Employer Engagement in Hyderabad, India

Background to the project

In a rapidly developing city like Hyderabad, there are a growing number of job opportunities for school leavers, and employers require people to work in these new industries.

Whilst the young school leavers in India often have good technical knowledge and excellent literacy and numeracy skills, local employers often complain their soft ‘employability’ skills, such as team work or communication skills, are less well developed.

Following a number of focus groups with local employers and teachers, CSD and CfBT Education Trust, India identified four key issues:

• Young people are often unaware of the job opportunities in these new industries and are unfamiliar with the skills that employers require.
• Young people have a limited understanding of the vocational training options available to them on completing their school studies.
• School teachers do not always have the required industry knowledge to impart appropriate training or signpost employment opportunities.
• Key influencers, such as parents are often keen for their children to follow more academic training routes after school, rather than vocational learning pathways.

Project overview and approach

Working in partnership with CfBT Education Trust and The Promise Foundation, the project aimed to:

• Enable school leavers to make informed decisions about their future by improving career advice and guidance provision in schools.  This was primarily done through a week-long training course for teachers in the pilot schools.
• Help young people, their teachers and parents understand local employer skills needs and local employment opportunities.
• Raise the profile of vocational education and training and improve young peoples' and parents' understanding of the options and employment opportunities associated with this route.

Impact

By piloting the project with a small number of teachers and schools, the partner organisations wanted to test the approach. One year on from the teachers’ careers guidance and counselling training, an impact assessment was conducted, which found:

• 50% of participating schools had successfully set up sustainable career advice and guidance services.
• Students and parents believed that the project had improved the understanding of local employment opportunities, vocational education and training and the opportunities it can offer.
• Students felt better equipped to make informed career choices.
  
  

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