Mahindra Group plans to train another half a million youth in 5 years

The company said it plans to train another five lakh (0.5 million) youth under its various skill training initiatives

Mahindra Group on Thursday said it plans to train another five lakh youth under its various skill training initiatives over the next five years.

The group has already skilled five lakh youth besides creating one lakh jobs as part of these initiatives, which include Mahindra Pride Schools and Classrooms, in the past 15 years, according to a release.

"Mahindra Pride School was created with an aim to nurture and unlock the potential of youth from weaker sections of our society.

"I could not be more heartened to see the impact the School has brought to these youth, living up to the promise we made years ago," Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra was quoted as saying in the release.

Established in 2005, Mahindra Pride School (MPS) is a Mahindra Group CSR initiative that aims to skill the youth in the country. MPS has been spread across the country with centres in Chennai, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Patna and Varanasi over the years. It is meant exclusively for youth (18-25 years) from socially disadvantaged sections, as per the release.

In the wake of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, Mahindra Group with Naandi Foundation as the implementation partner will re-calibrate the curriculum to impart employable skills required in the post-COVID-19 era, said the release.

The programme will look to expand the curriculum to new domains of agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, services and entrepreneurship in addition to technology, it said.

MPS will also treble the pace of job creation by providing 100,000 additional jobs in the next five years vis--vis 15 years, the statement added.

Mahindra also unveiled a coffee table book, titled 'The Job Factory', that chronicles stories of 75 young alumni of this school, said the release.

Naandi Foundation CEO Manoj Kumar said, "Despite our demographic advantage, millions of India's youth from socially and economically disadvantaged communities never make it to the Job market in the organised sector."

He added that through the Mahindra Pride School programme, we created a unique curriculum that enabled such youth to access these 'Job readiness courses' and ensured they got secure proverbial 'five figure salaried jobs'.