Skill building has emerged as a major CSR activity under Companies Act, 2013 for industry to offset the adverse impact on workforce caused by COVID-19.
Companies are focusing on skill building as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as well as for building a skilled workforce for industry in their self-interest in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Skill development is listed in the Schedule VII https://www.mca.gov.in/SearchableActs/Schedule7.htm that prescribes areas for CSR activities for companies required to fulfil their obligations under the Companies Act, 2013.
The focus of skill building initiatives ranges from rural to urban areas, making illiterate to college students employable, and imparting soft skills to industry-specific training
Srinivasan Services Trust of TVS Motor Company has supported Sathya Sai Seva Foundation to set up Sathya Sai Skill Training Centre to enhance the employability of youth who are offered three-month long certified training courses in electrical, plumbing, tailoring, masonry, and mechanics in rural Tamil Nadu. In Erikuppam village, near Padavedu, 18-30-year old women are imparted certified training in tailoring to enhance their income generation. The trust organises job melas, too, which have helped thousands of trained youth secure jobs.
ICICI Foundation’s ICICI Academy for Skills, which has 27 centres across 19 states and 1 Union Territory, offers 13 industry specific vocational training courses to urban youth, particularly women. The Academy also helps trainees find jobs through its network of placement partners.
Under its Kaushal initiative, GAIL through its Institute of Skills in Nagaram, East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, and Guna, Madhya Pradesh, is training youth to become welding technicians, industrial electricians, customer-care executives, unarmed security guards and CNC machining technicians. The trainees are also helped in placement. Being the nodal Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) for Skill Development Institute, Raebarelli, GAIL is also running six skill development institutes in Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh), Bhubaneswar (Odisha), Kochi (Kerala), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Guwahati (Assam).
Tata Power’s Tata Power Skill Development Institute (TPSDI) through its five centres across the country imparts skills to youth for absorption in the power and allied sectors. TPSDI also provides training to engineers and technicians from the power and allied sectors in addition to offering skill enhancing courses to students from engineering colleges.
Schaeffler India through its implementing partner the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is offering skills training to graduating students from Vadodara to make them employable. Training is imparted in banking and financial markets, export and import management, hospital management services, entrepreneurship, digital marketing, travel and tourism, pharmaceutical sales management and retail management. While most students would be placed in respective industries, some will be supported to pursue entrepreneurship.
Tech Mahindra SMART (Skills for Market Training) Centres offer vocational training across manufacturing and service industries with emphasis on soft skills like spoken English, basic IT and workplace readiness. SMART is also collaborating with Sona Valliappa Group’s CSR arms Valliappa Foundation and Sona Yukti to offer medical coding training in Chennai.
Nayara Energy emphasises on women’s empowerment, supporting various micro-enterprises like the waste paper recycling unit in Singach village that is solely run by women producing high-quality hand-made recycled paper. Nyara Energy is also supporting women through Self Help Groups (SHGs), introducing them to micro-financing options and activities focusing on livelihood generation. Given the adverse impact on industry and workforce caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the importance of such skill building initiatives need not be overemphasised.