Aiming to empower youth with employable skills, Ambuja Foundation joined hands with Venktesh Investment and Trading Company (B2V Ventures) and launched a new skill training centre in Porbandar, Gujarat. The joint venture aims to train 1100 youth and equip them with essential skills in the next three years.

Vidhya Devi Sargara has had an axe to grind her whole life. Married at 16, she was forced to abandon her education when her father said, “If your husband isn’t educated, why should you be?” Her dreams of finishing school and pursuing higher studies came to a grinding halt.

SBI Funds Managment (SBIFM) partners with Ambuja Foundation to establish new skill training centres in Gandhinagar and Sanand in Guajrat, and Una in Himachal Pradesh. This collaboration aims to train and equip over 3,600 youth from these regions with essential skills over the next three years, thereby enhancing their employability across various industries.

Supporting the Skill India directive, Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI program (Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institute) has now trained over 1,00,000 rural youth till date, creating a skilled workforce for various industries and helping tackle rural unemployment.

Chandrakant Sahu is one of our successful trainees from SEDI. Mr. Chandrakant Sahu is a resident of Paraspai Viilage in Dharsiwa. Belonging to an economically backward family, Chandrakant became very disappointed when he had to discontinue his studies due to financial constraints faced by his family. As part of a joint family with very small agricultural land holdings, Chandrakant started working as an electrical helper under a contractor. Despite having worked as an electrical helper for a year, he did not have an experience certificate, which restricted his professional growth.

Priyanka Sahu was a goal-oriented girl, but due to her family background could not complete her schooling and was married off early. As a mother of 2 living in a joint family, she used to stitch her own clothes at home to earn extra money. She later came to know about the Sewing training program at SEDI and planned to build a career in sewing. During her 3 months of training, she learned a lot of new things like how to make a suit, blouse, and shirt. She also upgraded her public speaking skills through the soft skill classes and with newfound confidence, Priyanka is now an entrepreneur and has her own boutique.

Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI team recently launched an Alumni Chapter in order to provide support to SEDI students - even after placement. This initiative was conceptualized to provide additional support to SEDI alumni who are placed outside their own geographies, by creating a community of alumni’s in the area.

In an economy as large as India, 95% of the industrial units in the country consist of small businesses which churn out 40% of total industrial output. Again, small businesses bag around 45% of the total exports from India, and after agriculture, small business is the second largest employment provider in the Indian economy.

Something radical is happening in Inaj village in Veraval, Gir Somnath District. 15 young girls have become the primary breadwinners of their families, having trained in Electronics at SEDI - securing lucrative jobs as Assembly Operators and transforming ingrained perceptions about what women can do.

By pooling the resources of different stakeholders, Ambuja Foundation has been able to swiftly scale its Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institute programme across 11 states. Working in collaboration with Government and Corporate Partners, Ambuja Foundation has helped to grow the programme from 1 centre in 2006 to 33 centres in 2019.

Ambuja Foundation's Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institutes (SEDI) in West Bengal, has partnered with TVS Motors as an Industry Partner to help train and place rural youth in the automobile sector at TVS Motor.

India is home to over 54% of young people, making it one of the youngest nations in the world.