-Funding by Wadhwani Catalyst to strengthen L.E.A.P, the youth skilling and job placement program of Magic Bus with a specific focus on retention -Wadhwani Foundation and Magic Bus are in strong alignment that this is an investment in the soul of India - its youth, and its future -Wadhwani Catalyst sees immense potential in skilling the Indian youth, with over 62% of the population in the working-age group and ~54% of the population below 25 years of age.

Wadhwani Foundation and Wadhwani Catalyst today announced a three-year strategic partnership with Magic Bus to strengthen their processes related to placement and retention in L.E.A.P, the youth skilling and job placement program of Magic Bus that 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 Bus intensify their skills efforts and touch more lives.”

This first of its kind, the outcome-focused partnership will not only ensure that the post graduating Magic Bus students continue to be trained well in 21st-century life skills and placed in aspirational job roles in high growth sectors of Banking, IT & ITeS, Sales & Marketing, and Healthcare but also their sustained employment for at least 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 support to catalyse 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 the world 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.”