Empowering women to start micro-enterprises

At our Vocational Skilling PACE (Pratham Arora Center for Education) Centers situated at various tier 2 cities in Maharashtra, such as Nashik, Satara, Chembur and Kolhapur, we impart knowledge to youth in various fields. We educate them in courses such as Foundation Course, Tally, Desktop Publishing, Mobile Repairing, and so on. But the courses designed especially for women include Fashion Designing, Bag-Making, Basic/Advanced Beautician and a few more. These courses help women in rural/semi-urban areas, who usually cannot go far away from their house to gain knowledge, find new ways through which they can run their micro-enterprises from their houses. In the bag making course for example, students are not only taught how to market the bags, but also the process of calculating the manufacturing costs and deciding the selling price, amongst other things. They are even able to design new bags after finishing the course. Thus, these courses establish self-confidence in women who wish to contribute to the society in their own small ways.

One such group of women is the group of Bag-Making students at our Satara center – (Left to Right) Prajakta Lokhande, Rajeshri Powar and Jayeshri Bhingardeve. They liked the training they received from us and believe it will help them in their entrepreneurial pursuits. Let’s get to know each one of them briefly –

Pratham Master Trainers in the making...

- by Aarti Iyer

Attending the Foundation Course for Employment training was a nice learning experience. Since I was part of the content development team, I had a basic idea of what modules would be covered. But I was  curious as I was new to some of the methodologies used. But as the training unfolded we were so absorbed in it that we didn’t even realize the time passing by. It was a perfect blend of fun and learning.

A glimpse of our Aurangabad centre

The pictures below will take you through a short tour of our Aurangabad Center.

PACE Hospitality Training Center



Welcome, Swagatam, Bienvenue, Aloha,...

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.