A King's Business School collaboration with Saral Services in Bihar is helping young people turn digital training into income, confidence and routes into employment.
A rural digital skills project in Bihar, informed by Dr Anita Hammer's research on informal and precarious work, has trained 80 young people and 97 school students in practical technology skills, with some participants already moving into paid digital work, jobs, further training and higher education.
More than two-thirds of the youth trainees were female, showing how the programme is helping girls and young women access skills that can lead to work, income and greater independence.
Digikul, a collaboration between King's Business School and Saral Services, a grassroots NGO in Bihar, provides practical technology-based training to young people and school students in Dharhara and at Vidyapeeth Middle School. The project drew on Dr Hammer's long-term relationships with NGO networks in India to design training around the realities of rural livelihoods.
Instead of focusing only on how to operate a computer, Digikul teaches skills that can be used in everyday community life. These include online form filling, graphic design using Canva, video editing, digital documentation and data handling.
The model responds to a simple but important question that emerged early in the project. What happens after the training is completed?
For students from disadvantaged backgrounds, the report suggests training alone is not enough. Without opportunities to practise, learners can lose confidence and forget what they have gained.
Digital inclusion is not just about access to technology. It is about whether people can use those skills to build confidence, earn income and create choices in their own communities.
Dr Anita Hammer, Reader in International Work and Employment at King's Business School
Digikul has built work-based learning into the programme, including short-term paid assignments in data entry and video creation. Five students received paid data entry assignments, giving them their first opportunity to earn through digital work.
The training is structured over three months, with daily two-hour sessions built around demonstration, practice, feedback and peer learning. Rather than moving quickly from topic to topic, trainers use repeated exercises, one-to-one feedback and peer support to help learners build confidence as well as technical ability.
The programme also works beyond the classroom. Community outreach within a 5km radius of the training centres includes meetings with parents, young people and local leaders. The mobilisation team includes a female mobiliser focused on engaging girls and young women, helping to support wider participation.
Digikul's five-year ambition is to become a rural digital entrepreneurship and livelihood hub, connecting training with digital services, content creation, data entry and online service delivery.
For policymakers, employers and civil society organisations, the project points to a practical lesson. Digital training is more likely to change lives when it is built around real work, repeated practice and the realities of the communities it serves.
