Trainees & youth
Young people looking for their first job.
Skills build potential. Systems unlock opportunity.
Commons builds the infrastructure that connects talent to economic opportunity, opens that opportunity to everyone, and keeps the whole system accountable for livelihoods that last.
A certificate is not a job.
The skilling ecosystem runs on an assumption: that acquiring skills leads to employment. In reality, training supply, industry demand and the availability of quality jobs often remain disconnected.
Three problems, one broken system.
Each is visible on its own. What makes them hard is that they compound: a relevant skill is worth little without access, and access is worth little if nobody stays to see whether the job lasts.
Relevance. Young people are trained without enough alignment with what the labour market needs, while employers struggle to find candidates with the right capabilities. And even when people are skilled, suitable jobs may not exist where they live. Three things the system assumes will meet: training supply (seats to fill, courses on offer), industry demand (the capabilities employers actually hire for) and quality jobs (where young people actually live). The fundamental problem: we optimise for skilling people, not for connecting talent to economic opportunity.
Access. Talent is widely distributed. Access to opportunity is not. Whether a young person secures meaningful work depends not just on their skills, but on their networks, geography, finances, information and ability to navigate the employment system. Career guidance is fragmented, credentials are imperfect signals of ability, and the move from learning to earning is hardest for those without existing advantages. Same skills, different odds — Aarav and Sunita: two young people with the same training still differ on social networks, living near the jobs, money to wait and move, information about openings, and knowing how to navigate the system. The fundamental problem: employability is treated as an individual responsibility, when access to opportunity is also a systemic challenge.
Outcomes. Much of the ecosystem is organised around discrete interventions: enrolment, training, certification and placement. But meaningful employment is a longer journey of income stability, job retention, career progression and a better livelihood. Fragmented delivery, short funding cycles and limited longitudinal data make it hard to know what works, who benefits, and which interventions lead to lasting economic mobility. What the system counts, and what it rarely does. Counted: enrolment, training, certification, placement. What it rarely counts: retention, income stability, career progression, a better livelihood. The fundamental problem: the ecosystem delivers programmes, rather than taking shared responsibility for long-term employment outcomes.
The skilling and employability challenge is not merely a skills gap. It is a gap between talent and opportunity, compounded by unequal access and an ecosystem that is not accountable enough for outcomes.
Three questions, interconnected.
Fix one and the other two still decide whether a young person ends up better off. Every part of what we build answers to all three.
Economic mobility
If skilling starts from a real economic opportunity, access is designed into the system rather than left to the individual, and everyone involved shares responsibility for what happens after placement, then more young people secure and sustain livelihoods that move their families forward.
Six moves, from opportunity to a livelihood that lasts.
Two for relevance, two for access, two for outcomes. The last two are where most programmes stop.
- Relevance
Start from the opportunity
Map the jobs that exist and will exist where people live: by sector, district, wage and growth. Employers help decide what is taught, and how it is assessed.
- Relevance
Train for the job, not the certificate
Competencies an employer can observe, practice on the tools of the trade, apprenticeships and on-the-job learning, and AI fluency in the roles where work is changing fastest.
- Access
Open the door
Guidance, information, introductions and help with travel, housing and the first month's costs, so opportunity does not depend on who you already know.
- Access
Match on what people can do
Skills-based profiles, verified evidence of work and AI matching, so a credential is not the only signal and employers look further than they usually would.
- Outcomes
Where most programmes stopStay through the first year
Check-ins, re-matching and support through the months when most people leave, with the employer as a partner in keeping them.
- Outcomes
Measure the livelihood
Retention, income and progression tracked for years on one shared record, so funders, governments and providers learn what works, and can pay for outcomes rather than activity.
From delivering programmes to sharing the outcome.
No single training provider, employer or department can close the gap alone. What closes it is shared infrastructure: one record of the young person, open to everyone working on their behalf, and a common definition of success.
How the system works todayWhat we build toward
What we optimise forSkilling peopleConnecting talent to economic opportunity
Where training startsSeats to fill and courses on offerReal demand, by sector and district
Who carries accessThe individual, on their own networksThe system: guidance, matching and support
What counts as successEnrolment, certification, placementRetention, income and progression
Who is accountableEach provider, for its own programmeEveryone, for the long-term outcome, on one record
Skilling Centre Management System.
Run every centre for outcomes, not attendance. Mobilisation, batches, trainers, attendance, assessments, placement and what happens after placement, across every centre in a programme, on one record of each learner.
- 01Mobilisation and enrolment
- 02Batches, trainers and timetables
- 03Face and GPS attendance
- 04Assessments and certification
- 05Placement tracking
- 06Retention at 3, 6 and 12 months
- 07Centre audits and compliance
- 08Mission and funder reporting
Jobs and apprenticeship marketplace.
Jobs, apprenticeships and internships near where people live, matched on what candidates can do rather than only the marks they scored. Employers post once and reach every centre, college and programme on the network.
- 01Jobs, apprenticeships and internships
- 02Skills-based matching
- 03Distance and wage filters
- 04Verified profiles and evidence
- 05Employer portal
- 06Applications on WhatsApp
- 07Retention feedback from employers
AI agents for candidates, trainers and employers.
Three agents that do the busy work around a young person's first job, each on the same shared record. Each one listens as well as it reads, so a candidate can speak in their own language rather than type. For candidates: finds work nearby, explains it in their language, and practises the interview with them. For trainers: turns what employers reject into tomorrow's practice, and tracks who is ready for assessment. For employers: screens on skills rather than marks, books interviews, and reports back on who stayed.
- 01Career guidance in local languages
- 02Voice in, voice out
- 03Interview practice
- 04Lesson prep from employer feedback
- 05Assessment readiness
- 06Skills-first shortlists
- 07Retention check-ins
AI-Skilling Program for Employability.
Work is changing fastest in exactly the entry-level roles young people are trained for. This programme prepares them for the job as it is now, with AI in it, and is judged on whether they get that job and keep it.
Who it is for
- Young people in their final year of college, ITI or a skilling course.
- Skill missions, training partners and CSR programmes.
- Employers hiring at the entry level.
What it includes
- AI fluency taught inside the job it will be used in.
- Employability skills, practised rather than lectured.
- Projects set by employers, assessed against their standard.
- Interview practice with an AI coach.
- Placement through the jobs and apprenticeship marketplace.
How it is judged
- Placement.
- Retention at six and twelve months.
- Change in income.
Our impact on the ground.
20+Skilling programmes and partners
10 yrsIn skilling and placement
72%Placed within 90 days
12States where our skilling work reaches
The Global Goals it moves.
1
No poverty
No poverty4
Quality education
Quality education5
Gender equality
Gender equality8
Decent work and economic growth
Decent work and economic growth10
Reduced inequalities
Reduced inequalities17
Partnerships for the goals
Partnerships for the goalsWe deliver across the ecosystem, for the people at its heart.
Training centres
The teams running batches every day.
Employers
Companies hiring at the entry level.
Skill missions
State and national skilling programmes.
CSR funders
Funders who want placement, not certificates.
How can we help?
“We do not start with a proposal. We start by understanding your problem well enough to deserve one. Bring it to us as it is, messy is fine, and we will figure out the way forward together.”
SG
Talk to usSatyam GambhirCo-founder, commons.inc
Skilling programme strategy
Cost per placement, not cost per certificate.
Trainee journey design
From mobilisation to 90-day retention, designed around the trainee.
Training & placement platforms
Batches, assessments and employer matching in one system.
Centre operations
Opening, running and handing over centres.
Skilling and Employability products.
Tell us where your young people are getting stuck.
A skill mission, a training partner, an employer or a funder: we will tell you which of the three problems we would start with, and what it would take.
