Hyundai Motor India introduces ASDC modules to its training centres

After having actively collaborated with 45 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and seven polytechnics across the country, Hyundai Motor India today expanded its CSR initiative to collaborate with the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC), the joint industry and government initiatives aimed at developing skilled manpower for the Indian automotive industry.  

ASDC, which is a joint initiative of industry bodies SIAM, ACMA, FADA and the government of India, has a mandate of creating 25 million manpower by 2020, covering the skills requirement across the entire automotive value chain and related domains. These include manufacturing, sales and service of vehicles, components and aggregates, and also driving per se.

As per the MoU, Hyundai Motor India will be introducing a 50-day training course at six of its new training centres created at its dealerships to train students who are keen to enter the automotive industry and work in the aftersales and service divisions.

While the course structure will be based as per the curriculum provided by ASDC, as per the Skill India guidelines, eligibility rests on students being at least 18 years old and having completed education up to class eight to apply for the program,.

Since it first engaged in talks with ASDC six months ago, Hyundai Motor India has set up training departments at six of its dealerships – one each in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Kochi – and will be putting its training infrastructure including service cars, equipment and facilities to use for skilling the outside manpower.

Speaking at the MoU signing ceremony, SJ Ha, director, sales and marketing, Hyundai Motor India, said, “We are very proud to sign this MoU with ASDC, which is an industry-first initiative by an automobile manufacturer in India for aftersales operations. As a responsible and caring brand, Hyundai is aligned and committed to the government’s Skill India initiative. We work with ITIs and polytechnic institutions in every state, where we absorb close to 99 percent students in different entities in Hyundai India ecosystem. This MoU will further boost our commitment towards skilling and employing the youth of India”

S Punnaivanam, vice-president, Service, Hyundai Motor India, added, “The course curriculum will include Level 3 and Level 4 service technician as well as washerman training. This association with ASDC is a two-year commitment and we intend to expand and continue it further.”

The six new training centres are separate from the 21 Hyundai technical training academies (HTTA), which the company has across key regions in India. These academies are utilised to train the 20,000 staffers across its 1,309 authorised service centres, being operated by 494 dealer partners in 710 cities the country.

The company aims to train 750 students every year for the next two years and absorb most of these manpower at its growing dealership count, which is set to touch 500 partners by December 2018.

Speaking at the occasion, Nikunj Sanghi, president, ASDC, said, “It becomes very important that manufacturers and the ASDC tie up to make future manpower ready for the automotive industry. Such centres will help dealers stabilise manpower by having a continuous stream of people and thus not get affected by attrition much. The training program will be subsidised and be offered free of cost to eligible students.”

“With this pilot, we intend to make a model on how dealerships can become skill centres. The investment required is usually upward of Rs 2 crore to create modern training centres at dealerships. We feel that these trainings should be brand agnostic as 80 percent of the training is exactly the same, while only 20 percent is model- and brand-specific. If we are able to achieve that, then, we would be completely fulfilling our CSR responsibilities and also contributing to the Skill India campaign,” Sanghi concluded.