Ek Mouka – Workforce Development Initiative
An ISO 9001:2008 certified

Ek Mouka is a new economy livelihood promotion training program, which is exclusively designed for the school dropouts/ unemployed secondary school graduates/ street youth/ retrenched workers/ migrant youth/ resettlement community members from the poorest 15% of the Indian population.

The primary goal of Ek Mouka is to facilitate end-to-end Livelihood solutions using the Business for Community Platform that provides access to market oriented livelihood opportunities to the disadvantaged youth and women through locally sustainable Employability Exchanges. This, it intends to do by bridging the gap between the supply of the potential youth who are school drop outs and are in the informal sector; and the demand from the emerging business in the new economy of the country

The CAP Foundation has an impressive footprint in terms of its approach, training content and methodology, capacity building of service providers, placement support to trainees and sustainability of market-oriented entry level workforce development with active collaboration with local NGOs/CBOs, corporates, businesses, professional mentors, government departments and funding agencies

The program operates on a 3-tier institutional mechanism which supports the expansion and scale-efforts by formally engaging the private sector, government and civil societies.

The Employability Training Centers (ETCs) provide access to market oriented employability and & entrepreneurship training to the target groups

The Employability Exchanges (EEs) are dynamic, sustainable livelihood hubs that provide for exchange of resources, opportunities and competencies between business and communities that contribute to long term sustainable local economic development. EEs oversee the ETCs and foster dynamic relationships between local labour market players and the youth through capacity building, partnership development and management.

Ek Mouka Employability Training & Placement Programme - Salient Features

» Linking Learning & Livelihood
» Linking Learning & Livelihood
» Employability skill development
» Model specific to vulnerable youth - age, location &     category
» Feeder line for higher education
» Participation of corporates at every stage
» Right time right place for right target group in     transition    economy
» Institutionalised process tools
» Demonstrated foot print

The Workforce Development Initiative (WDI) is the apex institution for offering design and support services through advisory councils and is also the program management unit for expansion and scale-up. It is an employability alliance for scaling up and institutionalising CAP Foundation’s demonstrated and tested employability training model ,EK Mouka.

The Ek Mouka program supports both employment opportunity oriented workforce preparation as well as tiny and micro enterprise development that is specifically and clearly oriented to identified labour market requirements and opportunities, effectively addressing the gap between the skills acquired through the education system and those demanded by the new economy

Ek Mouka also offers Market oriented competency based training for existing employees, domestic and international employment, services of job portal, platform for social networking to the alumni, Research Training and consultancy services to interested partners.

Currently there are 105 such training centers across 15 states of the country. The Ek Mouka – WDI program reaches out to 50,000 youth in the year.  Over 1 lakh youth have been benefited by this program. CAP Foundation has worked in Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka; and is currently working at Egypt and Sudan. 

PARTNERSHIPS

With the Government :
Ek Mouka works with various government departments to help them fulfill their education and livelihood mandates for disadvantaged youth to provide employable skills & job placement. CAP Foundation is working with Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India for providing Employability Skills Training programme linked to placements to 17600 rural youth across 10 states in India. The partnership was initiated in May 2009 and currently 1000 youth are going through the training programme. 

CAP Foundation is working with Government of Gujarat through the Gujarat Urban Development Mission in 6 districts namely - Surat, Vapi, Valsad, Navasari, Anand and Ankleshwar.  12000 urban youth have been trained and provided with placement opportunity through this partnership.  The programme is named as Umeed.

CAP Foundation also has partnership with Government of Rajasthan through the Rajasthan Mission on Livelihood.  Currently working at Baran, Boondi, Ajmer and Salumber to provide employability skills to the tribal youth of these districts.

CAP in the past has also worked with Youth services department of Government of Andhra Pradesh, Women Development Corporation of Tamil Nadu. 

Corporate Social Responsibility Programs:
EK Mouka provides a wide range of support required to allow corporate, professional networks and agencies to invest in sustainable livelihood development through their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in their preferred communities. The program has been customized to meet the various expectations and needs of the corporate.  CAP has worked with corporates on providing livelihood opportunities to the families who sold land and farmers dependent on these lands, their consumer base to increase the paying capacity for their business interest, providing livelihood opportunities to the families displaced due to the infrastructure projects of the government, rehabilitation of the disaster victims like Tsunami etc.

Micro Enterprise Development:
Ek Mouka supports both employment and enterprise development. Self Help Groups of men and women are developed and are given training and linkages to finances and markets. Currently this module is being implemented in the Tsunami hit Nagapatinam area, minority communities & parents of children removed from working conditions.   Over 1000 women through SHGs are engaged in various trades like Milch Animal Rearing, Seaweed Farming, Pickling, Production and Marketing of Coir and Farm Products, Petty trading etc.

  CAP EMPLOYABILITY MODEL

Community Based Employability Training Center: In association with the Government, Business Networks and Agencies, Employability Training Centers are established.

HR / Recruitment Solutions for Businesses: Ek Mouka's rationale is to bridge the gap between the increasing needs of the corporate for entry level workforce and the availability of the same. At one end are the corporate, who are investing a lot in recruitment, training, and retention, but are still facing large attrition rates, and at the other end are smart , talented young persons, from disadvantaged communities, whose only set back is that they have had to drop out of the formal education system and lack employable skills. Ek Mouka acts as a bridge, thus creating a talent pool at the entry level.

Exclusive academies are also set up to fulfill manpower requirements of particular businesses and industry. Skill development training is customized to their needs in order to fulfill the requirements in the stipulated time frame.

List of sectors covered by course offers

» Tourism Industry
» Home Needs
» Telecom Industry
» Customer Relations &     Retailing Sector
» Hospitality Industry
» IT Enabled Services
» Health Care Sector
» Automobile Industry
» Other Occupational Courses

The challenge now is to achieve critical mass and develop a systemic and institutionalized response that can be applied on a very large scale. In order to provide momentum to the entire process and make it self sustaining, it is essential that program partners with the following three constituencies – the industry, the government and the civil society

The challenge now is to achieve critical mass and develop a systemic and institutionalized response that can be applied on a very large scale.  In order to provide momentum to the entire process and make it self sustaining, it is essential that program partners with the following three constituencies – the industry, the government and the civil society play a clearly defined roles.

Industry (corporations, businesses, channel partners, business councils, industry associations, Special Economic Zones, professional networks etc) will confirm the perceived human resources need; help define the program specifics like the selection criterion, curriculum etc., identify the training staff/ faculty; provide opportunities for apprenticeship/placements of trainees in the industry; support and provide youth mentorship services and act as the voice of the Alliance within their industry sector, geographic focus as well as community and other stakeholders.

Government (local, state, central, special projects, departments, quasi – governmental agencies) will extend finance and in kind support for training activities, facilitate convergence with other government schemes and provide the leadership to the program.

Civil society (citizen sector, NGOs, CBOs, self help groups, corporate social foundations) will become mentors, guest/visiting faculty and more importantly the partnerships.
CAP has already entered into partnership with a wide range of organisations cutting across constituencies mentioned above.  CAP has built an impressive track record of working with a broad range of diverse partners and will continue to build stronger partnerships and bring in newer partners.  The youth themselves will be the most significant stakeholders in this program as beneficiaries during the training, as brand ambassadors post training and contributing to economic upliftment of the family, neighborhood, society and state at large.