During the campus placements, in the final semesters of my engineering, I and my project partner were the only two students who got placed in the entire campus in the five days of Campus hiring. Despite being a student in one of the prime institutes of Navi Mumbai, I saw how my fellow mates could not get a job due to lack of communication or technical skills and lack of having undertaken internships. Some students had student loans and few even juggled small time businesses and studies. Placement in a good company with a fair package after 4 years of engineering was the bare minimum expectation. That was the first time I witnessed the massive void in bridge for candidates who were left out. The fact that they had the same education as me but could not communicate well during the interviews seeded the conviction in me to do something about it. I refused my offer letter and began the journey towards bridging the gap leading to such disparity.
EduMaan isn't trying to redefine education, rather it tries to redefine the meaning of being educated. A degree or a course makes a person literate; whereas; an "Educated" human being is who has the ability to empathise with fellow human beings. Hence, the name "EduMaan".
The idea seeded while working along with a Navi Mumbai based, four year old HR Consulting firm. As a Company, we then pivoted in the Education space to help fix the real problem i.e. lack of skills in today's youth. This led us to pick up the mantle of solving this Skilling problem. We began to create/seek alliances so as to build an entire skilling ecosystem and setting up skill centers in the region of Navi Mumbai, Thane and Raigad Districts, in collaboration with an NSDC Partner.
Taking lessons from the previous cycle with the inefficiencies while working with the NSDC partner, we partnered with Wayline Management Consultants, another NSDC partner, for the next phase of Skill Development. Here, we were working to develop the franchise network of Wayline Management Consultants in Maharashtra.
During this phase of skill development, we understood firsthand the challenges of setting up and maintaining operations in a franchise network of Skill Centers (18 Centers) catering to job roles catering under Retail, Banking, ITES and Hospitality.
We also partnered with Edukart - A startup backed by Yuvraj Singh's YouWeCan Venture Fund for promoting various online Skill Programmes and Distance Learning Programmes especially the Online MBA programmes.
After the third wave of Skill development (PMKVY 2), we shifted to a Consultancy based model.
EduMaan aims to promote holistic development of the marginalized section of society, by adopting an integrated approach with the main emphasis on Four Es:-Entrepreneurship, Employment, Education, and Empowerment. Our prime focus is on developing self- dependence in women, children, and youth to enable them to lead more effective and satisfactory lives.
"EduMaan Training Services" which focuses on "Skilling for Employability" by adopting an integrated approach with the main emphasis on Four Es: Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship leading to true Empowerment.
We help our partners/clients engage in specific Central/State Government skilling initiatives.
The Navi Mumbai-based Edumaan Training Services sees itself as a facilitator, connecting at-risk or disadvantaged youth with employment opportunities. It runs various programmes: which gives them career guidance, core employability skills and connections with opportunities.
Founder Smedha Sarkar says that her organization does not seek to create a parallel set up; it works with the multitude of training centres for various professions already available, and act as a facilitating link. Importantly, Edumaan recognizes that not everybody who come to vocational training will want to take up professions like Retail, Carpentry or Plumbing, and so it works on improving the Dignity of Work and to expand the range of career options available.
EduMaan offers Skills Development Services as well as training courses. Our Skills Development related services include:
Skills audits;
Compiling the Workplace Skills Plan (WSP), Annual Training Report (ATR); Pivotal plan and report for submission to the relevant SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority);
Submission of Skills Reports to the relevant SETA;
Identification of suitable training courses and training providers;
Aligning skills development activities with SSC requirements;
Establishing Skills Development Committees and facilitating the meetings of the Committee;
Appointing Skills Development Facilitators (SDF's) and registering SDF's with the relevant SETA;
Claiming discretionary and mandatory grants.
Setting up and managing learnerships, apprenticeships & bursary programmes.