SOS Children’s Villages India inaugurated its second mobile digital learning centre (MDLC) in New Delhi, in partnership with Informa Exhibitions, in the run up to National Education Day. The MDLC offers its beneficiaries five main pillars of skills – digital literacy, cyber safety, financial literacy, life skills, and certified assessments.
The mobile digital learning centre consists of customised buses that travel to slums and remote communities, the standalone vocational training centres (VTCs) are fixed centres for intensive vocational and digital skill training for beneficiaries aged between 18-27, and the afterschool VTCs are school-based DLCs for ages 14-17. Within its first year, the MDLC successfully paved the way for five of its beneficiaries to get job placements and eight children got re-enrolled at school. It also secured 28 links to scholarships and schemes, and 32 linkages to higher studies.
With the inauguration of the new van, Delhi alone is looking at a target of more than 800 additional beneficiaries for the year to come. The initiative aims to bring free digital skills, job-ready training, and confidence in digital learning to the youth and women hailing from marginal sections of the society.
Sumanta Kar, CEO, SOS Children’s Villages India says, “Digital inclusion is a necessity for education, employability, and social mobility. Yet, for many children and young people living in underserved communities, access to technology and digital learning remains out of reach. Through our Mobile Digital Learning Centres, we are taking technology directly to their neighbourhoods, ensuring that learning is not limited by geography or economic circumstances. The inauguration of our second mobile digital learning centre in Delhi marks another important step towards equipping children, youth, and women with the skills and confidence they need to participate meaningfully in an increasingly digital world.”
When learning travels to a child’s own neighbourhood, distance, cost, and worry stop standing in the way. Every child deserves that chance adds Mr. Kar.
