Press Release

The Agreement for this partnership was signed by Mr. Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Limited and Mr. Dilip Chenoy, MD & CEO, NSDC, today.

Under the Agreement, NSDC will participate in NIIT Yuva Jyoti Limited (NYJL), a subsidiary company of NIIT, via a mix of loans and equity. The total project outlay required for this ambitious project is Rs. 377 Crores over the first four years, making this one of the largest commitments of its kind to be undertaken till date.

As per a study conducted by IMaCS (the management consulting arm of rating agency ICRA) on behalf of NSDC, India is likely to have an incremental requirement of 24.4 crore skilled people by 2022 in 21 high growth sectors.  However, although India is witnessing very good economic growth, the challenge of addressing the ever-increasing ‘available’ but ‘unemployable’ urban and rural workforce continues to be daunting.

NSDC is a not-for-profit company set up by the Ministry of Finance as the first PPP initiative with the mandate to skill up 15 crore people by 2022 in 21 focus sectors. This is part of the overall target of Government of India to train 50 crore people by 2022 to meet the global skills shortage.

NYJL aims to setup over 1500 state-of-the-art NIIT Yuva Jyoti Centres, across 1000 cities.  The aim is to provide industry and job specific training to around 70 lakh young Indians by 2022, thus helping create a pool of job-ready work-force for the service industry. Further, a ‘Skills Inventory’ of around 2.6 crore youth will be created by 2022 through this initiative.

Speaking on this significant partnership Mr. Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Limited said, “This partnership will give us an opportunity to reach out to a vast audience whose need for skill development has largely remained unaddressed, thus furthering our objective to develop talent and create employable workforce across the globe. We look forward to working with NSDC as their partner in this vital initiative.”

Mr. Dilip Chenoy, MD & CEO, NSDC remarked, “We are delighted to partner with NIIT, the leading player in the talent development space, to offer employable skills to around 70 lakh youth across India. NIIT’s experience in offering industry-linked training in multiple verticals in the Service sector further strengthens the execution of our vision to skill India’s youth from semi-urban and rural areas for the global needs.”

In the initial phase, the training will be imparted across 9 service sectors – Retail, IT/ITeS, BFSI, Education & Training Services, Media & Entertainment, Healthcare, Telecom, Hospitality and the Informal sector. The training programs will leverage technology for achieving scale with consistency of outcome and high quality. Built on a strong foundation of the NIIT pedagogy, state-of-the-art industry endorsed curriculum will be used to transfer skills to students. Further, internship will be facilitated for students to apply the skills learnt to real life situations and thus develop a deeper understanding of industry requirements.

Each centre will be localized to suit the local community flavour and will be customized for the requirements of the industry sector being addressed. Students will have multiple entry and exit points for each course.  Once the basic skills in a particular sector have been mastered by the students, they will be able to pave a path for a career by pursuing advanced courses and specializations.  

NYJL will assess the existing skill sets and aspirations of the participants and accordingly help them choose the right program. Besides partnering in the joint venture, NSDC will also play a significant advisory role and provide support in facilitating tie-ups with Sector Skill Councils, Microfinance Institutions & banks, in creating market awareness and in obtaining industry endorsements for the programs offered.

About NIIT

NIIT Limited, leading Global Talent Development Corporation and Asia’s largest IT trainer, offers learning and knowledge solutions across 40 countries.

Leading IT magazine Dataquest has conferred upon NIIT, the ‘Top IT Training Company’ award successively for the past 19 years, since the inception of this category. Rated among India’s Business Superbrands 2008, NIIT’s Individual Learning Business offerings include industry-endorsed programs for students seeking careers in IT - GNIIT, Edgeineers and Global Net Plus for IT professionals.

NIIT has provided computer-based learning to over 15,000 government and private schools. The futuristic NIIT NGuru range for schools is a holistic education package that comprises Interactive Classrooms (an embedded Teaching Learning Material, that uses elements of interactivity, automation and web links library); Math lab (technology tools that enable school students to learn and explore mathematical concepts); IT Wizard (equips the students with core computer knowledge and IT skills); and Quick School (an Education Resource Planning solution for school management).

For working professionals, NIIT Imperia, Centre for Advanced Learning, offers Executive Management Education Programs in association with IIM Ahmadabad, IIM Kolkata, IIM Lucknow, IMT Ghaziabad and IIFT Delhi. NIIT Imperia also offers specialized courses in Finance in association with KPMG and on Digital Marketing with Google India and Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).

NIIT Institute of Finance Banking & Insurance (IFBI), formed by NIIT with equity participation from ICICI Bank, offers programs for individuals and corporates in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance.

NIIT Uniqua, Centre for Process Excellence, addresses the increasing demand for skilled workers in the business and technology services industry by providing training programs in relevant areas. This is a part of NIIT Institute of Process Excellence Limited, a NIIT-Genpact venture.

NIIT’s Corporate Learning Solutions, offers integrated learning solutions (including strategic consulting, learning design, content development, delivery, technology, assessment and learning management) to Fortune 500 companies, Universities, Technology companies, Training corporations and Publishing houses.

NIIT delivers a tailored combination of catalog learning products, technology and services through Element K offerings. These include: vLab®: hands-on labs, instructor-led courseware, comprehensive e-reference libraries, technical journals, and KnowledgeHub™: hosted learning management platform.

NIIT has been voted the second most trusted education brand in India by Brand Equity- Nielsen Survey 2011.

NIIT’s innovative HR practices have been felicitated by Aon Hewitt as amongst ‘Top 25 Best Employers in India- 2011’; Indian Education Awards 2011 as ‘Best Education Company to Work with’; by Great Places to Work Institute as amongst ‘Top 25 India’s Best Companies to Work for’ and First in Training & Education Industry, 2011.

About National Skill Development Corporation

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a one of its kind, Public Private Partnership in India. It aims to promote skill development by catalyzing creation of large, quality, for-profit vocational institutions. It provides viability gap funding to build scalable, for-profit vocational training initiatives. Its mandate is also to enable support systems such as quality assurance, information systems and train the trainer academies either directly or through partnerships. Till date, the NSDC Board has approved funding for 29 proposals, including three Sector Skill Councils. The combined mandate of the projects approved till now is to skill more than 4 crore people in different vocations over a 10-year period.