What we do
How Skill Dev runs in a SEARCH village.
Every cohort is committed to a placement target. Industry partners participate in syllabus design, run guest sessions, and conduct campus interviews on the last week of the cohort. Trainees who complete the programme but are not placed within 90 days receive paid retraining or job-search support, not a closed file.
For school-going adolescents we run life-skills curricula in partner schools — financial literacy, communication, gender and rights, digital safety — with separate sessions for adolescent girls on menstrual health, agency, and continued schooling.
Our approach
Four principles hold the Skill Dev work up.
Placement first
Cohorts are sized to placement absorption, not enrolment quotas. We will run a smaller batch if the industry demand for that quarter is smaller.
Industry as partner
Employers help design syllabi, run guest classes, and conduct on-site interviews. The curriculum is never frozen — it tracks the market it places into.
No closed files
A trainee who completes the programme but is not placed in 90 days is not "out". Retraining or active job-search support continues until placement happens.
Girls and first-generation learners first
Cohort selection prioritises adolescent girls and first-generation learners. The programme is most useful where the home cannot supply the network.
Featured project
Vijayawada Skill Centre
Vijayawada, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh
“My mother weaves baskets at home. My elder sister works as a daily wage labourer. I am the first person in my family to draw a salary.”
K Anitha, BPO trainee — Vijayawada Skill Centre, 2023 cohort
Where we work
Skill Dev on the ground.
The Skill Dev programme is most active in the districts below. Click through to see the full district map and the project pipeline running in each.
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