This doctoral thesis features two kinds of skill-training programmes implemented in Tamil Nadu (India) drawing on 18 months of fieldwork. The first explores how Nokia recruits and trains semi-skilled youth to work as Operators, in the Nokia SEZ, in Sriperumbudur. I contrast this with the case of Project SEAM: a state-funded skill-training programme, implemented by a private firm through a public-private partnership (PPP). SEAM trains rural, below-poverty-line youth, to work as sewing machine operators in India’s burgeoning garment clusters. I argue that contemporary India’s development trajectory is characterised by the confluence between an increasingly pluralised network state and rapidly proliferating network enterprises, which work together to establish new workplaces and design and implement skill-training programmes for India’s rural poor. Skill-training is used as a lens to examine the complex, symbiotic relationship between these two actors, who drive these new initiatives. Skill development programmes are predicated on the idea that aspiration is a positive, transformative force – a view that is echoed by social scientists like Appadurai (2004; 2013). I demonstrate how the network state and network enterprise, shape and mould youth aspirations, across the skill-training cycle: transforming (within mere weeks) unemployed, unskilled rural youth – into semi skilled workers, ready to work in the manufacturing sector. Youth aspirations are consciously heightened as a marketing strategy, to maximize enrollments into skill-training programmes. Aspiration is also actively taught as a valuable soft-skill, that young people must possess, to become a part of India’s new workplaces. Through an exploration of how young people encounter such initiatives, I question the idea that aspirations are positively transformational. I highlight the tension in youth experience - between aspirations elevated by the training program, and factory work’s harder realities - to illustrate the dark side of aspiration: characterized by disillusionment, disappointment and personal failure.

Young people in regional areas of Indonesia are attending school longer, aspiring for degrees and jobs outside of their home community, and learning less about their cultural traditions. In Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a youth program called Jelajah Budaya, or Culture Exploration, aims to reconnect young people with regional cultural values, motivating them to become actors in preserving their traditions and for positive development. This paper examines the impacts of this program, along with Poso youth identity and aspirations more generally. The project explored these issues with young people in Poso through focus group discussions and Photovoice workshops. Interviews were also conducted with parents, cultural and local leaders, and youth program staff. Participants shared appreciation for how Jelajah Budaya has brought together youth from a wide range of Poso communities, building pride and awareness about regional cultural values. Still, insights from youth participants suggest that building awareness about cultural traditions may not directly translate to community-oriented aspirations or youth seeing their own role in their community's future. The project suggests that Jelajah Budaya should look to engage more directly with youth identities, including as individuals, and to demonstrate the relevance of the region's cultural traditions. Poso youth articulate their identities primarily through communal connections. While they are influenced by the normative ideals of becoming educated and modern, many also have ambitions related to entrepreneurship and some aspire to create jobs in their communities. These insights also echo other studies which demonstrate that regional identity should receive greater attention.