Wadhwani Foundation and Magic Bus announce a strategic partnershipto strengthenL.E.A.P

News Reporter, Takmaa, Kolkata, 31st Mar 2022 : Wadhwani Foundation and Wadhwani Catalyst today announced a three-yearstrategic partnership with Magic Busto strengthen their processes related to placement and retention inL.E.A.P, the youth skilling and job placement program of Magic Busthat has already transformed the lives of over 50,000 youth.

Speaking on the partnership, 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 marginalized 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 Busintensify their skills efforts and touch more lives.”

This first of its kind, outcome-focused partnership will not only ensure that thepost graduatingMagic Bus students continue to be trained well in 21st-century life skillsand placed in aspirational job roles in high growth sectors of Banking, IT & ITeS, Sales & Marketing, and Healthcare but alsotheir sustained employment for atleast six months at family-supporting income levels.

Commenting on the funding closure, Siddharth Dhondiyal, Executive VP – Venture Fast Track & Catalyst at the Wadhwani Foundation, said, “Our partnership with Magic Bus exemplifies the strategy of Wadhwani Catalyst to catalyze the growth of players in India who have the capability and commitment to enable large scale job creation. We look forward to working closely with Magic Bus in this journey.”

This funding by Wadhwani Catalyst is in sync with its mission of amplifying impact through grant supporttocatalyse 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.

Expressing Happiness on this strategic tie-up with Wadhwani Catalyst, 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 theworld 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 technonolgy 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.”