New Delhi, Apr 7 (IANS): Wadhwani Foundation and Wadhwani Catalyst entered into a three-year partnership with Magic Bus to strengthen its L.E.A.P (Lifeskills based Employment Assistance Program. L.E.A.P. is the youth skilling and job placement program of Magic Bus that has already transformed the lives of over 50,000 youth.

This unique initiative will not only ensure that post graduating students continue to be trained well in modern life skills and placed in aspirational job roles in high growth sectors of Banking, IT & ITeS, Sales & Marketing, and Healthcare but also their sustained employment for at least six months with adequate income.

With over 62 per cent of the population in the working-age group and ~54 per cent of the population below 25 years of age, Wadhwani Catalyst sees immense potential in investing in the Indian youth. This initiative by Wadhwani Catalyst is well in line with its mission of amplifying impact through grant support to catalyse large-scale job creation. Wadhwani Catalyst will also enable Magic Bus to build better processes and systems for efficiently tracking students post-placement and providing post-placement support.

Sanjay Shah, Chief Operating Officer, Wadhwani Foundation - India/SEA, said: "Wadhwani Foundation is excited to partner with Magic Bus whose L.E.A.P program is unique and high-impact, skilling thousands of youth from the underserved and marginalised communities for aspirational job roles in growth sectors. They are driving change and creating a jobs-led impact. We look forward to leveraging the Wadhwani ecosystem to help Magic Bus intensify their skills efforts and touch more lives."

Jayant Rastogi, Global CEO, Magic Bus, said: "This is a one of its kind high impact skilling partnership which will ensure that young people in the age group of 18-25 years have market relevant skills, are able to confidently transition into the world of work and have sustainable livelihoods. This partnership will enable Magic Bus to further build on the existing ecosystem it has created in the skilling space, to ensure upward mobility of young people in jobs and build a robust technology based platform to track and measure impact."

Arun Nalavadi, Executive Director - Sustainability and Partnerships, Magic Bus expressed: "This partnership will bring about a 'cultural shift' in how skilling is viewed in India. There continues to be an impetus on placements and lesser focus on retention and career transition of young people. This funding support will give us an opportunity to emerge as 'key quality players' in the development space, and the learning from this partnership can be shared widely for others to learn from and replicate."