A placement counted on joining day is a marketing number
Ours is counted at day 90. It is a smaller number than the one most institutes put on a banner, and it is the only one worth arguing about. Below is how we count, what the last four batch cycles produced, what people earn, and — because it is the more useful half — why the ones who left, left.
What counts as placed
The trainee joined, and on day 90 is still on the rolls of that employer or another employer in the same trade, drawing a salary slip we can see. Self-employed trades count only if we can see three months of work. A joining letter with no joining does not count. Neither does a friend's word.
Who is in the denominator
Everyone who completed the course hours and sat the assessment. Not "everyone who was placed out of those who wanted a job" — that phrasing lets an institute delete its own failures. Trainees who dropped out mid-course are reported separately, as a drop-out figure, not quietly removed.
Who checks it
Our centre coordinators log every day-30, day-60 and day-90 call with a date, the person spoken to, and what was said. Employer HR confirms the day-90 roll. Any batch funded under a scheme is additionally open to that scheme's audit, and we keep the files audit-clean for that reason.
Outcomes by trade, last four batch cycles
| Course | Sat assessment | Cleared | Joined | Still in role at day 90 | Starting gross |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LT Electrical & Wireman | 86 | 71 | 66 | 58 | Rs. 15,000 – 19,000 |
| HVAC & Refrigeration | 62 | 55 | 52 | 44 | Rs. 16,000 + incentive |
| Retail Floor & POS | 104 | 96 | 88 | 69 | Rs. 13,500 – 15,000 |
| Warehouse Technician | 78 | 70 | 65 | 55 | Rs. 14,500 – 16,000 |
Read the electrical row honestly: 86 sat, 15 did not clear. That is the highest failure rate of the four courses and it is deliberate — the assessment is set by a maintenance supervisor who has to sign for the person's work. Everyone who failed was offered a free repeat with the next batch, and 11 of the 15 took it.
Retail shows the widest gap between joining and day 90. Sunday rosters and festival duty are the usual reason, and we now spend longer on that during counselling than we did in 2023.
Why people leave in the first 90 days
This is what our day-30, day-60 and day-90 calls actually record. It has stayed roughly the same for three years, and it is not what most people assume.
| Reason given | Share of exits |
|---|---|
| Commute cost or time not costed before joining | 31% |
| Shift roster not explained (rotation, Sundays, festivals) | 24% |
| First salary delayed by a document or bank problem | 18% |
| Wage lower than expected in hand after deductions | 12% |
| Family pressure or a move out of Ahmedabad | 9% |
| Genuine dissatisfaction with the work itself | 6% |
What we changed because of it
Commute costing at counselling. Before admission, we work out bus fare or fuel and travel time for the specific sites that hire from that batch, in front of the candidate and usually a parent. Some people walk away at that point. That is a success, not a loss.
Rosters in writing. We now insist the placement letter states the shift pattern and the weekly-off day. A verbal "sometimes night shift" turns into an exit in week six.
Documents cleared before the course ends. Aadhaar and passbook name matching, a live bank account, PAN, UAN generated. This was our single biggest improvement — first-salary delays used to cause nearly a third of exits and now cause under a fifth.
In-hand arithmetic, not gross. Counsellors show the deduction maths on paper. A family that has been told Rs. 16,000 and sees Rs. 14,100 in the account reacts badly, and they are right to.
Where people are working
A rough map of the roles our last four cycles went into. We do not publish partner company names on the website — several of them would rather we did not, and a logo wall proves nothing anyway. We will name them in a meeting.
Electrical
Maintenance electrician on rotating shift in Vatva and Odhav chemical and pharma units; panel wireman at two switchgear fabricators near Naroda; site electrician with contractors doing warehouse and office fit-outs on the Sanand road; utility department roles at a Changodar food plant. Eleven trainees have since cleared the Gujarat wireman licence examination.
HVAC
Service technicians with authorised franchises for room-AC brands across east Ahmedabad; AMC contractors covering offices and hospitals in Prahladnagar and Bopal; in-house utility technicians at a Naroda pharma unit; cold-chain and deep-freezer support with Changodar operators. Season incentive between March and June is the largest single variable in take-home pay.
Retail
Cashier and floor-assistant roles with supermarket chains in Maninagar, Vastral, Nikol and Naroda; pharmacy chains that want expiry and batch discipline; a regional apparel format on SG Highway. Nine trainees from earlier cycles are now shift in-charge, which is the fastest promotion track of our four trades.
Warehouse
Picker-packer and GRN roles with third-party logistics operators on the Sarkhej–Bavla road, an e-commerce fulfilment site near Sanand, pharma distributors in Changodar, and stores departments inside Vatva and Odhav manufacturing units. Fourteen have been certified on a reach truck by their employer since joining, typically moving to Rs. 17,000–18,000.
What we will not claim
We do not promise a job. No training organisation honestly can, and the ones that do are usually selling a certificate. What we commit to is specific and checkable: a batch is only opened against employer headcount; every trainee who completes the hours and clears the assessment is put in front of at least two employers; anyone who fails may repeat the assessment once with the next batch at no extra fee; and nobody at Team SK takes money from a trainee's salary or from an employer per candidate.
We also do not count a trainee who joined and left in week two as a placement, even though the joining letter exists and the certificate is signed. That is the exact place where placement statistics usually go wrong, and it is why our numbers look smaller than the banners outside other institutes on the same road.