Ambuja Cement Foundation and NABARD to skill rural youth across the nation

New Delhi : Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF), Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of Ambuja Cements Ltd, which is working towards empowerment of rural communities joins hands with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for the implementation of its ‘Employability through Skill Initiative Project (ESIP) Phase II.

ACF received grant assistance from NABARD under the Gramya Vikas Nidhi, a fund created for the development of off-farm sector activities.

ESIP will provide skill training across 19 ACF locations for a period of two years in 12 trades and has already reached over 4000 youth despite the pandemic. Besides skill training, the course also includes soft skills and leadership skills as part of the training module. On completion of training, the students will be provided with placement and hand-holding support post placement.

Pearl Tiwari, Director and CEO, Ambuja Cement Foundation said, “With our invaluable partnership with NABARD, we aim to empower youth with practical skill development training required to empower them for a better future. Going forward, we will continue to strive to ensure that each initiative we undertake has a ripple effect in impacting our key stakeholders and go beyond the communities we are present in.”

Shri Devasis Padhi, Chief General Manager, Off Farm Development Department, NABARD said, “NABARD has been supporting corporates and their foundations to support various developmental interventions in the off-farm sector including skill and entrepreneurship development. COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the need for reskilling of reverse migrant labourers. We hope that the partnership with Ambuja Cement Foundation would help provide employment to rural youth on account of them acquiring new skills.”

NABARD’s partnership with ACF, which started in 2008, has led to the funding for 32 projects across locations in the areas of agriculture, women empowerment, water and skills impacting 25,000 people. This association has enabled an implementation body for other corporate CSR- taking the number of Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Institutes from one center in 2006 to 33 centres in 2021.