Government of India’s National Education Policy seeks to introduce students to vocational learning from Grade 6 onwards. Vocationalisation of secondary school education is an attempt to help students to visualize the extent to which they can make informed choices in life and career, channelize aspirations, and become market ready and employable. Smile Foundation’s Project Manzil, in collaboration with IPE Global, is a step in this direction.

Under the Project Manzil, Smile Foundation aims to provide counseling and employability skills training to over 90,000 young girls in Rajasthan. The project provides training to girls in streams like IT, healthcare, beauty & wellness, security, retail, automobile, apparel, home furnishing, agriculture, tourism & hospitality, and electrical & electronics.

Overall, the project aims to empower adolescent girls to realize their career goals and educational aspirations by improving the quality of vocational education with a 3-pronged approach focusing on schools, students and industry. It also seeks to retain girls in school and reduce drop-out rates.

Currently, the project is benefitting over 20,000 girls in grade 9-12 from 182 Government schools in 6 districts of Rajasthan.

Skill-based training needs to become an important component of our education system—from schools, to universities. This will contribute to a holistic education of youth and create better workers and leaders for the future. Moreover, this will go a long way in addressing youth unemployment.