Guwahati: ICICI Academy for Skills (ICICI Academy) today announced the launch of a centre in Guwahati to provide vocational training to the youth from the economically weaker sections to help them earn a sustainable livelihood.

The centre will offer courses in three disciplines – selling skills, office administration and retail café operations.

ICICI Academy has formalised the content of the courses for office administration and retail café operations with best-in-class knowledge partners namely, Tally Solutions and Café Coffee Day respectively. Together with its partners, ICICI Academy aims to provide world class content and training. The Bank will use in-house expertise to impart the training on selling skills.

ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth (ICICI Foundation) started the ICICI Academy in line with its plan to promote inclusive growth. ICICI Academy aims to train 5,000 youth at nine training centres across the country in the first year of operation.

Announcing the launch, Sandeep Bakhshi, MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance said: “Through its CSR and business initiatives, the ICICI Group works towards building a social infrastructure that can help every person engage in productive and remunerative economic activity. In extension of this belief, the ICICI Academy has been set up with an aim to develop vocational skills in the youth to help them earn a sustainable livelihood. We hope that the skills learned at the Academy will equip individuals to play a significant role in India’s growth story.”

Over the past five years, the ICICI Group and ICICI Foundation’s CSR philosophy has been focusing on four key areas namely primary healthcare, elementary education, skill development for sustainable livelihood and financial inclusion, enabling people to participate in the economic opportunities arising in India. These initiatives have impacted the lives of more than 10 million people across the country.

After launching its maiden centre in Jaipur in October 2013, ICICI Academy launched centres in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, Coimbatore, Narsobawadi (Maharashtra) and Patna.

In addition to the training offered at the centres, ICICI Academy provides uniforms, meals and all relevant course material to the students. Each centre also has a library for the students to use.

The key highlights of ICICI Academy are:

Total eight courses on offer: electrical & home appliance repair, refrigeration & air conditioning repair, pumps & motor repair, central air conditioning repair for class VIII pass –outs; selling skills, web designing, office administration and retail café operations for class X pass-outs.

The courses are 12 weeks in duration.

ICICI Foundation has tied up with several partners for generating the content of these courses. The partners are: Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd. for electrical & home appliance repair, Blue Star Ltd. for refrigeration & air-conditioning repair, Crompton Greaves Ltd. for pumps & motor repair, Voltas Ltd. for central air-conditioning repair, NIIT Ltd. for web designing, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd. for office administration and Café Coffee Day (CCD) for retail café operations.

ICICI Academy and CCD are introducing a course on retail café operations which will be taught at the Patna, Guwahati and Pune centres of the Academy. CCD will assist the Academy in the design of the course curriculum, setting up of the labs and in the development of professional trainers. Additionally, they will also employ the students passing out from the Academy. CCD has worked with several NGOs with an aim to bridge the gap between urban and rural youth by training the economically underprivileged and making sure they find employment. However, this is the first time that they will be working on this kind of initiative with a corporate.

ICICI Foundation has created an online job portal where the trained youth can register themselves. The portal is promoted among potential employers.