EXL, CCDT & EduBridge ring in the 2nd year of its ‘Skills to Win’ skilling program on a high note

New Delhi : With an aim to build an inclusive digital economy and workforce to fulfil the critical manpower requirements of the sector, EXLService.com (India) Private Limited, a group company of ExlService Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXLS), a leading Operations Management and Analytics company, collaborated with its NGO Partner, CCDT and Implementation Partner, EduBridge Learning, to create a talent pool that can bridge the yawning gap between employers and employees within the IT and Finance & Accounting sectors by launching the ‘Skills to Win’ Program last year. The Program has now successfully entered into its second year of collaboration. “At EXL, we have made it our mission to help the youth in our communities develop marketable skills,” said Vikas Bhalla, Director, and Executive Vice President & Head of Insurance Operations at EXL. “This program will not only focus on providing better career opportunities for students, but also provide top-notch learning opportunities for the underserved. Additionally, the program will encourage its participants to become role models in their communities by taking up in-demand courses for future-ready careers in data analytics.”

In the last 1 year, approximately 800 beneficiaries were enrolled from Bangalore and Noida. Beneficiaries were trained for 530-hours in a Data Analytics course and 300-hours in a Transaction Processing course that was created by EduBridge and vetted by EXL. More than 200 of these beneficiaries were successfully placed in jobs despite the pandemic, with average monthly salaries of INR 23,000 for IT roles and INR 14,000 for Finance and Accounting profiles, increasing their annual household income by at least 50-100%.

The Program was offered virtually through a technology-driven, interactive platform, and included employment-linked, domain training as well as foundation skills sessions to help enhance the learners’ market value. At the end of the courses, successful candidates were presented with a joint certification by EXL, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), CCDT and EduBridge Learning. EduBridge leveraged their 500+ recruiters’ network to place these candidates. The post-placement engagement team ensured that all the recruits were handheld for at least 6 months after they are placed, to ensure a smooth transition to a corporate job environment and building of a sustainable career path.

Duplicating the success and know-how from the first year of its operations, the ‘Skills to Win’ Program now continues into its second year. The New Year brings further expansion of the program to 4 more locations, namely Gurugram, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad with an ambitious outreach of 1800 beneficiaries in IT and Finance & Accounting courses. New courses like Business Intelligence have also been added to the list of offerings, based on the workforce demand in these newly identified regions. The teams have now been set up and the first few batches will soon be enrolled across all 6 locations. “This program ties in beautifully with EXL’s enterprise-wide and employee-supported Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, which is focused on developing and supporting the stakeholders locally, in and around our facilities and environment across India,” said Satyajit Gupta, Vice President, Assistant General Counsel and Head of India Legal and CSR at EXL. Girish Singhania, CEO of EduBridge Learning adds, “EduBridge believes that building sustainable careers with leading recruiters in the industry will truly transform the lives of the beneficiaries. Over and above impacting the lives of the youth of the country, this intervention will indirectly contribute to addressing the skill gap by providing a well trained workforce to corporates who are in need of skilled manpower in both the sectors.”

Through this program, all stakeholders together, will successfully be able to influence the career planning process for underserved youth, making the program holistic in its approach. This revised and updated ecosystem will help trained youth settle in their new job environments, eliminating the initial attrition that most fresh recruits face. This program covers all aspects of their career development, leading to long-term livelihood.