India has the potential to reap a huge “demographic dividend” (adding 183 million additional working-age population (15-64 years) or 22% of the global working population over the next 3 decades) thanks to its younger population compared to China, US or other major economies. However, this demographic dividend can become a demographic liability with millions of unemployed youth if they are not gainfully employed with sustainable livelihoods. A necessary component of that is training and creating a highly qualified workforce of the future to attract high-quality foreign and domestic investment and fulfilling such jobs to become the workforce for the world. Recognizing this need, the Government of India has been trying to ramp up vocational education through the setting up of National Skills Mission, National Skill Development Corporation, Skill India initiative, etc.

The SDN Trust was set up in 2013 to help in this critical mission of enabling these national skilling efforts to Scale with Quality and provide a pathway to the next-generational employment needs. The vision is to provide a platform that enables any and all training providers as well as technical or academic institutions in India, big or small, to the same highest quality resulting in better equipped workforce leading to better income and sustainability for Indians.