Since its inception in 1999, the National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) has focused on developing and nurturing young entrepreneurs across India.
It does this by carrying out employment-oriented and income-generating activities through self-help groups and micro-enterprises. With a strong network operating in 603 districts across India, it provides young people with entrepreneurship training which includes bookkeeping, marketing skills, soft skills, managerial skills, team management, leadership management, and life skills.
All these activities are summarised in a monthly newsletter - Yuva Sahkar, which helps raise awareness about cooperative entrepreneurship among young people.
One of these initiatives has been partnering with the National Skill Development Corporation to enable a large number of Indian youths to take up industry-relevant skills training that will help them secure a better livelihood.
Via another scheme, NYCS is providing training to 24,332 high school dropouts in the state of Maharashtra. The project is implemented across 111 training centres in 34 districts of Maharashtra.
Another NYCS programme is the Prior Learning Up Project, a platform to provide recognition to informal learning or learning through work to get equal acceptance as the formal levels of education. Over 6,000 drivers across five locations received training and were assessed as part of this scheme.
NYCS is also helping young people access counselling to help them choose the right career path. Named Skill Saathi, the initiative has seen youth receive 100,000 career counselling sessions over five months.
To meet the growing demand for sports-related career opportunities, NYCS also runs GAIL Raftaar Indian Speedstar, a unique talent scouting programme for boys and girls between the age group of 11 to 17 years.
This programme aims to spot, select, nourish and nurture young talent and train them to bring home the glory of Olympic medals in athletics. So far, over 450,000 participants have taken part in the talent hunt programme.
NYCS also supports athletes through its India Ka Khelotsav sports programme, which seeks to create a strong support system to create champions and nurture a sports culture in society.
Through all these activities and other projects, NYCS acts as a catalyst for any effort to empower youth, enabling them to reach their full potential as entrepreneurs and leaders.
More information about the coop is available on its website.
