BWI: Aide et Action South Asia Demands More Corporate Engagement in Meeting ‘Skills’ Demand by ‘Industry India’ at a Meet Organized by Hindustan Unilever Limited

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Aide et Action
Tuesday, April 06, 2010 03:45 PM IST (10:15 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Economy, People, Social issues; Business: Accounting & management consultancy services, Business services, Education & training
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Aide et Action South Asia Demands More Corporate Engagement in Meeting 'Skills' Demand by 'Industry India' at a Meet Organized by Hindustan Unilever Limited


Silvassa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, India, Tuesday, April 06, 2010 -- (Business Wire India) -- Millions of unemployed youth, particularly from the rural and semi-urban background, who could not access higher professional education but are oriented towards white-collar jobs, are driven to despair by being jobless. According to India Labour report about 53 per cent of employed youth suffer some degree of skill deprivation while only 8 per cent of youth are unemployed. The missing gaps in the whole process is the skill development training, against the fast changing economy the inadequacies to meet the demand of human resources. In India 153 vocational training courses are recognized where as 2495 courses are offered around the world, though Indian economy has moved to fourth place globally.

Hindustan Unilever Limited, India's leading corporate groups is supporting skill building training for 1000 youth in Khanwel in union territory Dadra and Nagar Haveli as part of 'Samriddhi development project'. In his welcome note, Mr. Pankaj Gupta General Manager Western region, reiterated HUL commitment to local development of the communities where they manufacture various products. "We believe in being part of local culture and living and we would like to see more youth gain employment opportunities and local communities take up soil conservation efforts to enhance their livelihoods. Mr. Kamal Datta, Conservator of Forests and Member Pollution Control Board, said that 42 percent of Dadra and Nagar haveli comprise of forests and it is important that corporate and civil society organizations work together for soil conservation in the region as water table is going down drastically in the last 10 years. Mr.Birendra Chowdhury, CEO of Zilla Panchayat applauded the efforts of Vanrai an organization working for soil conservation in the region and gave a call to other corporate groups to work on similar lines. Mr.Deepak Pargi a tribal youth who use to work as domestic help said, "i LEAD changed my life. I learnt photo shop and started my own studio in Khanwel." Vimal Chitta another tribal woman from the region learnt tailoring skills from Samruddhi initiative said, "I cannot dream of working in a company. Now I am employed with Alok industries and earn a decent income to support my family."

Speaking at the occasion, Aishwarya Mahajan Regional Manager Aide et Action said that "the objective of project Samriddhi not only aims at building skills of local youth seeking employment in industry, but also made them leaders in their own villages. In a congratulatory message sent to youth, Ravi Pratap Singh Regional Director South Asia reiterated need for corporate groups to forge partnerships in reaching out to youth in rural areas for not only building their skill set, but to impart awareness on local issues such as water conservation, gender equity, climate change and quality school education. According to him, "Time has come for national governments to see the statistics-only 2% of the Indian work force is vocationally qualified against 65% in Germany and between 75 and 80% in the USA, EU and China".

Under the iLEAD program initiated by AEA South Asia, youth are not only trained in vocational skills required by local industry but form Alumni Forums in their respective locations and contribute back by supporting other youth to undergo similar training. The unique feature of Khanwel programme is their discussions under Gossip Circle for Empowerment (GCE). GCE has helped them become the change agents as they are discussing the critical developmental issues like gender, caste, religion and economic empowerment. The opportunity so received helps these youth to establish themselves as the leaders in their own neighbourhood and larger society. In Khanwel, for example, when iLEAD trainees realized the importance of conservation of water in their villages through GCE discussions, all of them decided to build a check dam to conserve water on their own. Within couple of days a structure was built through their own labour (Shram-daan), which is conserving water for their own area.

MNC Partnerships with AEA South Asia

India Inc which made India fourth largest economy in world lags behind many developed countries in corporate social responsibility. In absolute terms, the total net profit of the 25 largest business houses in India has increased to Rs 16,957 crore in the quarter ended December 2009 from Rs 8,616 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, but their commitment to social issues is far from the requirement. Aide et Action South Asia in pursuit of changing vocational education training in South Asia and meeting new industry needs, has trained nearly 70000 youth on various employable and entrepreneurship skills since 2006 in collaboration with Government of India and leading International corporate groups such as Microsoft, L'Oreal, Schneider Electric, TATA power and Hindustan Unilever.


CONTACT DETAILS
Mr. Vishy, Head Communication South Asia, Aide et Action, +91 9440801759, Vishy@aea-southasia.org

KEYWORDS
ECONOMY, PEOPLE, SOCIAL, CONSULTANCY SERVICES, BUSINESS SERVICES, EDUCATION

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