Once Michael Gurian stated, “If we want boys to succeed, we need to bring them back to education by making education relevant to them and bring in more service learning and vocational education.”

India, being a diversified and vast country with a population counting to approximately 1.271 billion people, contains near about 17.5% of world’s population. Coming to its international ranking in several facets, it stands 136^th in the world’s count for human development index, 112^th according to the ETHZ KOF Index of Globalization, with a literacy of just 74.04% and approximately 10% unemployment. These statistics clearly state that in order to be at par with the present developmental status across the globe, this highly demographic variation of India cannot be bridled just with the conventional educational framework of our nation. Something more is required to suffice this interstice. This is where the skill development in India gains its urgency and definitive status.

At The Ponty Chadha Foundation, we aim at creating vibrant, empowered and self-sustaining communities where each and every resource is shared equally by men, women and children. Also, we try to focus people’s attention on their capabilities and potentials so that they themselves can lead their lives in a socially and economically developed ambiance. With these objectives in mind, our foundation is in process of building the WAVE Skills Academy in Ghaziabad. It endeavours to impart training to the youth from less privileged families in India. The idea lies in boosting their potentials thereby whetting them with special skills that would enable them to sustain themselves and stand on their feet on the present employment disk.

Sprawling across an area of 6 acres of land in Dasna, Ghaziabad; the WAVE Skills Academy has the amplitude of training 120-150 trainees per training programme. With an initial training programme for security services, facility management and hospitality management, the academy plans to merge trainings pertaining to construction and real estate sector as these would directly connect to the WAVE Group projects. The curriculum includes knowledge on technical aspects, soft skills development and basic computer literacy whereas the methodological approach includes group work, peer learning, audio visual aids, practical sessions and real time job trainings.

These would not only help their placement in the industrial and other demanding sectors of the society but would also give them an additional support of working themselves in whatever arenas they get assigned, and would thus provide a source of continuous income for them to support and develop their living.

The Ponty Chadha Foundation has thus provided a valuable base for skill development in India so that employment can be provided to a wider number of people on a broader aspect. To quote Conrad Burns, “Vocational education programs have made a real difference in the lives of countless young people nationwide; they build self-confidence and leadership skills by allowing students to utilize their unique gifts and talents.” and the WAVE Skills Academy will stand aptly by these words.