ICICI Academy for Skills will impart free training in key skills to youth at its new centre in Dehradun

ICICI Foundation plans to train 5 lakh individuals by 2020

With the Prime Minister’s Office taking a keen interest in enhancing skill capabilities of the youth, and PM Narendra Modi’s aim of skilling 500 million people by 2022, industry stakeholders like ICICI Group are working towards closing the gap between skill development and unemployment.

Creating vocational training centres is a huge step in reaching out to the underprivileged youth. A new centre launched in Dehradun on Friday by ICICI Academy for Skills (ICICI Academy), an arm of ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, will provide free vocational training so that this section of society can secure jobs and have a sustainable livelihood.

With this launch, ICICI Academy will have an astonishing 25 centres running across India. The impact figures are impressive: about 1.14 lakh youth trained, including 46,000 women with a 100% rate of placement. The Academy further aims to train nearly 1.50 lakh youth by FY20.

ICICI Foundation, having trained 3.87 lakh people since its inception through the ICICI Academy for Skills and other livelihood programmes, plans to take the figure up to 5 lakh by 2020.

Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, inaugurated the centre.

At the launch event, Mr. Saurabh Singh, President, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, told The CSR Journal: “The ICICI Group has a long standing tradition of contributing to the nation’s growth through its business and CSR initiatives. In line with this tradition, we recognised skill development as an important area of focus. With this focus, emerged the idea of setting up skill training centres across the country, and the launch of ICICI Academy for Skills.”

“Our effort has been to take a holistic approach to ensure free-of-cost, job-oriented training, to the youth from the weaker sections of society and also help them to find employment through our linkages with the industry. We are delighted to partner with the Uttarakhand Government to establish a new centre of ICICI Academy in Dehradun under the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model. We believe that the skills acquired through this Academy will equip the trained youth to engage in productive and remunerative economic activity and take part in the state’s growth,” he added.

The centre will provide free training in ‘Selling Skills’ and ‘Office Administration’. The curricula consists of industry relevant vocational training as well as life skills such as etiquette and grooming, communication, basic English and financial literacy. The course lasts 12 weeks and is open to people of age 18-30 years, belonging to weaker sections of society who’ve completed Standard X. Initially, the centre will train 550 students a year.

This isn’t the only socially conscious initiative by ICICI Foundation in Uttarakhand. Another ongoing programme provides training for making handicrafts with the Lantana plant, and guides villagers about credit and market linkages in the Leti and Okhaldunga villages of Nainital.

In partnership with research centre ICAR-Directorate of Coldwater Fisheries Research, a host of the state’s people were trained on the development of sustainable freshwater fisheries, cold water aquaculture and improved nutrition of fish. The programme, conducted in the Almora and Nainital districts, resulted in increased production and better disease management.

In terms of impact through livelihood programmes, ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth covers a wide spectrum. It is active in over 1,200 villages through the Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs). Since its inception, ICICI Foundation has trained 3.87 lakh people and plans to reach the 5 lakh figure by 2020.

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