Automobile Giant Eicher, Aide et Action to train unemployed youths in Gurugram and Chennai

The Royal Enfield Academy for Skills, a CSR initiative of Eicher Group Foundation and Aide et Action, an international NGO working to empower youths and children have come together to initiate decentralised demand driven employability and entrepreneurship training for youths in the age group of 18 - 35 years.

Over the next three years, the project aims to train over 5,500 under-privileged youth including 40% women in Gurugram and Chennai.

The trainings will be imparted through the centres in Gurugram, Pataudi and Sohana in Gurugram district of Haryana and Pappadai, Walajabad and Sriperumbudur in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The six centres will conduct training for a period of 3-months in skills such as Automobile Repairing, Electrician, Hospitality, Fashion Designing and ITES.

The Gurugram training centre was inaugurated today by Mr G. Sekar, Director, Eicher Group Foundation along with Ravi Pratap Singh, Regional Director, Aide et Action, DrAishwarya Mahajan, Director - Livelihood Education, Aide et Action.

"We are happy to be associated with Aide et Action which has been providing quality skill training programme to the marginalized youths since 2005." He also added that "the process of Aide et Action's skill training programme is so comprehensive and in-line with Eicher Group Foundation's objective to bring the positive change in the lives of many youths."

"The programme is not only about providing vocational training but also to transform the youths as Change Agents in the society. It is also about innovations and new ways of learning," Mr. Ravi Pratap Singh said.

"Over the last 13 years, Aide et Action has transformed the lives of more than 2,25,000 youths across South Asia. In addition to providing quality training to youth and helping them in placement, we also encourage them to start their own enterprise," Dr. Aishwarya said.

The Eicher Group Foundation is currently engaged in sustainable village development, Housing for the disaster affected, skill development, environment, health and education projects in India and Aide et Action, an international NGO is engaged in education, skill development, health, women empowerment and disaster preparedness programmes.

The iLEAD (Initiative for Livelihood Education and Development), a flagship programme of Aide et Action, which was launched in 2005, is currently operational in 21 states of India and in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, Philippines, Cambodia has till date trained more than 2,25,000 youths (40 percent women) with a success of 75 percent placement. Very soon, the programme is going to be launched in France.

The Chennai centres, inaugurated last week, will provide training to the youths in skills including Industrial electrician, Four-wheeler service technicians, ITES and House Keeping.