SKF India launches youth skilling programme for automotive service market

SKF India today announced the formal launch of its flagship CSR program – YES: Youth Empowerment at SKF – for vocational skill development of underprivileged youth. The program aims at empowering the beneficiaries with the know-how of modern automobile maintenance and servicing skills to help them gain employment or become entrepreneurs.

The program, which aims to train more than 5,000 youth in the next five years, is part of the company’s CSR initiative. It starts with the inauguration of the Pune Centre followed by the Bangalore centre, which is expected to be completely operational by the end of this year. A total of five skill development centres across the country are planned to be set up till 2020.

SKF India’s YES program, with the chosen implementation partners, will prepare the beneficiaries to work at various automotive OEMs, dealer service network and workshops and also impart entrepreneurial skills to enable them to set up their own vehicle service stations in future 

The participants will undergo six months of rigorous vocational training in automotive two-wheeler and four-wheeler repair as per the Modular Employability Skills (MES) course of the government of India’s Ministry of Employment and Training. The program will additionally train students in personality, communication skills, customer service, goal setting, financing and business management skills.

Commenting on the programme, Shishir Joshipura, managing director and country head, SKF India, said, “At SKF India, we believe that all our programs must make a meaningful difference in the lives of its recipients. The YES program will empower these young people and create employability, thus bridging the skill gap that India faces. The program is in line with the government’s recently launched Skill India Mission and we are looking forward to scaling-up the project to take it across different parts of the country.”

In Pune, SKF has chosen Don Bosco as its implementation partner in Pune and Sambhav Foundation in Bangalore. As part of the program in Pune, the SKF–Don Bosco teams will scout for prospective undergraduate youth from villages and cities around Pune. The six month long program will additionally train students for overall development in personality, communication skills and customer service.

Shrikant Savangikar, director, Business Excellence, Quality and Sustainability, SKF India, said: “It gives us great pride to launch the YES Program, with the all new state-of-the-art infrastructure especially created for the YES Skill Development Centre. At SKF India, we strongly believe that for a company to sustain its success in the industry it must be environmentally and socially responsible and we are confident that this program will help a great deal in this direction”

To provide the best of theoretical and practical knowledge, SKF has built a training lab and an interactive room at the Don Bosco Private Industrial Training Institute, which offers a superlative learning experience in a simulated environment. The interactive room will facilitate collaborative and interactive learning about automotive vehicle principles and applications, through the latest technology and e-learning courses, thereby, making them tech-savvy mechanics that can provide high-quality reliable service to their customers.

Don Bosco Private ITI currently conducts two courses – a six-month Modular Employable Skills (MES) Course and the ITI courses which are spread over one and two years.

Skilled trainees from Don Bosco have subsequently found placement in Indian and multinational companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Bosch, Knorr Bremse, Fiat-Chrysler Automotive, Godrej and the Taj Group of Hotels, among others.