Praful Jagtap - a young entrepreneur in the making

I was born and brought up in Satara. I have 2 elder brothers - one is a salesman in Pune and another is pursuing his higher studies in Satara. Both of them are successful in their careers and I look upto them, but I had different goals in mind for myself. One day a mobilizer from PACE Hospitality Center in Satara visited my locality and informed me and my friends about the course. Though I was informed that a near 100% placement guarantee is offered by PACE, I was more interested in pursuing the course as I could see it as a huge stepping stone towards my goal - starting a small restaurant of my own. Though I am just 17 years old, the mobilizer never discouraged me. Instead, he informed me on how by doing this course I would gain adequate knowledge to start my own restaurant. This motivated me to join this course.

Kalpesh credits his grandmother for his success

Kalpesh was born in a chawl in Govandi, Mumbai. He was orphaned at the age of 11, leaving him and his two brothers in the care of his grandmother. He planned to take up a job to help his family on completion of Grade 10, however, he faced difficulties in gaining employment. He had the education and the basic qualification required, but was not as skilled or as groomed for a job as required. One day his grandmother met a Pratham mobilizer and enrolled him in the foundation course for employment readiness.

Our student Mehboob - a 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack survivor

Thousands of people travel through the Mumbai local trains every day. Most of them are local residents of the city, but there are a few like Mehboob who come to the city to visit their family or for tourism. Mehboob Abbas Ansari a resident of Ranchi, a city in the state of Jharkhand went through a traumatic experience when he had once visited Mumbai.

He stayed with his family in Ranchi and had completed his formal education until the 10th grade. His father had a garments shop in the city and he provided a helping hand in his father's business. His father had spent a few years in Mumbai and had shifted to Ranchi permanently when Mehboob grew older.

Once Mehboob had come down to Mumbai with his family to meet their relatives.

The 'Aadhar' we plan to render to our trainees

- by Nikhil Bagga

Aadhaar project is the latest initiative by the Indian government to create a Unique Identification(UID) for every citizen of the country and digitize all citizens’ database at a single point. It will act as a one stop proof that will serve all purposes; thus reducing the redundancy of obtaining different types of ID proofs. It will ensure that all Indians have individual identities that cannot be faked by others. The Government of India feels that the system will also help in curbing corruption involved in its various rural programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rural Health Mission, Bharat Nirman, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme etc.

We, at Pratham Institute are developing a model through which each student undergoing training at all our vocational training centres will be helped by our centre staff to get an Aadhar card.

An insight into our 'Learn Now Pay Later' model

- by Jagruti Raval

We have introduced ‘Learn Now Pay Later’ scheme for all our five hospitality centers - Aurangabad, Dhamtari, Satara, Udaipur, Vijaywada. This scheme was started for students who are not able to pay our course fees by themselves. Using this scheme they can now pay their fees after they are placed with properties (our placement partners), thus easing them of the financial obligation at the beginning of the course.