Vocational academy for rural and semi-urban youth launched

To equip youth from rural and semi-urban areas with the skills required in various emerging service sectors in India, the Hyderabad-based STRiVE has launched Vocational Academy India Pvt Ltd, in collaboration with Collabrant Incubators Pvt Ltd.

IFMR Trust’s Vocational Training Network Enterprise (VTNE) has invested in STRiVE. STRiVE provides assessment, counselling, apprenticeship, placement and certification services to students from rural and semi-urban areas.

STRiVE has counselled over 10,000 students so far from various parts of the country and has tied up with a host of training institutes to provide quality education and placements for students (read a story on STRiVE here).

"Trained manpower remains the single largest impediment to growth in the service sector and we wish to fulfil that need through Vocational Academy," says Suresh Mutyala, CEO, STRiVE.

Under the brand name ‘Vocad’, Vocational Academy offers customised, job-oriented courses related to emerging businesses. Courses related to the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sectors and technical courses will be launched soon.

The courses are devised by industry experts and taught in classes with a small number of students. Hands-on training is combined with faculty-led sessions and interactive sessions. At the end of each course, students have to undergo an internship.

At an average fee of INR 5000-7000, the courses are extremely affordable. "The fee structure is such that it is approximately equivalent to an expected month’s salary on employment," Mutyala explains. Enrolment is done after a basic aptitude test administered to identify the student’s strengths, aspirations and interests.

Vocad students will be offered jobs through ‘JobsXchange’ organised by the company, in association with leading corporates.

Vocad courses were launched in eight locations in April 2009. Vocational Academy has a business plan of establishing 600 learning centres within the next five to seven years, covering every district of India.

VTNE has made an investment of INR 27.5 million in the company. Says IFMR Trust’s Senior Vice President Puneet Gupta: “We expect Vocational Academy to use the funds to increase market share by launching 50 centres by 2010, and having a presence in every district of the country by 2017.”

IFMR Trust’s VTNE acts as a supply chain enabler, linking first-time job-seekers from semi-urban and rural areas to the corporate sector. “VTNE invests in solutions that address the current gap in the demand and supply of trained manpower,” says Bindu Ananth, President, IFMR Trust. “In this context, Vocational Academy is a very strategic investment for us.”

STRiVE’s collaborator, Collabrant Incubators, provides business incubation services to small manufacturing enterprises and creates new brands and businesses. Over the last eight years it has created and established a number of businesses and brands in the fast-moving consumer goods, durables, apparel, footwear, lifestyle, retail and franchising sectors.

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