The Economic Times
Have a bias that rural youth cannot match up to those educated or trained in urban areas? eJeevika is trying to change that by training the rural folk for high-growth sectors. Richa Pandey Mishra, founder of the venture feels they are addressing a very important problem in rural India. “Even after being educated, there are no jobs for these rural youth. We are working from ground up,” she explains.
The model is interesting. Here, the placement precedes the training. After an initial screening by eJeevika (where they test communication skills typing speed, sales skills etc), candidates and clients talk using various platforms (video conferencing, phone etc) and after selection, the training starts. Candidates get a blended training module (70 percent online, run by the local kiosks and 30 percent done offline by clients). The accuracy levels here are close to 90 percent because of the prior screening by eJeevika.
The candidates do not need to go to urban areas to get trained. The training is imparted at the block and taluk levels where the company has tied up with various kiosk owners. “We make them our franchises or have a revenue sharing agreement with them,” says Mishra.
Mishra worked with various media groups for over eight years in marketing, including at The Economic Times and then decided she wanted to start something on her own. Her search took her to the Rural Technology Business Incubator (RTBI) at IIT-Madras. “A vocational training programme for rural youth was already running at RTBI and I joined them for the pilot on retail sales,” she recalls. They trained two batches of candidates in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore and Tiruvalluvar districts during which they tied up with 20 kiosks and tested the software. IIT Madras and NIS Sparta jointly developed the retail sales module.
This was in July 2008. And in a month, Mishra formed her own company in partnership with RTBI, which owns close to 15 percent of the venture. Mishra heads a growing team of 12 and eJeevika has already trained and got jobs for 200 candidates. One of their biggest clients is HOV Services, an international BPO which does work for the US government and has offices in Chennai, Trichy and Salem. Her future target is very aggressive. As things have stabilised and partnerships have been formed, she expects to have trained close to 5,000 candidates by March 2010.
For clients, it is a win-win. She claims that her model helps reduce the cost of recruitment by up to 90 percent for the clients. “The biggest cost involved is the payment to the placement consultant. We charge one-fourth of what a regular placement consultant does,” she says. What the client gets is a trained employee, who, in most cases, does not require any additional training.
Mishra and her team are busy identifying pockets in each state to source candidates from. “Rural youth do not want to migrate. They would prefer to get jobs close by or in their own state. Understanding this fact, we are trying to tie-up with companies wanting to hire local language staff,” explains Mishra, adding, “they will stick for longer if they get a well paying job closer home.” eJeevika is speaking to BPOs in Pondicherry, Trichy, Chennai and other areas. Another IIT-Madras incubated venture, a rural BPO has picked up five candidates; Tata’s Westside too has picked up a few.
She calls eJeevika a social enterprise, but for profit. “Without profit, the venture will not be scalable,” she adds. For the initial trainings, the company did not charge the candidates but the team soon realised that they too had to pay the kiosk and computer centres. Now, every candidate pays a nominal Rs 1,000 for the process.
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