Salaam Bombay Foundation: challenges in integrating skills, education and job markets for adolescents in India

What is it about?

The case describes the journey of Salaam Bombay Foundation (SBF), a national-level non-government organization registered in 2002 in Mumbai, India. In March 2020, SBF had an annual budget of INR 13.98 crores (US$ 1.84 million). It addresses the challenging environments children from economically constrained families face by engaging them in continuing school education and providing vocational training. Since its inception, SBF has launched and executed many in-school and after-school programs. To successfully transit skilled adolescents and teenagers into the labor market and help them make informed career decisions, SBF launched 'DreamLab,' a stipend-based 'internship' model, in August 2018. Gaurav Arora, Vice President SBF, was assigned the responsibility to scale up skills@school and DreamLab internship programmes. With disruptions caused by the pandemic in March 2020, Arora struggled to operationalize DreamLab as initially planned. The case is at a crucial decision point where clouds of uncertainty have made Arora and his team anxious about their future course of action. He immediately needs to focus on keeping the skills@school programs on track and facilitating collaboration with on-boarded employers for engaging interns.

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