Nasscom Foundation and Indeed, the world’s no. 1 jobs site, have come together, along with Centum Foundation, to enhance the employability quotient of women who have been distressed by the pandemic by training them on domain and core skills. Designed to provide training to women from the underserved community, the program will help in capacity building of women with the objective of providing them employment opportunities in entry-level job roles.
Women labor force was one of the hardest hit during the pandemic. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), female employment around the world declined by 4.2% in 2020 compared to the previous year, which is worse than the corresponding 3% decline in male employment. Recently, a study by Indeed found a significant and more pronounced impact of the pandemic on women rejoining the workforce compared with men, exacerbating a national labor shortage. The survey revealed nearly half of all women say the pandemic has negatively impacted their career path. 58% are in the process of rejoining the workforce, 48% of whom had quit their jobs before Covid-19, 32% of whom had quit during Covid-19 and 20% in between jobs.
Given this scenario, the project by Indeed and Nasscom foundation has been instrumental in enhancing opportunities for women. Through this program 350 marginalised women were upskilled and received 80-100 hours of training on developer and technical support roles, and soft skills. Additionally, they received access to Nasscom Future Skills Prime platform (the free e-learning platform by NASSCOM) for continued learning and mentoring sessions by subject matter experts as well as employment assistance.
Pooja Bajpai from Madhya Pradesh is 40 years old and had never worked before, happy to be a homemaker while her husband worked outside. However, unfortunately during the pandemic, she lost her husband and the responsibility of her 4-year-old son fell on her shoulders. She heard about the program and decided to join to upskill herself.
“Joining the training has given me the confidence to think that I can also work, exposure to IT world and opportunity to shape up my son’s future. Thanks to the mentors for guiding and explaining the basics so that I could also understand the things which I hadn’t even heard before,” says Pooja.
Another example is that of Alpana Chauhan, who lost her husband and had to look after her children and father in law financially. Having quit her job in 2007 to work for NGOs, Alpana was not prepared to get back into the corporate world.
“I am grateful to the RiseAgain team for giving me this opportunity to be a part of this training program. This training has not only provided me with professional and technical training but also with improving my confidence and building soft skills,” says Alpana.
Another important aspect of such programs is the community development and learning that it creates. Such resources and support are instrumental in helping women get back on their feet.
