NIIT Foundation and Airports Authority of India Unveil Career Development Centre at Vile Parle (East), Mumbai
State-of-the-art centre to provide job-oriented training to the underserved youth of Mumbai
Mumbai, August 02, 2011: NIIT Foundation (NF), set up to provide world-class education and training to the under-served communities, and Airports Authority of India (AAI), today entered into a strategic partnership to provide job-oriented training to the youth from the underserved sections of the society. To this end Mumbai’s state-of-the-art Career Development Centre was inaugurated by Archana Agarwal (wife of V. P. Agarwal, Chairman, AAI) at New Airport Colony, Vile Parle (E), Mumbai. Also present on the occasion were Neeraj Agarwal, Project Director, NF; P.K. Nagpal (RED) WR, R.S. Maker (GM- Admin) and A. K. Sharma (GM- Engg) WR.
Under the partnership, NIIT Foundation will draw upon their expertise to impart skill based training backed by placement opportunities to the eligible students. AAI will provide the space and other necessary infrastructure to operate the centre. The Career Development Centre aims to train over 500 students living in the vicinity every year.
Speaking on the occasion Neeraj Agarwal, Project Director, NIIT Foundation said, “Although India is witnessing unprecedented economic growth we are faced with the daunting challenge of addressing the ever-increasing ‘available’ but ‘unemployable’ urban and rural workforce. To address this concern, we are happy to partner with AAI to help create a pool of job-ready workforce from the underserved sections of the society.”
P.K. Agarwal (RED) WR, said, “Living up to our mission to contribute to the economic growth and prosperity of the nation, we are happy to unveil the futuristic Career Development Centre in alliance with NIIT.”
A. K. Sharma (GM- Engg, AAI), remarked, “We are delighted to partner with NIIT Foundation in this significant venture. Together we hope to reach out to the underprivileged youth residing in the city and bring about a positive change in their lives.”
The Career Development Centre will offer short term courses such as Service Industry Certification (SIC) programs and training programs in Soft Skill Development to upgrade the skills of the students of 6th standard onwards and provide employment opportunities. The courses will help students learn new skills and enhance their existing skills with aim to make them job-ready in a short period. Employment assistance will be provided to the eligible students.
About Airport Authority of India (AAI)
Airports Authority of India (AAI) manages a total of 125 Airports, which include 11 International Airports, 08 Customs Airports, 81 Domestic Airports and 25 Civil Enclaves at Defence Airfields. AAI also provides Air Traffic Management Services (ATMS) over entire Indian Air Space and adjoining oceanic areas with ground installations at all Airports and 25 other locations to ensure safety of Aircraft operations.
With a vision “to emerge as a world-class organization” and a mission “to achieve highest standards of safety and quality, and contribute to economic growth and prosperity of the nation”, AAI aims to achieve, consolidate and strengthen Good Corporate Governance by inculcating socially and environmentally responsible business practices, and balancing financial profit with social well being.
To this end AAI has been working towards improving the immediate surroundings areas of the new or existing airports; the district, town or city as a whole where the airport is located; and the country as whole for dealing with emergency situations and achieving higher national goals including the MDGs and UN Global Compact Programme on Environment.
About NIIT Foundation
NIIT Foundation (NF), was set up in 2005 by the founders of NIIT, with the key objective of providing world-class education and training for the under-served communities. NF has a mandate to reach the unreached, uncared and unattended to ensure inclusive development in India.
NIIT Foundation’s vision is to be global-path-breakers in employability training, gainfully employing at least 2 million under-served youth annually.
To shape the mandate, NF has commenced a number of programs that would positively impact the underprivileged of the country through various educational interventions. The intent of NF is to better understand the education and employability issues at the grassroots level and build sustainable training intervention models. NF makes critical interventions towards upgrading the skill base and employability of marginalized youth - in urban slums and rural areas.
Over the last 3 years, NF has impacted over 20,000 youth and placed over 85% of eligible candidates. The key projects under way: District Learning Centers for rural unemployed graduates (DLC)Career Development centers for urban slum youth (CDC)N-Reach program for capacity building and accreditation of NGOs (N-Reach)Technology Center for urban slum children 6-14yrs