Nearly 70 percent of over 100 companies from across India expressed an intention to increase their CSR spends in education/skilling in the next fiscal. A majority of these companies want to allocate funds towards imparting vocational skills, which is the need of the hour to address the rising unemployability.
These were the finding from a survey titled, Aligning education and skilling in the CSR agenda”, by TeamLease EdTech, learning solutions company. The survey analyzes how India Inc is spending their CSR funds within the education/skilling cohort, key challenges in the process and the future aspirations of organizations while aligning their CSR agenda.
CSR funds to be dedicated towards employability skills
The survey indicates that companies are keen to dedicate funds towards projects that can create the maximum impact and according to the key findings, companies are directing majority of their funds towards imparting employability skills to School or College Dropouts (22.8 percent), Women (20.4 percent), and People with Disabilities (18 percent).
India facing a skill crisis
Shantanu Rooj, Founder & CEO, TeamLease EdTech, said, “India does not have a job crisis rather a skill crisis – we don’t have enough employable talent to cater to the jobs that are there. Multiple measures have been taken to improve our education, but it is yet to solve the impending skill gap. We also face a high dropout crisis in higher education, further impacting employability. It is welcoming to see that corporates are looking at further increasing their spends in education/skilling- close to two third of the respondents are planning to invest further. The investments coupled with active participation will help in addressing the gaps and enable our youth to beat the root cause of poverty- unemployment.”
CSR Report | TeamLease
As per the survey 95.83 percent of companies direct their CSR funds towards Education, Vocational Skilling, Livelihood Improvement, followed by 50 percent for Health, Eradicating Hunger, Poverty and Malnutrition, Safe Drinking Water, and Sanitation. Close to 45.83 percent funds are also dedicated to initiatives that promote Gender Equality, Women Empowerment, Old Age Homes, Reducing Inequalities. In fact, organizations who divulge their funds into multiple arenas also dedicate a portion towards education--46 percent of the respondents stated that they deploy more than 50 percent of their funds towards Skilling and Education. While the intention and efforts are quite strong, companies are confronted with many a challenges, especially while implementing their CSR programs.
However, many organisations have been facing pertinent challenges while implementing their CSR programs. Neeti Sharma, Co-Founder & President, TeamLease EdTech, said, “Accessibility, infrastructure, deployment continues to be a concern for companies. 70 percent companies mentioned that connecting the right candidates to the right opportunities is their major perplexity. Additionally, 42 percent attributed lack of infrastructure as a cause for distress. Even the pandemic hindered organic implementation of the CSR programs, especially reverse migration.”
The good news is that the optimism for CSR programs towards skilling and education is expected to continue in 2022. 85 percent companies have already revamped their CSR initiatives, aligned to COVID impact. Moreover, 80 percent companies have taken up special initiatives already to monitor and measure impact closely and 40 percent are even spending more to analyse impact better.
