In rural and urban India, 62% of students drop out of school at the age of 15 or 16, prior to completion of their 10th year of education. These students lack the basic education and life skills required to earn a livelihood.

To combat this trend and make high school education more practical and relevant, Lend-A-Hand India has launched a program that integrates job and life skills training in existing school curricula. The multi-skill vocational education program provides students with hands-on experience in subjects such as electrical wiring, welding, agriculture, animal husbandry, energy, environment, and home and health science. Students are encouraged to develop skills in problem solving, teamwork and entrepreneurship. Local trade practitioners (carpenters, plumbers, electricians, etc.) teach the program at rural high schools for one day a week over three years.

In the past seven years, Lend-A-Hand India’s program has successfully decreased drop-out rates in government aided high schools, increased enrolment in technical education from 5% to 35% and enabled three times as many of students to start their own micro-enterprise as compared to non Lend-A-Hand India students.

In partnership with the GSRD Foundation, Dasra will support Lend-A-Hand India in expanding its program across 100 schools in Maharashtra, and eventually across India.

DASRA
Dasra is a leading strategic philanthropy foundation working with philanthropists and social entrepreneurs to create large scale social change. Dasra’s theory of change is that if philanthropists and social entrepreneurs are equipped with knowledge, funding opportunities and people to make their work more strategic, the social sector in India will be transformed dramatically. Read more about Dasra.