Mahindra Group Celebrates 75th Milestone Year; Unveils Coffee Table Book Named ‘The Job Factory’
The protagonists of India’s economic growth story are its youth, its demographic dividend. Gainful employment provides under-resourced youth dignity, identity, and empowerment to overcome socio-economic challenges.
Mahindra Group celebrated its 75th milestone year and came together on a virtual meeting platform to witness the launch of ‘The Job Factory’ a coffee table book that chronicles riveting stories of 75 young alumni of Mahindra Pride School. With an aim to spread awareness about skilling for employability, a digital film #SkillHaiTohFutureHai was launched on social media recently.
Emphasizing on skilling youth to be able to groom them to be job-ready; in the roundtable discussion, Anand Mahindra vastly discussed their skilling initiatives like Mahindra Pride Schools & Classrooms, SMART ACADEMY, SMART Plus, and Surya Mitra have skilled 500,000 youth, and Mahindra Pride School alone has created 100,000 jobs in the last 15 years. It commits to further skill 500,000 youth in the next 5 years.
While praising the caliber of the seekers and learners in Pride School, Mahindra asserted, “When I visited the Mahindra Pride School in Chennai and met the students, I wondered why we refer to them as youth from the ‘weaker sections of society.’ When I heard their life stories and felt their indomitable spirit, I realised that they are, in fact, the ‘stronger’ sections of our society.”
In the wake of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, Mahindra Group with Naandi Foundation as the implementation partner will re-calibrate the curriculum to impart employable skills required in the post-COVID era. The program will look to expand the curriculum to new domains of agriculture, healthcare, e-commerce, services, and entrepreneurship in addition to technology. MPS will also treble the pace of job creation by providing 100,000 additional jobs in the next five years vis-à-vis 15 years.
Manoj Kumar, CEO, Naandi Foundation, said, “Despite our demographic advantage, millions of India’s youth from socially & economically disadvantaged communities never make it to the Job Market in the organised sector. Through the Mahindra Pride School program we created a unique curriculum that enabled such youth to access these ‘Job readiness courses’ and ensured they got secure proverbial ‘five-figure salaried jobs’. The 100,000 jobs that we created is a testimony that the misfortune of an ovarian lottery can be reversed. But for that, we all need to support such efforts.”
Sheetal Mehta, Senior Vice President – CSR, Mahindra Group, said, “It has been fulfilling to see our graduates being offered placements based on skills learned at Mahindra Pride Schools. Through their jobs, not only have their standards of living improved but more importantly they are looked upon with respect by their communities. We are confident that in the future too we will be to create more jobs by focusing on demand-driven skills training.”
Anand Mahindra commented on the impact of the skilling initiative and said, “Mahindra Pride School was created with an aim to nurture and unlock the potential of youth from weaker sections of our society. The more I interact with the Pride School alumni I wonder why we address them as youth from ‘weaker’ sections, their indomitable spirit in fact makes them the ‘stronger’ section of our society. Their achievements and career trajectory strongly complement this viewpoint. I couldn’t be more heartened to see the impact Mahindra Pride School has brought to these youth, living up to the promise we made years ago.”
‘The Job Factory’: Coffee Table Book
When the youth from underprivileged background usually labeled as unemployable are schooled to be better. Leaders in the front of this initiative researched and assessed that what is that miracle element involved in transforming them job-ready?
Anand Mahindra unveiled the book - ‘The Job Factory’ coffee table book that is visualised and authored by Manoj Kumar, photography and design is by the ace photographer Nevin John and drawings are by Nijeena Neelambaram.
This book uniquely encompasses 75 profiles in courage by highlighting the triumphs of the youth and not their repeated and unwanted failures. The formatting of the book is realistic; full of lively heart-touching stories and quite captivating pictures of happiness. The course of their lives before enrolling in Mahindra Pride Schools is shown in black and white pictures and their present is highlighted in color photographs to cherish and celebrate how they conquer and rewrote the path of their lives.
CSR Initiatives Toward Skilling Youth
Mahindra Pride School (MPS) is a Mahindra Group CSR initiative established in 2005 that aims to skill the youth of India. MPS has been spread across the country with centers in Chennai, Pune, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, Srinagar, Patna and Varanasi over the years. It is meant exclusively for youth (18-25 years) from socially disadvantaged sections i.e., (SC), (ST), (OBC), Notified Tribes (NT) and De-notified Tribes (DNT). They offer equal opportunity for men and women, with a focus on rural youth and offer various alternative livelihood options to the students free of cost.
The Mahindra Pride program was designed with Naandi Foundation to operate as a hub and spoke model. The hub being Mahindra Pride Schools, and the spoke being Mahindra Pride classrooms set up within Polytechnics, Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Arts & Science colleges across the country. Naandi Foundation further curated the skilling curriculum in the domains of Retail, Hospitality, ITES and Auto by collaborating with 300-400 corporates in these sectors to ensure its students would be “job-ready”. During the pandemic, Mahindra Pride schools worked on remote learning thus ensuring continuous training for its students.
