M&M revs up skilled workforce drive, inks MoU with Automotive Skill Development Council

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), a skill development council for the automotive sector. Under this tie-up, M&M and ASDC will deploy their core competencies to offer a skill development training programme to generate employment in the automotive sector.

This partnership aims to facilitate employable skill training to youth and prepare them for the various functions of the automotive sector, from sales, service to manufacturing. While ASDC will impart skill training by partnering with M&M and leveraging the latter’s existing training facilities, the automaker will provide training aids, including course curriculum based on ASDC standards, and also assist trainees to find suitable placements. M&M says it will also offer its selected training infrastructure, expertise and training partners to train students (from ITI and diploma holders amongst others) on various automotive skill sets, in accordance with ASDC-prescribed NOS (National Occupation Standards) and make them employable.

Speaking on the partnership, Sanjoy Gupta, vice-president – Customer Care, Automotive Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra, said, "With the aim of enhancing the technical skill of youth and creating an employable pool of skilled manpower, we have taken the first step by collaborating with ASDC. It is our endeavour to identify employable youth and train them on specific automotive skills to make them industry ready. As a socially responsible corporate, we wish to address the resource crunch in the Indian automotive industry by helping to develop a pool of skilled manpower via relevant partnerships. Keeping this approach in mind, our tie-up with ASDC is a significant step in the same direction. ASDC will provide the relevant industry expertise and academic edge while Mahindra will provide the infrastructural support to the students.”

At present, M&M has a network of 30 training centres, spread across 16 Indian states, catering to technical training needs of 30,000 dealer manpower across India. To begin with, the company has dedicated 18 of these training centres to ASDC to conduct its affiliated training courses. These 18 centres are strategically located across the country with six in the South, two in the East, six in the West and 4 in the North. They are equipped with all the standards specified by ASDC.

According to Sunil K Chaturvedi, CEO, ASDC, “We are very happy to partner with Mahindra for skill development program. M&M was among the leading companies to support ASDC initiative from the beginning. India is fast becoming a global hub for the auto sector and many automobile companies have set up shop here for Indian market as well as for exports. This growth and the rising quality expectations of the customer will require appropriately skilled people. As per projections, India needs almost 25-30 million additional skilled manpower in the next 10 years to sustain the demand in the automotive industry. With the recent emphasis on ‘Make In India’, this demand may increase further.”  

It is in this backdrop that the automotive industry promoted the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC) in partnership with the government of India to address the skills gap issue to provide manpower trained and certified as per industry’s own standards. These standards, called National Occupational Standards, have been developed by ASDC in complete consultation with industry.

Chaturvedi further added, “Because of the disconnect between academia and Industry, the job-seeking youth suffers from  lack of employability. This partnership between ASDC and M&M will result in employment creation as students will be trained to industry standards. As India’s very first sector council, it has been our endeavour to facilitate the industry connect in skilling. Through this partnership we hope to reach out to thousands of aspirants to provide the much needed skill edge to the employable pool. Right now we are starting with 18 centres for the sales and service domains but going forward I will urge Mahindra to assist to launch many more training centres covering R&D, manufacturing, supply chain and driving domains among others.”

In 2009, M&M has started the concept of mSTEPS (mahindra Special Technical Education Programme for Students) and tied up with 32 ITIs across India. Under this programme, the company trains the students and faculties of ITI on the latest automobile technologies, developments and maintenance aspects and makes them industry ready.