A social development incubator had developed a programme, funded by a large investment bank, to improve gender diversity ratios and quality of candidates entering the retail sector. This was a one-of-a-kind innovative pilot programme – called SelectHER – designed to upskill and employ underprivileged women at premium and luxury retail brands in India.

In order to reach the desired outcome for the company and other stakeholders we needed to ensure that the programme developed was aligned to the market. So, we built a training curriculum based on feedback we got from two large market players who gave us an outside in perspective. The curriculum focused on English skills and conditioning women to nuances of the retail sector—customer service, understanding the segment, corporate sensitisation. All this co-developed by the on-ground training partner. Our role was focused on pre-screening and evaluating fitment to the programme based on a few basic criteria – educational qualification, basic English proficiency, and alignment to retail sector. Alongside, we actively engaged with potential employers in the market who gave us feedback on gaps in training and other value-adds needed, if any.

As the next step in our endeavour, we are now looking to expand to other aspirational industries which value customer experience as a core skill.