Way back in 2004, edupreneur Rustom Kerawalla’s vision of transforming India’s education space became a reality when he opened his first school, VIBGYOR High, in Mumbai. He is the founder and chairman of Ampersand Group, which runs VIBGYOR Group of Schools, that marks 20 years of educational excellence this year.
This spectacular milestone has been possible due to Kerawalla’s unwavering vision of transforming lives by empowering the youth and students in the education and skilling sector. Today, this journey of continuous progress has enabled us to operate a network of 36 schools across 7 Indian states.
The Ampersand Edge
While VIBGYOR continues to remain our legacy brand, the Ampersand Group is also an integrated end-to-end solution provider for the education and skilling sector. We enable livelihoods through our Education-to-Work journey. To do this, we leverage our private sector expertise to partner with the government and public sector institutions to address and achieve sustainable development goals.
The Education-to-Work Journey
The aim of Ampersand is to enable and empower individuals across socio-economic background, gender or geographic divides, every step of the way in their Education-to-Work journey. To achieve this, we have envisioned how education, skill training and skill development impacts an individual’s life and thus partnered with the government to meet different needs of different segments of society.
There are five categories which target different age groups and provide various opportunities. Here’s the full spectrum of the Education-to-Work journey:
The Early Years: Anganwadis, Balwadis and Creches
Ampersand Group’s Early Years includes Anganwadis, Balwadis and Creches. It caters to children between the age group of 6 months to 6 years. We partner with the government to provide a stimulating play-based learning environment for children, stressing on their safety, health, growth, natural learning potential and school readiness.
The Formative Years: K12-VIBGYOR Group of Schools
Ampersand Group is a leader in the K-12 education space. Our expertise of 20 years has made us one of the leaders in India’s education industry and helped us keep the flag of education excellence flying high. Apart from this, we also offer end-to-end school operations and management services to state-owned schools, with the promise of quality education and empowerment of the youth.
Exposure to Career Choices: Vocational training for high school students
Expanding our wings across Indian states, we believe that skill development among the youth is crucial to ensure that its future generations are skilled, employable and prosperous. We partner with the government to give high school students the exposure towards possible career fields. Catering to 14-17 year olds, these courses are delivered through a mix of theory sessions, practical exposure, industry visits and interaction with industry veterans.
Getting Job Ready: Skill development for adults
We partner with the government to implement the DDU-GKY, PMKVY and RPL programmes for adults aged 18-35 years from marginalised or Below Poverty Line (BPL) backgrounds. Some of the sectors in which we offer training is healthcare, construction, information technology and retail.
Earning and Thriving: Placement and micro entrepreneurship (18+ Years)
We provide technology support and programme management services to livelihood projects such as electric vehicles for e-commerce delivery and beauty services. This includes imparting skill training to candidates in order to enable placement or micro entrepreneurship opportunities. Apart from training, we also provide infrastructure, utilities and mentoring support among other services.
With Indian youth, every step of the way
By reinventing the elemental ecosystems surrounding the essential sectors of education and skill development, Ampersand Group aspires to contribute towards nation-building. The Ampersand advantage lies in providing end-to-end capabilities in the education and skilling sector and our focus remains on transforming lives for individuals, families and communities.
To know more, visit www.ampersandgroup.in
