Upskilling women today to build India’s workforce of tomorrow

India must add 145 million women to its workforce by 2047 to achieve the government’s goal of building a $30 trillion economy. While data shows workforce participation by women has improved, a significant gender gap remains. Compared with just 42% of women, nearly 79% of men contributed to the workforce in 2023-24.

Skills and career development programs are crucial for bridging that gap. JPMorganChase is helping nonprofits like Generation and the PanIIT Reach for India Foundation (PARFI) deliver vocational training and job placement support programs with a gender focus through public-private partnerships. This initiative is aligned with the bank’s global efforts to foster inclusiveness, promote upskilling and work-based learning, and power economic mobility, all of which are good for business.

Delivering results

Generation, a global nonprofit that works with JPMorganChase, manages efforts across India to help improve upskilling, employment and retention outcomes for 30,000 trainees who encounter obstacles to employment. As many as 96% of Generation’s trainees have never experienced formal employment.

Generation, in partnership with India’s Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the National Skill Development Corporation, has embarked on a project known as the Accelerated Mission for Better Employment and Retention (AMBER).

JPMorganChase has worked with Generation India since 2022, and through its continued support for Project AMBER, the firm   aims to support 70,000 people between 2024 and 2027.

 With its help, the non-profit has placed more than 4,100 AMBER trainees in employment so far, 51% of whom are women.

“Generation has a policy that across all countries it works in, every intervention will ensure that 50% of learners are women,” says Arunesh Singh, CEO of Generation India.

Through the program, women graduates are able to save, participate in their families’ financial decisions and have greater control of their future.

Bridging gaps

In Jharkhand state, JPMorganChase has been working with another non-profit, the PanIIT Reach For India Foundation (PARFI), to help fix a demand-supply gap in healthcare by helping women who grew up in extreme poverty receive a nursing education.

The program is implemented in collaboration with the state government. The collaboration has resulted in the creation of India’s largest public vocational education system, adding nearly 1,000 graduates to the healthcare workforce each year, according to PARFI. Trainees pay for their residential course using skill loans, and the repayment rate for completed batches is 87%.

Over 2,500 women are pursuing an education or career in nursing as a direct result of JPMorganChase’s support, which went beyond philanthropic funding to include strategic problem-solving, legal guidance and field visits. With support from the bank, PARFI plans to train at least 5,000 healthcare workers each year in four more states.  

The story of Pammi Kumari, a program graduate, illustrates just how transformative PARFI’s training can be. Hired as a staff nurse in Bengaluru after graduation, she created social mobility for her family of six, which could now afford a stable home.

“It’s very heartening that women are becoming breadwinners,” says Kalyan Chakravarthy, Executive Director at PARFI. He continued that with the help of the program, graduates tend to triple or quadruple their household incomes.

Bridging the gender gap in workforce participation is critical for India to unleash its economic potential. Non-profits like Generation and PARFI play a key role by driving systems change in skill development and bringing together public and private stakeholders through innovative models. JPMorganChase is proud to support their work.

Learn more about JPMorganChase’s commitment to India.