Mission
Setuwelt’s mission is to drive transformational economic mobility and income growth for underprivileged youth in India through international labor migration, empowering migrants and their families to break free from poverty. We achieve this through our scholarship program, connecting selected Indian youth to apprenticeship opportunities in Germany.
We equip scholars with language training, cultural support, and mentorship, while forging partnerships with employers to secure apprenticeship roles that lead to long-term, full-time employment. Our work is fueled by a vision of a world where every individual, regardless of their origin, can safely and affordably access global opportunities.
An enormous problem
Indian youth, aged 15 to 29, make up 27% of the population, totaling a staggering 371 million people. Each year, 12 million individuals enter working age. However, India’s youth unemployment rate stands at 12.4%, with 18.9 million young people unemployed. Youth with higher education face even greater unemployment rates: 18.5% for those with secondary education or higher, and 29.1% for graduates. The average monthly earnings for youth range from a meagre $97 to $170 USD, and 89.9% of young workers are informally employed (ILO, 2024). The persistent issues of youth unemployment, underemployment, and low wages prevent India from fully harnessing its vast labor force and stifle the economic mobility of its youth.
At the same time, Germany faces a labor shortage due to an aging population, with over 1.3 million unfilled jobs (DW, 2024). The German economy is projected to need between 288,000 – 368,000 foreign workers annually until 2040 (Spiegel, 2024). While India’s youth struggle with employment, Germany’s demand for workers presents a unique opportunity for migration.
An exciting solution
International migration from low-income to high-income countries is one of the most effective poverty alleviation strategies available globally. Removing barriers to migration could increase global GDP by 50-150%, equivalent to trillions of dollars annually (Clemens et al., 2009 & 2019; Clemens, 2011), with remittances and knowledge transfers extending the gains to migrant home countries (World Bank, 2024; Batista et al., 2025). Finally, Germany's active pursuit of a skilled labor strategy with India to address workforce shortages presents a unique and timely opportunity to act (German Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, 2024).
Setuwelt’s scholarship program connects underprivileged Indian youth to Germany’s apprenticeship program, offering them a pathway to skilled, long-term employment in Germany. These paid apprenticeships are structured training programs offered by individual employers in partnership with vocational schools, typically lasting three years. They combine practical, on-the-job experience with classroom-based theoretical education, leading to stable, full-time employment. Setuwelt identifies high-potential, low-income youth in India, offering them outsourced German language training, cultural integration, and mentorship throughout the process. For employers, Setuwelt provides access to motivated, language-ready talent, streamlining recruitment and filling their hiring needs. ​With approximately 70,000 apprenticeship positions remaining vacant each year in Germany (BertelsmannStiftung, 2024), now is the perfect moment to unlock the life-changing benefits of migration for India’s youth.
Our impact
​Our internal estimates suggest that Setuwelt’s scholarship program would enable each scholar to increase their nominal annual income by 16.8x and be significantly more cost-effective than direct cash transfers. ​External models indicate that global mobility programs achieve a Social Return on Investment (SROI) of 155:1 — meaning that for every $1 of philanthropic capital invested, $155 in social value is generated through increased earnings (The Migration Opportunity, 2025).