ACF runs 30 skill centres for rural youths in 10 states: Pearl Tiwari, CEO

A combination of demographic, economic and social factors makes skill development the need of the hour for India. Recent skill gap reports suggest that over 109 million incremental human resources will be required in India alone, across 24 key sectors, by the year 2022.

Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF), the philanthropic arm of Ambuja Cement group, is running 30 skill centres for the rural youths in 10 states of India. The foundation has deployed 172 faculty to provide them with relevant industry training to increase their employability.

These claims were made by Ms. Pearl Tiwari, Director and CEO of Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF) on Wednesday in communication with Devdiscourse. She also claimed that so far 46,000 rural youths have graduated from skill centres of ACF.

"The average salary for each graduate at entry-level is about INR 8,500 per month and about 75% of graduates are provided placement in respective industries after completing their training. Over the past 2.5 decades, we have been refining our skill training model and have actively integrated residential facilities, hub and spoke approach and local industry mapping to ensure that rural youth have livelihood opportunities available to them over and above those provided by the agricultural sector," said Ms. Tiwari. She further added, "India's national policies place huge importance on skills. Designed to tackle unemployment and meet the demands of various industries, skill training initiatives are rapidly unfolding across the country. But the white-collar career aspirations of many Indians are already running ahead of the blue-collar skills that the country actually needs."

The unemployability of youths particularly in rural areas is rising alarmingly. In order to meet the demands of the country, along with the demands of youth, there are a number of hurdles to overcome in bridging this gap. On the ground, particularly in rural areas, where the need for skilling is possibly the greatest, a number of key strategies need to be harnessed to provide youth with easy access to skilling opportunities and lucrative job opportunities and career pathways.

"Many youths and their parents, are obsessed with textbook education and a secure job. The fact is, that there are an excessive demand and limited supply of white-collar jobs. Much rural youth pursuing studies in traditional areas like science, engineering and computers find themselves without jobs - leaving them in despair. There is a need, more than ever, to transform the perceptions of youth towards skill development and to create a shift in aspirations towards blue-collar careers which provide youth with real, tangible jobs and career opportunities," she said.

In spite of the fact that there is enormous potential in smaller towns and cities, thousands of youth migrate every day to metro cities in search of education, training, employment and livelihood opportunities. But they settle for a poor quality life in cities by living in slums and move towards hazardous activities. Limited infrastructure, a lack of educational facilities and few financial support options often means that a large portion of rural talent goes waste - with many young people resorting to unskilled agricultural jobs.

As a result, there is a need to increase the last mile reach in relation to skills. Under-privileged youth based in the rural and remote areas are the most vulnerable section that lacks access to skill training.

"In ACF, we have experienced that rural areas require a 'hub & spoke' model approach to skilling, whereby established institutes in regional centres extend skill training modules in surrounding satellite communities. Additionally, residential facilities for youth alongside regional skill training facilities provide a key solution to providing isolated rural youth with access to skill training opportunities," she added.

When it comes to skill training, youth and their parents care about jobs and careers, particularly those that are available in and around the communities in which they live. Skill training facilities, therefore, need to tailor course offerings to the needs of local industries and forge collaborative partnerships, so that the needs of both businesses and youth can be simultaneously met – filling local jobs with qualified young people, and providing them with real jobs and salaries in their local communities.

"Entrepreneurship also provides another opportunity for rural youth who, on obtaining a skill and learning about starting their own enterprise, can meet local demand by starting their own business – close to home too so they can simultaneously support their families. Entrepreneurs also bring a larger change in giving employment and generating significant revenue and profit, augmenting the local economy," she said. To tackle these, and other issues around livelihoods for rural youth, Ambuja Cement Foundation established skill training institutes in rural areas to provide youth with a wide variety of skilling opportunities to give them choices in life, and to date has 30 centres across the country. By providing industry-relevant skills, empowering them to start their own businesses and supporting them along the way, ACF is helping young people obtain skills that will actually help them earn an income, build prosperous careers and lift their families out of poverty.