INDIA: Yamaha Expands Partnership Opening Two New Training Centers at Salesian Programs in Chennai and Mumbai
(MissionNewswire) Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd. has expanded its partnership with Salesian missionaries in India with the launch of two new Yamaha training centers at the Don Bosco Technical Campus in Chennai and the Bosco Boys Welfare Society in Borivali West, one of the partner organizations of the Don Bosco Development Society in Mumbai. Yamaha would like to open 14 more centers across India before December 2015.
Training centers have already been established in 2014 at the Don Bosco Technical School Maligaon in Guwahati and at the Don Bosco Technical School in Kolkata. The goal of the training centers is to offer expanded skills training to poor youth across India. According to the International Labor Organization’s Global Employment Trends 2014 Report, the unemployment rate in India has been gradually increasing since 2011 when the rate was at 3.5 percent. The rate rose to 3.6 percent in 2012 and again climbed in 2013 to 3.7 percent. The unemployment rate was expected to continue to grow throughout 2014, according the report.
“At present, there is a huge skills gap in the industry as it heads toward an expansion drive,” said Masaki Asano, managing director of Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd. “On the other hand, a large number of unskilled youth are pushed towards unemployment which is a hindrance to any nation’s development. This partnership is meant to address this very concern by providing a platform to the economically weaker and unemployed youth to obtain a job-oriented technical training in two-wheeler repair and servicing that meets industry standards.”
The Yamaha Training Centers follow the Yamaha Technical Academy’s training program which was developed in India in 2002 based upon Japan’s formal Yamaha technician training curriculum. The academy coursework provides comprehensive technical education and expertise from the Yamaha factory with hands-on diagnostic and troubleshooting skills training.
There are four levels of certificate courses, each lasting one year, that make up the Indian training centers’ curriculum and each class can take up to 30 students. The entry level course prepares students for work at an assistant’s level while the highest level course prepares students for supervisory work. Each student has the opportunity to access all four training levels and can choose to graduate at whichever level he or she is most interested in or qualified for. Most graduates go on to find work in Yamaha dealerships.
To help prepare students for the workforce, Don Bosco technical schools offer resume writing assistance, interview skills training and other social development services in addition to the courses that are part of the Yamaha Training Center program.
“As a recognized industry player, we shoulder the responsibility to empower the economically weaker sections of the society, especially the youth,” explained Ravinder Singh, vice president of strategy and planning at Yamaha Motor India Sales Pvt. Ltd. “We have incorporated many programs in our annual calendar to make a lasting impact on the lives of these young people by making them self-reliant. We certainly foresee recruitment opportunities for them at our own dealerships as this will help our dealers in getting quality trained manpower for their business.”
With more than 1.2 billion people, India has the world’s fourth largest economy and according to UNICEF, is home to one-third of the world’s poor. Close to 217 million of India’s poor are children. Although more than 53 million people escaped poverty between 2005 and 2010, most remain vulnerable to falling back below the poverty line.
India’s youth face a lack of educational opportunities due to issues of caste, class and gender. Almost 44 percent of the workforce is illiterate and less than 10 percent of the working-age population has completed a secondary education. In addition, too many secondary school graduates do not have the knowledge and skills to compete in today’s changing job market.
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Sources:
Car Trade – Yamaha extends its Training School to Mumbai Bosco Boys Welfare Society
Indian Express – Yamaha Shows Youth Road to Employability
