Rural youth trained to take on the corporate world

Radhika Saxena

A dinner conversation with a friend in September 2008 helped Girish Singhania combine his desire to do something with social leanings with something that was also commercially viable. Always keen to work in the education space, the 30-year-old investment banker decided to start an education venture that would make rural youth employable.

A year later, Singhania quit his job, invested Rs 25 lakh as seed capital from his savings and launched Edubridge Learning in October 2009. The start-up fills a gap that has kept a staggering 60 per cent of India’s graduates in semi-urban and rural areas unemployed because they are skill-deprived. These young people lack both job-specific skills as well as soft skills such as spoken English, the ability to use computers effectively and confidence.

Entry-Level Job Skills

Mumbai-based Edubridge Learning not only provides skill development and vocational training but also guarantees candidates entry-level corporate jobs in their own districts or in cities nearby.

It looks like Singhania is well on his way to fulfilling his dream. With 40 trainers on board – both full-time and part-time – the company has ten centres across four states and has trained 6,500 youngsters to date.
 
Doing The Homework

Singhania spent an entire year on due diligence. First, he visited 100 villages across five states to understand what the youth required. Next, he met 50-odd companies to understand what they looked for in potential employees; how many people they would recruit; and what sort of salaries they would pay. After collating his research, he saw a massive gap that could be bridged with education.
 
Taking The First Steps
 
Before Singhania floated his start-up, he worked on a business model, building a training curriculum, centres and a small team, and on getting some government affiliations to add credibility to his venture. Edubridge builds its training modules in conjunction with the recruiting companies and combines two types of skill-building – generic skills (English fluency, computers and confidence) as well as sector or job specific skills.
 
The start-up began operations in July 2010 by training its first batch of students in Thiruvarur in Tamil Nadu and Jalgaon in Maharashtra. This pilot project comprised 100 students across both centres, all of whom successfully got jobs with Edubridge’s recruiting partners. The next set of training centres was set up in areas surrounding Trichy and Erode in Tamil Nadu, and Ratnagiri in Maharashtra.

Business Model

Edubridge uses two business models – one where the student pays for training with a percentage paid for by the recruiting company; and the second model where the government pays for youngsters to be trained. "With 50 crore people needing skill development and jobs by 2022, employability of youth is a key agenda for the government today," says Singhania.

The start-up has partnered with over 75 companies across sectors like IT, banking, insurance and retail, and counts large corporate firms like Unilever, P&G, Future Group, Axis Bank and BPOs like First Source among its recruiting clients.

"These are recruiters who need entry-level workforce aged between 18 and 25 at salary levels of Rs 6,000-12,000 per month," reveals Singhania. He points out that his service is hugely beneficial for employers – companies get a resource that is equipped for the job, allowing them to save HR effort and cost on recruitment and training.

Edubridge, which uses door-to-door direct marketing as its primary awareness-building tool along with some mass marketing in local newspapers, guarantees jobs to all its students within two months of enrolment or else, the candidate gets a full fee refund.

"Our training programmes cost between Rs 5,000-10,000. So the key challenge is to co-exist in an environment where the government is conducting free programmes for the youth," admits Singhania, whose business model now demands that he work with the government in regions where state-run programmes are predominant.
 
Funding Comes In

The venture acquired a low-cost debt from the National Skill Development Corporation in January 2011. This funding of Rs 3.5 crore was used as working capital to set up new centres and hire a quality team.
 
In July 2012, Edubridge secured its first round of equity funding from Acumen Fund, which invested Rs 1.5 crore. The start-up is using the money to expand its footprint, work on content and curriculum and invest in trainer development.
 
Unwilling to disclose revenue numbers, Singhania however shares that he expects Edubridge to be profitable by the end of this fiscal.

Tough Test

Singhania admits there are several challenges, urban migration being one of them. "The students feel overwhelmed by moving to bigger locations and resulted in high attrition from our first few batches." He thus tweaked the curriculum. "We now prepare our candidates for living in a big city, on working for a big company, on professionalism. We even give them details on bus routes and youth hostels, and explain how they can save money. It’s all about conditioning their minds and preparing them for it."

Singhania says despite the odds, the high of running his business outweigh the lows. "Placing our first batch of students in exactly two days, getting funded by NSDC and Acumen Fund, running 10 centres and successfully executing government contracts is a fantastic feeling!"

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