GE partners Tata Trusts to skill 10,000 youths in healthcare sector

In the next three years, 10,000 candidates will receive loan scholarships from Tata Trusts upon qualifying for the course. GE will also fund certain candidates on the basis of their eligibility.

It is estimated that the current requirement for allied healthcare professionals (AHP) in India is nearly 6.5 million as against a supply of less than 300,000. As per National Skill Development Corporation, by 2018 the healthcare technician demand-supply gap in India will be 445,000 (84 percent shortfall).

R Venkataramanan, managing trustee, Tata Trusts, said, “At Tata Trusts, making a sustainable difference to lives is the core essence of philanthropy. Tata Trusts aim to drive improvement in healthcare delivery by enabling availability of skilled and motivated healthcare personnel. We believe that this partnership with GE Healthcare will allow many bright young minds, especially women, to come forward and bridge this gap.”

Training and capacity building forms an integral part of Tata Trusts’ interventions, given that skilled human resources within the health sector are extremely crucial and in limited supply in India. To develop and strengthen human resources, with a focus on improving the capacities and skills of organisations, Tata Trusts has enabled the setting up of virtual classrooms at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across rural India, thus empowering the remotest areas with a robust technology platform to equip, educate and train their youth. Tata Trusts’ Skills and Entrepreneurship Development initiatives focus on skilling and entrepreneurship development of youth through interventions across the spectrum. The initiatives focus majorly on underprivileged youth such as school dropouts and women, with a view to skill, re-skill, and upskill them. Over the next five years, Tata Trusts will look to train 500,000 youth and promote 5,000 micro and small enterprises.

Sharing her perspective, Terri Bresenham, president & CEO, Sustainable Healthcare Solutions, GE Healthcare, said “The partnership will leverage on the leadership that Tata Trusts have in the areas of skilling and livelihood and GE Healthcare’s expertise in designing and running technical courses in healthcare. What makes this initiative even more special is the opportunity it provides to transform individuals and families by providing livelihood opportunities to the students, particularly women.”

Globally, GE Healthcare has committed $ 1 billion in healthcare education over the next four years to train more than 2 million professionals in the healthcare technology space. In India, GE Healthcare Education Institute runs its healthcare skill building and skill enhancement program, ‘Yogya Bharat for an Aarogya Bharat’, which aims to improve access to quality healthcare throughout the country by developing skilled healthcare resources. The institute has 10 centres across India and delivers 39 different courses through six skilling partners.