Projects & Vocational Training
Skills that turn a childhood of care into a lifetime of independence: our tailoring, footwear and box-making units in Vijayawada.
Why we run vocational training
Educating a child is only half of the promise. A young person leaving our Homes or one of our schools also needs a way to earn a living, or the cycle of poverty simply starts again. Our vocational training units exist to close that gap.
Care & Share Charitable Trust began its work in February 1991 and registered in Vijayawada in 1997 as Reg. No. 242/1997. From the outset the aim was to equip poor students not only with schooling but with the technical and professional training they need to become productive members of society. Our units are the practical expression of that aim.
The workshops give trainees a real product to make and a real skill to master, alongside the routine of a working day. That combination - a trade, a habit of work and a reference from a trusted institution - is what opens the first door to employment.
The tailoring unit
Our tailoring unit is the largest of the workshops. Trainees learn on industrial sewing machines, progressing from basic stitching and finishing to cutting, fitting and the assembly of complete garments and cloth bags.
Tailoring has proved to be one of the most durable skills we teach. A sewing machine is inexpensive to run, the work can be done from home, and demand for school uniforms, bags and household textiles is steady. For women in the urban deprived areas we serve, it is often the first route to an income of their own.
Finished work from the unit - the cloth bags and the everyday garments in the photographs below - is used by our own Homes and schools and sold to support the programme.
The footwear unit
In the footwear unit trainees learn to cut, assemble and finish shoes and sandals. It is patient, exacting work, and it teaches the value of doing a thing properly from start to finish - a lesson that carries into any trade.
The unit also meets a practical need within the Trust: good footwear is one of the school essentials we provide to children who arrive with none, and the workshop helps keep that supply going.
The box-making unit
The box-making and printing unit produces printed cardboard cartons and boxes. Trainees work a production floor with cutting, ruling, pinning and pressing machines, learning to meet the standards of a commercial order.
Because the unit takes real orders, trainees leave having worked to a customer’s specification and a deadline - experience that matters more to an employer than a certificate alone.
What the units set out to achieve
The purpose of every unit is the same: to move a young person from dependence to self-worth. In practical terms that means:
- A marketable skill, learned on the machines used in real trade
- Workplace discipline - punctuality, finishing what you start, meeting a standard
- Income that keeps a family together and children in school
- Dignity and self-reliance rather than charity alone
- A bridge from our Homes and schools into employment or self-employment
