Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative: Honeywell and ICT Academy host Digital Youth Empowerment Summit

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation (HHSIF), the philanthropic arm of Honeywell, in partnership with ICT Academy organized the Honeywell Digital Youth Empowerment Summit 2023, which was attended by students from eight states – Karnataka, Delhi NCR, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra.

The objective of the summit was to facilitate smooth entry of graduating students into the workforce by enabling interactions between them and industry experts, including Human Resources (HR) leaders.

Leaders from TCS, Tech Mahindra, Sales Force, Cognizant, Service Now, Atos and Honeywell addressed the students at the summit.

This initiative is in continuation of the Honeywell Student Empowerment Program, which trains young men and women on advanced technologies such as cloud, big data, networking, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to help prepare them for the future of work.

Pooja Thakran, director, HHSIF, said, “The Honeywell Student Empowerment Program offers a globally recognized joint certificate to students who have completed the three months training in course such as AI, Data analytics and others, that will benefit students from marginalized sections of society to get better jobs. HHSIF and ICT Academy have established 80+ Center of Excellence for Youth Empowerment & Center of Excellence for Women Empowerment across colleges in seven states Karnataka, Delhi NCR, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra. This upskilling program in STEM will empower more than 8,150 students – half of whom are women – through the project cycle and provide job placements. The youth summit provides a platform for the students to get inspiration and guidance on preparing for the corporate world.”

Hari Balachandran, chief executive officer, ICT Academy, said, “Providing a proper guidance for the graduating students for their transition into the working world is much needed. The summit is an initiative to develop the confidence, right attitude, and ability to showcase their unique talents that will help them to stand out among the peers. At the summit, industry experts and HR leaders enlightened the students on the techniques that soften their landing into the challenging corporate world.”

Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation partnered with ICT Academy in 2021-22 and this is the second year of partnership. Focusing on the objective of upskilling youth in industry 4.0, the partnership enabled 5663 students in the first year to get trained in advanced technical skills and 60% of them were placed with different corporate firms. The program mainly focused on identifying students from 50 colleges in the tier 2 and 3 cities across Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The emphasis was given to enrol students who were first time graduates and were from low-income groups. The program was designed to ensure students from underrepresented communities would receive preference, thereby making it more inclusive and impactful.