Potential is everywhere, opportunity is not. A gap between talent and opportunity stops young people from pursuing their ambitions and making the most of their talents. At Karta, we know it doesn’t have to be this way.
Ours is a global mission to enable young people from low-income rural communities to access to world-class educational and employment opportunities, whilst supporting organisations to reach unreached talent.
The Karta Initiative’s mission is to work on social mobility by bridging the gap between talent and opportunity. Karta’s mission is driven by deep inequalities in access to educational and professional opportunities; an imbalance which negatively impacts the life outcomes of youth and their communities as well as the marketplace, ultimately stifling economic growth (Diversity Wins, McKinsey 2020). Talented youth from disadvantaged rural backgrounds face barriers to accessing opportunities, whilst employers and educational institutions face barriers in accessing this latent talent pool. The barriers for youth include those of information, access, awareness, exposure, skilling, networks and financing. Without intervention, these inequalities persist throughout life with negative consequences and as such, ‘inequalities in opportunity from one’s childhood manifest in the inequality of outcomes in education and in the world of work’ (Dewan & Khan, 2019). However, with holistic intervention through educational and professional initiatives offering long-lasting impact, this youth dividend can thrive, thus reducing inequality and driving equitable prosperity for individuals, organisations, and economies. In order to address these barriers, Karta works both with students and with ‘opportunity providers’ – universities and employers – in India and globally.
The Karta’s initiative includes the following areas of work:
● Access Programme (15-18-year-olds): Human intensive series of workshops, exposure visits, summer schools, education and internship application support and holistic mentoring to develop 21st-century skills and help students reach their potential including accessing world-class university education (2016 onwards).
● Catalyst Scholarship (17-22-year-olds): Funded scholarships for Access Programme students who demonstrate academic excellence, extreme poverty and a strong service mindset, then mentored through study at world-class partner universities (2017 onwards)
● Karta Connect (12-18-year-olds): Technology-enabled mechanisms for scaling the impact of the Access Programme, widening reach to greater numbers and a greater variety of talent (2020 onwards).
