Mumbai: For the first time in its 90-year history, Harvard will be breaking a few norms through a strategic enhancement in strategy.Harvard, which only launches programmes and initiatives curated within the US for the world, is for the first time rolling out a digital learning initiative unique to India . Through this, Harvard — a brand typically associated with senior management executives globally — will impart learning to students at the threshold of starting their careers as also entry-level professionals across the country, including tier-1 and tier-2 towns. The objective is to address a key challenge that has gripped this country — employability.This is not all. The digital initiative will be rolled out free of cost to begin with and to connect with the masses on a large scale. This is new to Harvard, which is a brand that has always been associated with access that comes at a premium.Vivek Chachra, country manager (India), Harvard Business Publishing (HBP), told TOI, “The gap between quality of product that education institutes create and the kind of employee organisations look for at entry level is wide. There are almost 12 million graduates that enter the workforce every year and nearly 80% of these are unemployable by organisations. Given that there is a rapidly evolving digital landscape in the country, we created HBR Ascend as a strategic enhancement to the kind of impact we can have in India. For the first time in 90 years of our history, we are actually building and reaching out to impact the lives of individuals on a scale that is several times larger than what we have been doing so far.”HBP is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University, reporting to Harvard Business School . Chachra said HBP is also exploring a channel partner tie-up to facilitate its reach to individual students/early career professionals who can access the content on their smart phones.HBP has been a source of management ideas for senior management and executives globally, higher education institutions and corporates through its leadership programme. “Students doing their graduation/post-graduation and early career stage managers through their educational experience and work life experience are able to grasp business and other special skills quite well. We are trying to impart to them learning that will make them more effective in their workplace from a behavioural stand point. It will help them manage themselves in the workplace, interact with others, manage their own careers and become more effective. It’s an area we don’t see anyone else providing focused support to these individuals,” said Chachra.Harvard chose India for this initiative given its large base of young population in the age group of 23-30 years. The lack of soft skills in early career professionals is a big and acknowledged problem in India. “When we talk about early career professionals, it’s really important that they start contributing at the workplace right from the word go. While they have sound technical knowledge of their area of expertise, what they are often missing are skills to manage themselves in a workplace, which can hamper their ability to contribute effectively in the early years. Hence, L&D interventions for this audience should focus on the softer skills. This can be extremely relevant for students and young executives and help them find a job and prove their worth to employers,” said Chachra.