However he overcame all the hurdles, became a post- graduate and is now an owner of a Rs.3000 crores listed company. To ensure that people like him don't have to struggle, his company as a policy employs only freshers without any experience and who are from the villages. For him English is not knowledge but just a language and so he employs only those who don't know English. He hopes that ultimately he will provide employment to 10.000 persons.
Mr.Bhide from Ajjicare emphasised on thinking big and acheiving it. He desires to restore the dignity of labour into jobs like bedside assistant. He emphasised on pride in work.
For Meenal, Manager at DTSS, the struggle was against the orthodox family who felt that a girls place is in the home. She rose from being nothing to a manager in a reputed company liked DTSS. For her life was a journey to be dealt with.
The proprietor Mr.Jeetendra spoke about his journey and desire to work for the rural poor. The lessons he learnt from his mistakes. It was his dream to create the best training centre and emphasised on aspirational mobilisation so that the right student reached the right company for a job.
Edulight is now a name in skilling in the field of education and for training in the corporate world and distance education with job driven multiple courses in ICT , Banking , Accounts . They specifically focus on Rural markets and believe that the true growth of India can emerge only if the rural markets become self sustaining. Companies like them are like a bridge to rural India.
As the event came to a close i discovered that a state of art centre for training is being planned at Thane. I wait with baited breath for this new world to open for rural youth, women and SHGs.