Program Manager- Skilling

Background

India's demographic dividend presents a transformative opportunity, but only if the youth transition to industry-relevant employment. A widening skill gap, especially in high-demand areas like automation, data analytics, and smart manufacturing, poses a significant challenge to India's workforce competitiveness.

The skilling initiative at TCF aims to address this challenge through scalable, industry-aligned skilling interventions. Our approach focuses on building systemic pathways that bridge the demand-supply mismatch.

To drive sustainable and scalable outcomes, our approach is anchored in four key enablers:

1. Systemic and scalable Government frameworks of training: Providing thought leadership and policy advocacy for creating robust, self-sustaining, high-quality skilling programs at central and state levels
2. Industry-Aligned Education & Training: Ensuring curriculum, pedagogy, and delivery mechanisms reflect current and future industry needs
3. Enabling Employment through Industry Mobilization: Partnering with industry to ensure placement pathways and on-the-job learning opportunities
4. Creating an economic case for investment in skilling: Creating evidence to show that investing in skilling will lead to lower attrition and better performance, unlocking profitability for organizations

Way of Work:

The Government of India is pursuing a transformation of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to enhance vocational education and align it with industry needs. This initiative aims to modernize ITIs, improve training quality, and increase employability among ITI graduates. The hub-and-spoke model approach entails that high-potential ITIs get developed into regional centers of excellence that support surrounding spoke ITIs. At TCF we see a here and now opportunity for systemic change in this domain.

Uttar Pradesh is one of the states with the highest number of ITIs in the country. Therefore, at a state level, our aim is to enable transformation of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) into modern, demand-driven training hubs, and in parallel mobilize industry to create robust talent absorption pipelines for the youth in Uttar Pradesh.

Our Objective:

• State level ITI landscape study - Assessing ITI performance, state ITI ecosystem maturity and key gaps
• Industry assessment and identification - Identification of prominent industry clusters within the state to understand Industry talent pipelines, recruitment sources and skill needs
• Curriculum and pedagogy design - Studying key skill gaps within industries and designing courses to fill those with industry support
• Model ITI upgradation at state level - ITI upgradation pilot in a hub and spoke format, with performance management and administrative frameworks
• Industry Mobilization - Unlocking industry support and commitment to enable meaningful employment opportunities for the youth in line with industry demand

Job Profile UP State Lead:

The Convergence Foundation is hiring a UP State Lead, based in UP, to anchor our work with Invest UP, Skills and Labor departments of the state. This role involves working closely with senior government officials, including the head of Invest UP and Skills and Labor department.

The State Lead will represent TCF in UP, manage partnerships, and drive on-ground implementation of skilling and ITI upgradation initiatives. We are looking for someone with experience in consulting or government program delivery, strong stakeholder management skills, and the ability to navigate government systems effectively.

This is a hands-on leadership role suited for someone who is outcome-focused, comfortable with ambiguity, and keen to work at the intersection of policy and execution.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Lead TCFs skilling / ITI upgradation work in UP, with full ownership of program implementation and stakeholder engagement in the state
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the head of Invest UP, Skills and Labor departments, maintaining strong, trust-based relationships
• Represent TCF Skilling in all state-level meetings, policy discussions, and decision-making forums, while channeling insights back to the central team
• Collaborate with the central team and technical partners to design, localize, and implement innovative skilling and ITI upgradation frameworks tailored to the UP context
• Ensure timely execution, reporting, and resolution of challenges on the ground -balancing strategy with operational follow-through
• Act as TCFs liaison in the state, aligning UPs priorities with the broader mission and objectives of skilling and ITI upgradation
• Contribute to research and knowledge reports to strengthen TCFs thought leadership

Skills Required:

• 6-9 years of experience in state-level implementation, consulting, or public sector engagement, ideally in a policy or skilling context
• Proven ability to build and manage senior government relationships, with a high degree of professionalism and influence
• Strong communication and presentation skills, including comfort with decks, briefing notes, and written outputs for external stakeholders
• Ability to drive execution in complex, multi-stakeholder environments combining structure, persistence, and adaptability
• Strategic thinker with the ability to go deep into policy and programmatic issues, and translate insights into implementable solutions
• Comfortable working closely with government offices, with openness to occasional travel

Reporting:

The UP State Lead will report to the leadership / central team at TCF

Location:

Lucknow with travel to Delhi / other locations as needed.