KOTAK EDUCATION FOUNDATION

Context:


  • A large number of youth in India miss out on educational opportunities
  • They find themselves out of place in the increasingly competitive employment market in the light of changing economy in India
  • There is a gap between the market demand and their skills
  • They end up engaging in unorganized and unskilled livelihood options minimizing returns on their labour
  • Lack of sustained source of livelihood results in distress, migration, social deviation
  • Social and economic disparity increases as a result

    Introduction


    Kotak-LABS is one of the interventions (initiatives) of Kotak Education Foundation (KEF)It addresses the needs of high school / college drop outs in the age group of 18-25 years.
  • Students dropout because of several reasons, some of which are: Not interested in studies, costs involved in schooling are high, required for household work / family business, repeated failures in academics.
  • These youth lack skill-sets and knowledge to get suitable employment in the organized sectors and very often end up as manual labor earning very low salaries.


    To enable these youth get a foothold in the competitive job market, Kotak-LABS trains them in livelihood skills in an environment of interactive learning, with appropriate employment opportunities.
    In the process, there is a two-way benefit; Industry gets trained manpower as per its requirements while the youth get upwardly mobile jobs, with higher remuneration and thereby help them to rise above the poverty line and lead a life of dignity.

    The Kotak-LABS intervention was started on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) agreement with Dr. Reddy’s Foundation (DRF), Hyderabad , which has pioneered the concept of training underprivileged youth and has the expertise of training around 1,25,000 youth in the last 10 years. During the agreement period, DRF has trained the Facilitators and transferred its processes and knowledge to Kotak-LABS. After the conclusion of the one year agreement, KEF is now independently managing the operations of Kotak-LABS, with support from DRF for ensuring Quality Control and Training of Facilitators.


    Promoters


    Kotak Education Foundation (KEF), is an initiative in the field of education by Shri Uday Kotak and Smt. Pallavi Kotak. Mr. Kotak is the main promoter and shareholder of Kotak Mahindra Group which has various business activities like Banking, Investment banking, stock broking and distribution, Life Insurance, Car finance and Mutual Fund.





    • Kotak Education Foundation