Skill centre empowers jobless youth

Chandigarh: At a time when unemployment rate is so high, an initiative by a private organisation in Chandigarh has turned a boon for the underprivileged students.

The private academy with some help from the civil aviation ministry is providing courses and training free of charge to the youth of underprivileged background in ground handling. The initiative has been a huge success as around 75 per cent of the youth who were provided training in last one year were absorbed in the industry.

A first of its kind Aviation Multi-Skill Development Centre (AMSDC) is an initiative under Corporate Social Responsibility CSR. It’s a joint collaboration between National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), Aerospace and Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) with Bird Academy as training partner. The academy provides skills to empower unemployed and underprivileged youth in aviation sector.

NSDC, the implementing agency of AMSDC, in collaboration with the Bird Education Society for Travel & Tourism (BESTT) has been undertaking the training programmes. The course curriculum and assessments of the training have been designed by AASSC in accordance with the National Skill Qualification Framework. The candidates will be certified by the NSDC through the AASSC.

According to Major Daksh Nakra, head, Northern India, there are total eight courses offered for ground staff jobs. The courses include Airline Customer Service Executive, Airline Reservation Agent, Airline Security Executive, Airline Flight Load Controller, Airline Cargo Assistant, Airline Ramp Executive, Airport X Ray Qualified Staff and Airport Facility Services.

This centre would train about 2,400 youths and women in eight aviation job roles over the next three years. So far in last one year, the Chandigarh-based academy has trained 690 youths in 22 different batches, more importantly 500 of these trained youths have been absorbed by the aviation industry at different airports around the country.

These courses are provided free to the candidates and are covered over duration of 45 days. They are also paid a stipend of Rs 2,900. With this initiative, the industry will be benefited by acquiring skilled manpower at no additional placement/training cost.

Interestingly, youths of this region seek jobs in aviation industry as is evident from the number of aviation training academies which have mushroomed in the region in last decade. Most of these private academies charge anywhere between Rs 1.5 and Rs 2 lakhs per student every year. Even after paying such a heavy amount, most of the youths who study in these private academies fail to get a job in the aviation industry.