Assessment of ‘Engage to Empower’ Program by American India Foundation (AIF) to understand sustainable livelihood opportunities for women, persons with disabilities, and youth economically impacted by COVID-19
Client Name: American India Foundation (AIF)
Location: Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai
Background Context: AIF conceptualized the ‘Engage to Empower’ Program focused on creating aspirational career pathways and enabling candidates who lost livelihoods or lives of earning members due to Covid-19. The program specifically prioritizes women, persons with disabilities (PwDs), marginalized youth, and families who lost their earning members (henceforth referred to as “target groups”). Key focus areas of the program are:
- Creating aspirational career pathways for at least 1500 candidates
- Providing retention and mentoring support
- Emphasizing aspirational jobs with a monthly remuneration of at least INR 15-18000 and increase to INR 35,000
- Ensuring a minimum of 30% of jobs are remote by creating a one-of-a-kind job portal dedicated to remote jobs and
- Ensuring 100% placement of all candidates
Objectives
Development Solutions was commissioned to undertake a formative assessment, to finetune the program design and inform the program implementation in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad. The assessment had two objectives:
- Understand the target groups’ employment experiences and aspirations.
- Gain the perspective of prospective employers in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, and Chennai to understand the employment landscape
Approach and Methodology
- Method/ Design: The study adopted a consultative and participatory approach to interact and seek inputs from both supply and demand side. A mixed-methods approach was adopted with both quantitative and qualitative interviews with the target group and employers. Tools used: structured survey, in-depth interviews.
- Key Respondents/ Informants: Graduates looking for entry-level jobs either due to loss of livelihood or to support their families. (efforts were made to oversample women, PwDs, and marginalized youth.); employers
- Key Areas of Inquiry: Population target groups:
- Socio-economic factors influencing the choices and aspirations of the target group
- Awareness and support from the government and other societal actors
- Employment aspirations of the target group in the post-Covid scenario
- Support required by target groups to access and succeed in aspirational jobs
- Willingness to join a training or upskilling program to improve employment prospects
- Employer outlook toward employment of the target groups for entry-level positions
- Employer perception of challenges in employing target groups
- Key skill requirements of employers in the top 10 sectors
- Understand the HR strategy of employers going forward
- Sample: Quantitative (600), Qualitative (120)
Impact
The study findings assisted AIF in understanding the post-Covid employment landscape for women, PwDs and marginalized youth. Further, the study highlighted the target groups’ expectations with respect to skilling programs and career aspirations; both aspects deemed critical for optimal program uptake and retention. The study put forth recommendations to strengthen program design and delivery to optimize program uptake among target groups. The findings and recommendations were taken into consideration during program roll-out.
Contact
17/109, Lower Ground Floor, Vikram Vihar, Lajpat Nagar IV, New Delhi – 110024