ICICI Academy for Skills launches centre in Guwahati

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."

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.

About ICICI Foundation: It was founded by the ICICI Group in early 2008, with a view to carry forward and build upon ICICI Group's legacy of promoting inclusive growth.ICICI Foundation seeks to promote inclusive growth in India by contributing to the key enablers required for widespread participation in economic opportunities in the country. Through focused initiatives in the identified areas including primary healthcare, elementary education, skill development and sustainable livelihoods and financial inclusion, ICICI Foundation is working towards building capabilities and developing innovative models that can be replicated and scaled up in future. ICICI Academy operates under the aegis of ICICI Foundation.

The information in this release reflects our views and intent as of this date and is subject to change. ICICI Bank and the "I man" logo are the trademarks and property of ICICI Bank. The information contained in this document is for the purpose of general circulation only.

For Media Queries:

Mr. Sujit Ganguli
Senior General Manager & Head - Corporate Communications and Brand Group
ICICI Bank Limited
Mumbai
ganguli.sujit@icicibank.com

For Press Queries please contact:

Chinmay Sengupta
Chief Operating Officer
ICICI Foundation For Inclusive Growth
ICICI Bank Limited
Mumbai
chinmay.sengupta@icicifoundation.org