BRIDGE

Ensuring the employability of unprivileged school dropout youth is an important thrust area for Bosch Limited. After a research on needs assessment (of both industry as well as learners), an end-to-end solutions model was developed, known as BRIDGE.

Bosch reaches out to school dropout youth from underprivileged backgrounds who are between the ages of 18 and 25, and not in education, employment or training (also known as youth in the NEET category).

The objective of this job-oriented program is to utilise Bosch’s already established skills development competence to deliver a unique vocational training model for making underprivileged children employable, thereby providing a pool of high quality skilled manpower, mainly to the services industry.

BRIDGE students receive job skills training in all the key elements needed to find gainful employment in the organised or semi-organised sector. In other words, the program prevents the youth from ending up in the unorganised sector where the opportunity to build a career is vastly limited due to lack of proper skills training. The program prepares students to find the first job in their life and includes industry demand-driven modules:

• Soft skills (for 5 weeks)
• Industry-specific and Job skills (for 2 weeks)
• Social Skills (for 1 week)
• On-the-Job Training (for 4 weeks)

Every day, students get one hour coaching on Spoken English, Basic Computers (with hands-on experience) and Value Education.

After completion of the BRIDGE program, Bosch provides 100% job placement assistance to the candidates in finding job in semi-organized or organized sectors. They are guided by the BRIDGE Trainers and Coordinators at their Center location, who are supported by a full-time central Placement Officer. BRIDGE candidates have been employed in the sectors, including, but not limited to:

• Automotive Dealerships
• Telecommunications
• Hospitality
• Retail Outlets
• ITES/BPO

The typical job roles BRIDGE candidates have received include, but not limited to:

• Customer Service Assistant
• Sales Assistant
• Warehouse Assistant
• Spare Parts Assistant
• Retail Assistant

As of October 2021, more than 40,000 less-educated youth through BRIDGE. Bosch has also extended Placement support to them for entry-level service sector jobs. Most of them are first-generation employees to get into the formal job sector, where the remuneration and working conditions are far more organised and reasonable. Thus, BRIDGE offers a foundation for unemployed and needy youth to enter into decent jobs and build their life and career from thereon.

One of the biggest challenges in scaling up vocational training initiatives in India is the shortage of trained trainers. To address this gap, Bosch has designed an exclusive ‘Train the Trainer (TTT)’ program, which covers:

• Student Mobilsation
• BRIDGE Modules Delivery
• Counseling Skills
• Placement Process
• Bosch Qualification for Trainers

More than 2,000 trainers have been already trained. All the Trainers are certified by Bosch. Our partnerships with Sector Skills Councils (e.g. MEPSC) has also enabled training of Master Trainers.

• Bosch has developed a successful PPP model through the BRIDGE Program. Three State Governments have joined hands with Bosch to support the BRIDGE Program, namely the Governments of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
• As per the MoUs signed with them by Bosch, 88 Government I.T.I.s serve as BRIDGE Centers where the program is conducted.
• In turn, Bosch upgrades these I.T.I.s to make their curriculum more industry-relevant, train their vocational trainers, and provide industry exposure to select students, besides setting up a Bosch Technical Lab in each of these I.T.I.s.