Livelihood | SAATH Umeed & Udaan

Program Overview|

SAATH Umeed employability program provides job training and placement to youth from vulnerable families across Gujarat and Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, Umeed is known as Udaan, and is a joint initiative of SAATH, Microsoft Corporation and the Rajasthan Mission on Livelihoods. SAATH ties up with corporates and local businesses that need to hire confident, competent persons. Based on the needs of the market, SAATH delivers trainings to youth in areas like Business Process Outsourcing, Bedside Patient Assistance, Customer Relations and Information Technology and then places graduates at Indian companies.

SAATH serves as the platform for businesses, youth and society to join together in combating unemployment and underemployment in India. Umeed aligns the employment needs of vulnerable communities with the labor needs of a growing market. The three-month training program costs Rs. 4,500. Students pay Rs. 500 towards the cost, the rest of which is born by donors and the government.  In addition to job training and placement, SAATH Umeed imparts life skills like English, time and budget managements.

 History|

SAATH started working on livelihoods in 2001, and has actively promoted Public-private partnerships to scale projects. In 2005, SAATH partnered with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation and American India Foundation (AIF) to pilot an innovative employability-training program called “UDAAN,” aimed at underprivileged youth ages 18 to 35 years. UDAAN successfully trained and placed over 900 youth in service sector domains like customer relations and sales, hotel management, bed side patient attendant, and others.

After the successful pilot of UDAAN, the Government of Gujarat asked SAATH to replicate the program across all major towns of Gujarat. In 2007, the program was renamed UMEED began with one training center at Behrampura slum area in Ahmedabad.

Reach|

As of March 2009, Umeed has expanded to 46 training centers providing training in over 23 different service domains. Over 19,000 youth have been trained & placed in north and central Gujarat. Placement rates are as high as 85 percent and average starting salaries are Rs. 3,000 per month. SAATH has a tie-up with Government of Gujarat to provide training and placement to 45,000 youth before March 2010.  

Future Goals |

SAATH would like to expand the Umeed/Udaan training program to cover youth who are not eligible, from middle-income groups, with short-duration self-financed courses. SAATH is seeking industry partners and funders.

Leadership |

Bhuneshwar Choudhary, Umeed Program Director

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