youth4work: Bridging the Gap between Academics and Industry
Employment is one of the biggest issues that an individual and on a larger scale, the globe faces. But as many facts of life are, the supply does not always meet the demand. To top it off, employability also faces a problem of mismatch.As a popular Monster advert showcased, what skills people possess and what they do at their jobs are sometimes not even vaguely related. A large group is ‘stuck with their jobs’. Based on the concept of ‘Crowd Recruitment’, youth4work is an initiative to bring about a change in the ways of hiring.
"It’s about connecting youth for work, directly to companies via a platform and changing the ways employers crowd source, freelance or hire freshers. It’s a potential game changer and will alter the way recruitment happens," says Rachit Jain, founder and CEO of youth4work.
youth4work has an efficient team of fourteen people who are working full time towards the objective of building a fault-free process of matching a skill-set to the correct job. It aims at figuring out the best work for a youth from the samples earlier provided by them. "Users have earned over Rs. 3.6 lacs via Youth4work. 9 out of 10 companies that have posted a project on the site love the concept so much that they return and post more projects," says Rachit.
Taking a critical stand, the samples that are uploaded by students/applicants, need to undergo strict moderation for the concept to work. The potential is huge as 30 lakh students graduate every year and more than half of the joinees leave their jobs within the first two years. Interest is an important determinant of job satisfaction. Also, when people do what they are good at, there is a certain probability of increased productivity apart from the enormous happiness they get while doing it. In the founder’s words, "The pleasure of sending the first work income to a youth is immense. The pleasure of making a student land up on the job they love is huge and the feedback of companies has been very encouraging as well.”
Taking a cut of about 20% over and above the total project cost from employers, youth4work plans to monetize other streams in the near future. In a highly competitive sector, youth4work has seen encouraging results ever since the crawlers discovered the website without any advertisement. Good feedback from their users, who are spread over 1450 colleges and 650 companies proves their efficiency in delivering real value and also advocates their potential as a strong force. "The core is to add value. If we add value the money will come", believes Rachit.
During the course of the next few months, the team plans to grow organically, while focusing on user interfaces and further technical development.
More about them on the website. And for everything happening in the field of education startups in India, check Edustars.
-Shivangi Sharma