Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) on Thursday said that it will set up Automobile Skill Enhancement Centres (ASECs) across 15 government run Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) across 11 States, in the next three months.
In all, the company will spend ₹6 crore in these 15 ASECs, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR). Around 600 students are expected to benefit from these ASECs, annually, it said.
The latest set of 15 ASECs are being established at select partner ITIs in Delhi, Varanasi, Amritsar, Patiala, Gorakhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Ambala, Solan, Coimbatore, Shillong, Pune, Meerut, Hyderabad, and Indore, the company said.
These ASECs will be fully functional by August, when the next academic session starts. Students can enrol and benefit from these centres, it said.
The first of these ASECs was inaugurated by Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ITI Nizamuddin in New Delhi on Thursday.
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“Maruti Suzuki is committed to supporting the government’s Skill India initiative. India’s automobile industry is growing steadily, and technology and features are being upgraded at a rapid pace. There is need for skilled people to service and maintain these automobiles,” Ayukawa said.
He said India has a large pool of young people who have to be trained for the job market. It is estimated that the automobile industry will be ready to employ 1.25 lakh skilled technicians at workshops in the next five years.
“By partnering with ITIs our mission is to train 30,000 youth in next five years and help them become employable in workshops, thus leading a better life,” he added.
The company said each ASEC will be equipped with a hi-tech workshop to provide practical training in automobile service and repair to students. The workshops will be equipped with modern-day service tools and equipment, and latest Maruti Suzuki vehicles.
Along with this, the company will appoint full-time trainers. It will arrange training for the existing ITI teachers on latest technology and equipment. MSIL will also organise industrial outreach programmes to upgrade skills of students and make them job-ready, MSIL said.
In recent years, the company has partnered with 110 government ITIs across the country to impart training in automobile service and repair. These partnerships benefit 6,000 students annually, almost all of whom are readily employed at various automobile workshops.
In 2015-16, MSIL had also started specialised courses for denting and painting under car service and repair. For this special Auto Body Repair and Auto Body Paint, labs were set up at ITIs in Pusa (Delhi), Dhoraji, Rajkot and Tollygunge, Kolkata, it added.