Accenture grants Quest Alliance India an additional $623,000

Consultancy firm Accenture and the Accenture Foundations have awarded Quest Alliance India an additional grant of $623,000 (over Rs 3.35 crore) to help the organisation provide around 3,000 disadvantaged young people with career and workplace skills.

The grant brings Accenture's direct support to Quest Alliance India to more than $950,000 since 2009.

Quest Alliance works towards providing disadvantaged learners, age 16-25, a set of real-world skills along with opportunities to build confidence in a fun and engaging way that prepares them for work and life.

The award reflects Accenture's global corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed, which will equip 2.50 lakh people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business, a company statement said.

"Supporting Quest Alliance India helps exemplify Accenture's commitment to building skills and improving the communities in which we live and work," Accenture Managing Director (Corporate citizenship) Jill Huntley said.

The grant will allow Quest Alliance India to work with nonprofit vocational training partners to develop and implement a blended learning curriculum in English and workplace readiness.

"India's workforce is quite young and in need of formal training so we are constantly seeking ways to provide disadvantaged young people with the skills necessary to find long-term employment and to provide for themselves and their families," Quest Alliance founder and executive director Aakash Sethi said.