ICICI Academy for Skills organises first convocation at its centre in Bhubaneswar

Sanjay Kumar Das Burma, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Food Supplies & Consumer Welfare, Employment and Technical Education & Training, Government of Odisha was the chief guest at the event.

116 young women have completed their training course in ‘Office Administration’ at the ICICI Academy for Skills in Bhubaneswar. All students have been offered placements across sectors like Telecommunications, Automobiles, Health, Insurance and Retail.

Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said: “India has a unique advantage in the form of its demographic dividend. However, translating the demographic dividend into growth and prosperity requires job creation as well as enabling the youth to acquire the skills required to benefit from employment opportunities. Through the ‘ICICI Academy for Skills’, we are making a significant contribution towards empowering underprivileged youth including women. I believe that these new centres, which are exclusively for women, will enable many young women to get access to vocational skills and become important stakeholders in India’s growth story.”

Bhubaneswar is one of the ten academic centres exclusively dedicated to training of women. These centres offer courses of 12 weeks duration in Office Administration for women who are class X pass outs and above.

The Bhubaneswar centre has a capacity to train around 440 students a year. The other all-women centres of ICICI Academy are situated in New Delhi, Zirakpur, Mysuru, Trichy, Vijayawada, Lucknow, Nagpur and Kochi, with an upcoming centre in Kolkata.

Since its inception in October 2013, ‘ICICI Academy’ has set up a total of 20 centres across the country to provide relevant and practical training to the underprivileged youth in various disciplines including electrical and home appliance repair, central air conditioning, selling skills, office administration and web designing. The students are also trained in specific life skills such as communication, finance, etiquette and grooming which help them adapt to an organised work environment.