Asmishilp Craft and Design Education Programme
For young people (15-29 yrs) who have dropped out of formal education and are not in education, employment or training (NEET). Our focus today is girls and young women who have faced violence, abuse, abandonment, trafficking or other vulnerabilities. Handcrafting (like ceramics) sits at the heart of it, as a pathway to well-being, skill and financial independence.
Photo to come: trainees learning together: hand-building, glazing or slip casting around a shared worktable.
Asmishilp in numbers
- young women in 4 intakes
- 41
- graduates on the full training-to-trainer pathway
- 6
- girls in CCIs reached by trainee-led career workshops
- 1,595
- sales events in 2025-26
- 36
Four programmes, One academy
| Programme | For | Length | In short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yuva Shilpi Training Programme | Girls aged 15 to 18 living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs) | One year, or as long as she stays in the CCI | Craft and design training, with support to leave care into a home, a job or the collective |
| Youth Internship Programme | Young women aged 18 to 29 | One to two years | Earn-while-you-learn advanced training, plus "I am a changemaker" placements |
| Creative Livelihoods Facilitator Programme | Women who want to teach craft in their own communities | 7 months, 2 days a week | Trains facilitators who can start a livelihood unit |
| Prarambha Community Programme | Women in community settings | 6 months, weekly | A first step into craft, led by our facilitators |
Yuva Shilpi: Young Artisan
Yuva Shilpi Training Programme
- For:
- Girls aged 15 to 18 living in Child Care Institutions (CCIs)
- How long:
- One year, or as long as she stays in the CCI
Foundations in craft and design, with clay at the centre, alongside life skills, literacy and well-being support, so she discovers what she enjoys and is good at before she turns 18.
Leaving Care with a plan. Turning 18 and leaving a CCI is one of the hardest moments in a young care leaver’s life. Before she leaves, we help her find safe accommodation and a job, join the Aalamba Women’s Livelihood Collective as a producer, or move on to the Youth Internship Programme.
Asmishilp Youth Internship Programme
- For:
- Young women aged 18 to 29
- How long:
- One to two years
Photo to come: an intern leading a craft session at a partner institution (adults only, or hands only).
Creative livelihood skills, life capabilities and a measurable gain in well-being, so she can build a self-determined livelihood and enable others to do the same.
- Earn while you learn. Advanced craft and design training, earning through a stipend, product sales and commercial orders as her skills grow.
- I am a changemaker. She goes out to other CCIs, NGOs and institutions and helps them set up a programme for craft and design training of their own.
What she learns
- Ceramics and craft: terracotta jewellery, hand-building, wheel-throwing, slip casting, glazing and mosaic, plus candles, crochet, woodwork and books.
- Design, digital and money: design thinking and prototyping; Excel, Canva and product photography; her own bank account and savings group.
- Life skills and well-being: Kannada and spoken English, counselling, values sessions, and health and legal literacy.
2025-26: 15 young women joined, 8 of them care leavers · 23 completed slip-cast training · First commercial orders for a restaurant and the Varnam Crafts Collective · Career workshops for 231 girls in 8 CCIs.
Creative Livelihoods Facilitator Programme
- For:
- Women who want to teach craft in their own communities
- How long:
- 7 months, 2 days a week
Photo to come: a facilitator leading a community craft session.
Seven months, two days a week, in Bengaluru and Malur (Kolar District). Facilitators learn to run community sessions in handcrafting, help others reflect and make their own life choices, and leave equipped to start a livelihood unit in their own community.
Prarambha Community Programme
- For:
- Women in community settings
- How long:
- 6 months, weekly
Photo to come: women trying clay for the first time in a community setting.
Prarambha means “beginning”. Weekly sessions over six months, bringing craft into community settings, as a woman’s first step into the Headstreams journey, and a chance to ask what she would like her life to be.
Next: Earning Together
Graduates move into the Aalamba Collective or Pottery On Wheels Programme.