Mphasis and The/Nudge partner to skill and place ~4000 underprivileged women in service-sector jobs

Centre for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (CSDE), an impact steam of The/Nudge Foundation, a Bengaluru based non-profit, today announced a three-year partnership with Mphasis, an Information Technology Solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, to skill ~4000 young women from underprivileged backgrounds for a career in the services sector. Mphasis, through its CSR initiative, has made a grant of 4.6 crores to CSDE to support this program.

The program will enable learning English language, digital literacy and life skills for women from government and low-income private colleges and helping them prepare for jobs in customer service, retail sales, and BPO.

“Skilling has been a key factor within organizations given the competitive nature of businesses, across sectors. The need for skilling is no longer limited to an organizational aim but, extends beyond the employees to society at large. There exists a dominant need to prepare young minds to ensure that they are industry-ready before they become contributors to the workforce of the future. The three-year deal with CDSE will not only drive representation of women at the workplace but will also equip them with the necessary skills required to support themselves professionally,” said Srikanth Karra, Chief Human Resources Officer, Mphasis.     

CSDE plans to reach three lakh students across colleges, ITIs and other aggregated environments over 5 years. At the end of the program, students will be placed in service sector jobs such as customer service and retail. Mphasis had also supported The/Nudge Foundation’s flagship residential program at their Gurukuls which has graduated more than 5000 youth with a track record of 100% placements.

“The National Employability Report - Graduates 2013 reveals that nearly 47% of the graduates were found not employable in any sector, given their English language skills,” said Ram Ramalingam, Director - Innovation, CSDE. “There is an urgent need to accelerate English language learning that will make today’s youth fluent in workplace communication. What makes this program unique is its use of human-centric design to make India’s youth future-ready.”