Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), the first sector Skill Council of India, promoted by the automobile industry, has received the coveted ‘SKOCH Award’ at 74th SKOCH Summit held recently.
Organised by SKOCH Foundation, the award was given for the “World Bank iStar Program - School to Employment”.
World Bank iSTAR programme was executed as a research study in Rajasthan and Maharashtra to connect school dropouts to livelihood opportunities by skilling them on future skills, especially target women candidates and persons with disabilities.
The SKOCH Award, since its inception in 2003, has been recognising innovative practices and successful models of different organisations in Economic & Social Infrastructure Development segments in India. Underlining the fact that ‘Skill’ can play a pivotal role in leading India to become a $10 trillion economy by 2030, SKOCH has taken the lead in recognising those initiatives that have overcome the challenges and made impacts by instituting ‘SKOCH Skill Development Award 2018’.
Nikunj Sanghi, Chairman, ASDC, said, “It is an award of excellence; it’s like Oscar for skilling. When we participated in this competition, we didn’t think that we will qualify for the semi-final and finally getting to the final and winning the award is like a dream come true for me. The project that we participated was the ISTAR program which we are doing for the World Bank to make people from school ready for employment, focussed basically on women and people with disabilities and people who have left studies beyond studies and are looking for jobs. We have done this project in three locations, including Alwar, and I think once the World Bank is done with accessing the success of all these three projects, I am sure that this will be rolled out across the country as projects to generate employment at that level”.
Arindam Lahiri, CEO ASDC said, “The programme was to train the candidates in future skills and then connect them to potential employers for them to start earning their livelihoods. We are very happy that our work is getting acknowledge and recognised at such a platform.”