Pratham Institute: Sustaining Employment Post-Vocational Training

The Pratham Institute for Literacy, Education & Vocational Training (Pratham Institute) in India, ran vocational education and training (VET) centres that were engaged in skilling the rural youth of India to prepare them for vocational careers. In April 2020, the organization’s centre in Pilani, Rajasthan, along with several other chapters, had noted that a significant share of the institute’s trainees were failing to sustain their employment for a long period and were returning home to their native villages instead. Though the VET centres had seen several success stories, they were somewhat perplexed about why so many of their trainees were not staying in their careers, despite the promise of greater financial benefits and job security compared to farming-based livelihoods. Some of the common concerns of trainees included urban culture shock, family pressures to return home, sustenance worries, career ambiguity, and a lack of psychological readiness to cope with harsh city life. The head of the Pilani centre was left pondering how to tackle such psychological issues among the Pratham Institute’s trainees and thereby reduce the dropout rate and fully realize the positive impact of the training programs.

This case is intended for use in graduate- and postgraduate-level courses on human resource management, training and development, and career management. It can be used to discuss topics such training method types, the issue of soft-skill development in training, and psychological aspects of career management. The case can also be used in courses pertaining to sustainability, to discuss sustainable employability issues from a vocational perspective. Working through the case and assignment questions will give students the opportunity to gain <ul><li>an overview of India’s demographic dividend;</li><li>an understanding of the vocational education movement in India and the Skill India initiative;</li><li>an idea of how training is imparted to the underprivileged youth of India at a grassroots level;</li><li>a thorough overview of an end-to-end training process;</li><li>an understanding of the importance of inculcating in trainees the soft aspects of a vocational mindset; and</li><li>an understanding of how career planning should be supported for vocational trainees to prevent issues of maladjustment at a later stage.</li></ul>

• Career planning
• Vocational training
• Resilience
• Soft skill development