Hi everyone,
I love year ends—they lead to new beginnings. The start of a fresh year brings infinite possibilities for each one of us. For me personally, I took the end of 2017 as an opportunity to reflect on the success and the failures of my year and the people who stuck through it all with me—the family and friends for whom I’m very grateful.
In the first week of 2018, I had the opportunity to visit the Delhi training centre for Generation, an independent nonprofit founded by McKinsey. Generation was launched in 2015 with the goal of reducing global youth unemployment through specific skills training programs and job placements. It is now the largest global program of its kind.
I met and interacted with 20 students who were training to be general nurse assistants in hospitals. The program is a five-week module with a focus on soft skills training. Generation is unique as these programs are run in collaboration with employers and almost each student lands a job by the end of the course.
To give you more context, the training centre is in Sangam Vihar, a neighbourhood of about one million people. Many of the young people here don’t have many options other than following their parents’ footsteps as a day labourer, shopkeeper, or autorickshaw driver. I asked one of the students why she came to the program. “I never finished by Class 12th (equivalent to A levels) and was idling at home. In just the 2nd week of classes, this program has given me hope that I could be somebody and actually impact other lives in a hospital.”
This was a fantastic and very optimistic way to kick off 2018. I hope that your year has had an equally positive start!
Purvi