Rural - e2e (Education to Employment)

Students studying in government colleges even within 50 miles of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, are several information years (akin to light years) away in terms of career awareness and job opportunities. Providing them right information, skilling and nudging them towards their dreams will create a positive ripple effect. Referring to the state of Karnataka, the NSDC report says - “The State is likely to face a deficit of 10 to 14 lakh skilled persons” (https://www.nsdcindia.org/sites/default/files/files/karnataka-presentation-ppt.pdf page 21). What is even more alarming, as pointed in the same report, is while there will be a deficit of 14 lakh skilled people, there is expected to be a 12 lakh surplus of unskilled people in the coming time. Majority of these “unskilled” people come from rural sector.

PRERANA identifies meritorious students from underprivileged backgrounds, and provides them with financial assistance, educational support to help them complete their education and land a good job.

There are two programs:

1) Nurture Merit - This program is implemented in Bengaluru. Parents of the beneficiary kids are usually auto/cab drivers, daily wage workers, single parent, or health deprived Students who score more than 80% in their 10th grade are administered an entrance test, their house visited for verification and scholarship is disbursed to the deserving students. They are provided with coaching/mentoring support, personality development training, skill training to prepare them for a career.

2) Rural e2e - PUC and Degree colleges in rural areas in districts surrounding Bengaluru are identified, students are selected based on their marks in 10th and our entrance test. We provide them with scholarship, books (both text books and general reading), conduct training and interactive sessions, computer training, and help them build their communication skills.

More than 2000 students have completed their education and most of them are working in organisations such as Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Capgemini, E&Y, Toyota etc. There are few exceptional students who have achieved excellence such as a PhD in Astrophysics, doing an MS in Germany, etc.

Rural e2e program is relatively new. About 20 students in the final year of their college are showing good progress in their overall personality. We have identified 7 rural colleges with about 500 students supported.