British Council and technology major Microsoft India will together be developing a programme to enhance the employability of youth belonging to socio-economically marginalised communities across India, particularly women, by imparting English communication and soft skills to them.

The two have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a three-year partnership programme called 'English Skills for Youth'. The programme will reach out to rural engineering colleges through Microsoft's existing NGO/partner skilling projects. During the initial three-year pilot phase, the project aims to benefit 60,000 youth and 600 teachers, with a long-term goal of reaching 4 lakh young people involved in the Microsoft Philanthropies-funded project. It will intentionally enrol 75% female students in order to bridge the gender gap in the workplace.

Apart from equipping them with English language skills which will help them present themselves confidently at job interviews and also sustain jobs with companies which have a global customer base, the youth will also be trained in skills like collaboration, critical thinking, soft skills, and leadership abilities.

"It will be a need based approach taking from where those young people are building their skills to achieve whatever goals they may have in the context of where they live and work. We will be piloting initially in seven states- Odisha, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka and will scale up to 17 states in the longer run," Alison Barrett MBE, Director, India, British Council told ET.

As per estimates, in India, approximately one million people enter the workforce every month, yet only 10-20% of women of working age are employed, making this initiative even more critical.

Navtez Bal, Executive Director, Public Sector, Microsoft India said with Microsoft's university and industry hiring teams going deeper into the country, especially for tier 3 and tier 4 engineering colleges to get early in career hires, two insights essentially led to the company seeking a partnership in the space of helping potential talent converse in English. He said 80% students said they would have preferred to be interviewed in a vernacular language and not English and 30% said there was a gap between their writing and speaking skills.

"When you couple it with our other reports that talk about 50% employability for Indian graduates, it was clear there was something that had to be done on conversing in English, especially from a business perspective, if you were to truly unlock the talent which was available in these markets," Bal told ET, adding that when a few other such signals came together, it was natural to seek a partnership.

The project will cover three key aspects- capacity building for teachers, facilitating development of English skills for students, particularly women, by adopting a community of practice approach through student club meetings and establishing an interface with industry through joint thought leadership forums organized by Microsoft and the British Council, focusing on multilingualism in the workplace.

"There is a lot of evidence to indicate that particularly girls and young women are a lot more confident if they are able to work in informal settings in a context where they are working with maybe a peer who is leading a group and building confidence in that kind of setting really helps unlock expertise," Barett added.