Got a message from Nidhi Anartak, inviting me to the inauguration of their new campus at Pathar Vasti, Lohegaon. The infra has been built by Anish Jadhav Memorial Foundation. Met with Brig Jadhav and heard the story behind the foundation. Anish was the only kid – and had a deep interest in photography. He transformed that interest into a job with Nikon – and became a master trainer over there. Fate was cruel, and Anish was snatched away at a very young age in 2015. Brigadier decided that he will preserve his memory by doing something for society. He purchased a plot of land about 5 km from his house – and thought of starting an orphanage over there. But a lot of well wishers advised him that the risks and liabilities in running an orphanage are not something that should be taken up by a retired army man. So the project pivoted to making a skilling center.

Jadhav saab got advice from the best of folks in IT, architecture and skilling space to come up with a lovely building. The building has 3 dormitories which can accommodate a total of 100 girls. There is a canteen and kitchen. And needless to mention, there are classrooms, labs and a mini auditorium. There are wide open spaces that surround the building. The roof height has been maintained at 12 ft. So building ventilation is good. The students were earlier studying at a campus in Katraj. NavGurukul was approached by Jadhav Sahab when his Lohegaon project was about to be completed. The team liked the campus and decided to shift here. 

There are about 100 girls who have now shifted. They come from different states of the country. I met with a few girls from Delhi and Bombay also. There was a lovely dance organised by the girls. Was impressed by the energy and the diversity of the dances. Each performer represented a dance and music from her home state. Some of the Brigadier’s school friends from NDRI Karnal school, had joined us for the event. One of his relatives is a retired Inspector General of Police; he was also present. Another interesting person I met was Sachin Mhaske, from NASSCOM. Spent half an hour with him. He looks after skilling at NASSCOM. The primary work is to talk to industry and find out their requirements and communicate the same to authorised training institutes. One of the important goals apart from standard setting is independent evaluation. This is to build trust in the system. Sachin stays at Pimple Gurav – and have invited him to visit Peepal Tree School.

Nav Gurukul was started by Abhishek. Nidhi has now joined as a co-founder. After most of the guests left, I did some catching up with her. Nav Gurukul has grown from 3 to 10 campuses in a year. There are entry level financial criteria, which typically have a cut-off of family income between 1.2 to 2 lakh. However, they have relaxed this to 5 lakh in Dantewada, where there are a lot of folks who were given government jobs, which end up paying better. This has not changed their social status too much though. The new model that seems to be working out for them is government supported infrastructure. 

One of the interesting tech leaders is Anup. He works out of Amravati right now. He was earlier the founder of CodeChef. This used to be the hacker rank of India. CodeChef was taken over by UnAcademy. Gaurav Munjal tried his best to retain Anup, but after the takeover Anup left. Anup always believed that CodeChef was a community learning platform, not a for-profit. Anup heads course design and delivery. The course is based on self paced learning. And deep mentoring. The student selection process involves three stages. The first is an online aptitude test. This tests 6th grade English and 8th grade math along with some logic. This test can be taken at home. Home tests are allowed to make the entry funnel as large as possible. Because of home tests, there can be integrity issues on part of the test takers. The next stage is a call in which students are asked the same questions that appeared in the test. This is an integrity check. If the candidate has not cheated, then passing this test is a formality. The third stage is a longer interview – here the students’ commitment levels are checked. A kind of de-selling is done – and students are told about the tough times that lie ahead. After all this, offers are made. Drop out rate is in the single digits – so the selection design seems to be working.

Courses are designed after discussions with industry partners. And syllabi are set accordingly. Students take between 6 to 18 months to finish the course, though all of them are told that this is a 1.5 year program. The unwritten rule is that a student leaves the course as soon as she gets a job. Apart from the tech skills like Python, Java etc, there is also a soft skill program called Etcetera. Priyanka looks after that program – she is based out of Bangalore. Students get jobs with starting salaries of 20 K+. The attraction for office jobs is higher than field jobs for the lower socio-economic class. So IT fits the bill well. However, if there is a slow down then we should be ready to pivot. One idea is to work in the digital marketing space. And maybe the overall sales related field. 

Nidhi has promised to send me the course structure and a few lesson plans. Should be interesting to catch up with Anup and Priyanka. Tried spending some time with students, but they were very busy with the functions. Will return to conduct some soft skill training with them. Asked Nidhi to speak to Sridhar Shukla of GS labs. Rohini Mulay could be another useful resource.