Adecco, DRF join hands to train rural youth

With Reliance's retail foray, and the telecom, BFSI, FMCG sectors planning a major push into small towns and villages to tap the market, the demand for trained personnel is expected to skyrocket.

In the first year alone, it has been estimated that Reliance may require about 50,000 people for its retail operations. Eventually, they are expected to employ some 5 lakh people across the country.

But, finding the required number of trained people, particularly in small towns, may not be easy. Not many from the cities may be ready to relocate and there is, hence, a need to find people from the local communities itself.

"We need to create a pool of employable people in the semi-urban and rural areas," said Ramesh Hande, director, Adecco Staffing Solutions.

To meet this challenge and also to address the unemployment issue, Dr Reddy's Foundation (DRF) and Adecco, the staffing solutions firm, have joined hands.

DRF is the corporate social responsibility arm of Dr Reddy's Labs. DRF will find the trainable youth and will impart training across the country by setting up 85 centres. It will expand the network to 250 centres in eight months. Adecco will help the suitable candidates find placements.

A major challenge for the project has been to convert the mindset of people in these areas so as to enable them to acquire soft skills like communication and sales, including customer service.

The training is being imparted to fill in their skill gaps to make the youth in these areas employable. With strength in the local languages being a USP in the services sector, the rural areas are a goldmine for these sectors.

For Adecco, which has over 600 clients, it gets a ready pool of trained personnel for its clients to hire from. It is a win-win situation for both industry and the rural youth. The youth don't need to migrate to the cities in search of jobs.

Big firms in small towns and greenfield projects in remote places are expected to benefit from the project.