Saksham Plus SUMMARY - 
India is one of the youngest nations in the world and only 2,3% of India’s total workforce has undergone formal skills trainings. Although there are job opportunities, young people often are not in education, employment and/or trainings. Especially in the aftermath of COVID-19 an apt and quick restoration of livelihoods is imperative. Given the context, next phase of Plan India Saksham project will emphasis on rebuilding processes at community level by deploying strategy of developing human capital (through training and reskilling), strengthening social and physical capital (alumni, employers and networks), and building financial capital against future shocks (financial mainstreaming and digital literacy).

Saksham Plus follows the Saksham project launched in 2010 which supported disadvantaged youth (18-35 year) especially young women (60%) in India, to enable them to realise their dreams by equipping them with essential life and market oriented vocational skills. India is among the youngest nations in the world with 74 million young people aged 15 to 24 among its population. Various reports suggest that despite the rapidly growing demand for (semi-)skilled workforce, there are not enough opportunities for market oriented skills training to fulfil the expectations of all the young women and men after completing their basic school education. As a result, only 2.3% of India’s total workforce has undergone formal skill training. Consequently, the number of young people who are not in education, employment and trainings (NEET) is gradually increasing while concurrently the existing unmet demand in urban spaces for skilled personnel is growing. 
This gap between the high market demand for skilled employees and the low number of qualified youths to fill these jobs can be attributed primarily to the current model of skill development in India; through vocational training centers set up by the government, NGOs or private companies. This existing model presents the challenge not to be able to scale up in next few years to meet the market’s demand. Concurrently, there is still a huge disparity between men's and women's employment rates, which have been further exacerbated by the COVID-pandemic. The overall objective of the project aims at the empowerment and socio-economic integration of young women and men (18-29 years) in two states Delhi and Rajasthan, India, in a conducive and gender-transformative environment, through meaningful skilling contributing to National Skilling Agenda. Building on the success of Saksham 3, project is a response to growing need among youth to provide them with training and employment opportunities in Plan India target communities. 
Since 2010, more than 12,000 young people (60%females) have benefited from this program and 70% of them have been permanently integrated into wage and self-employment. Plan India aims to actively promote life skills, economic rights, financial inclusion and job oriented vocational trainings in girls and young people which suits the market requirement evolved after COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts continue to address social and gender norms that prevent adolescent’s girls to gain vocational skills for market-oriented jobs and thus participate in economic processes and income generation activities, particularly those who have undergone reverse migration after COVID-19 pandemic. In the project, skill building is a tool to empower individuals and improve their social acceptance. Besides enabling communities to be economically secure, project is in line with the “Government of India’s National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015”. Project will connect with other Plan India program working with young people: “Young Health Program” and “Pramarsh”. The project will focus on 3900 youths aged 18 – 29 years (60% women) from disadvantaged communities in Delhi and Rajasthan in India who have less opportunity compared to their peers as they face social, economic and/or geographic obstacles, educational difficulties and/or cultural differences. Out of the 3900 beneficiaries 3000 are located in urban and 900 in rural areas. The project will be rolled out for three years with yearly deliverables and key performance indicators in place. It is believed that more areas could be added in the projects subsequently depending on need analysis and potential. The project will have year-by-year budgeting of training 3.250 youth for next three years. The project will accordingly be up scaled as per the needs identified while implementing the project.

The project will consider the following activities:

1.	Mobilise NEET youth in urban slums to join Saksham program
•	Street corner meetings to invite NEET youth to join Saksham
•	Engage parents to support girls and boys enrolment
•	Community advertisements and kiosks to promote awareness on Saksham and its advantages;
•	Promote alumni as role models to motivate and invite youth to join

2.	Test aptitude of youth for specific vocational courses and counselling
•	Analyse personal,  educational and family information about youth who have shown interest;
•	Share summary of courses on offer and opportunities;
•	Test aptitude of youth for the courses on offer; (to help understand potential to set-up self-employment unit and gainful employment)
•	Counselling of youth to provide complete information on events/ activities to follow

3.	Market oriented vocational skills trainings (the trainings under the project are not gender specific number of girls have joined retail marketing, and IT based jobs, whereas boys have opted for hospitality trade)
•	Market scan at regular intervals to determine skills requirement of market/employers
•	Vocational training as per trade
•	curriculum facilitated by specialist VT trainers;
•	English language and basic computer skills trainings (in JOVT); 
•	Monthly parents, teacher and trainee meetings to assess learning progress

4.	Gender equality and soft skills trainings
•	Gender awareness training by sector experts;
•	Guide youth understand gender relations at personal, community and work spaces.
•	Life skills, personal hygiene alumni, trainers, CSOs, institutions are primary stakeholders who will remain connected through range of capacity building and sensitization initiatives spread across target areas. Through intensive engagement project initiatives will be sustained beyond project duration. CSOs and training institutions work with district and state officials that help them leverage funding support for training services and linking them with other relevant resources. 
•Trained teachers on life-skills, job-readiness, gender, subject domain
•Alumni +community: trained alumni and community on planning, monitoring, leveraging resources; further strengthening alumni to act as resource for other community youth to provide guidance on career and jobs
•Working with local partners building capacities so they can also run projects on their own
•Trained resources/manpower available to provide further trainings and guide youth for signposting and referrals
•Government engagement: working with line departments to showcase good practices of project for replication in other areas
•Awareness raising meeting with community/family (esp. gender transformation)
•Employer's network, Gender and youth friendly environment for sustainable retention
•Promoting Peer to Peer Learning