India has very few vocational schools - a mere 5% of 20-24 year olds have any vocational qualification and only 3% of young people in rural areas and 6% of those in towns and cities complete an apprenticeship or comparable vocational training. The large number of young people leaving school before gaining any qualification means that few young people in the federal state of Maharashtra have any prospects of permanent employment.

Knorr-Bremse Global Care e.V. financed the construction and equipment of a hostel for over a hundred trainees at the Don Bosco Tech – India. The hostel offers places to vocational students from poorer areas in Pune and the four neighboring districts in Maharashtra.

The project partner is Don Bosco Tech - India, an organization that has been providing training programs for many years and whose staff are familiar with the infrastructure around the industrial zones in Pune, the needs of the young people and of local industry. In the vocational school the trainees learn mathematics, English and how to use computers. There are extra courses in social skills. They also learn welding, everything about cooling technology (air conditioning systems, refrigerators) and electromechanics.

In the 2008 academic year, 444 young people graduated from the school; 355 trainees found a permanent job after their training; 44 are continuing their studies.

Some of the trainees in February 2007.

The completed building in February 2007