On the occasion of its 75th milestone year, Mahindra Group commits to skill 500,000 youth in the next five years. Anand Mahindra, Chairman, Mahindra Group unveiled ‘The Job Factory’ a coffee table book that details stories of 75 young alumni of Mahindra Pride School. The Group also announced that its skilling initiatives like Mahindra Pride Schools & Classrooms, SMART ACADEMY, SMART Plus and Surya Mitra have already skilled 500,000 youth and Mahindra Pride School alone has created 100,000 jobs in the last 15 years.

In the wake of the disruptions caused by the pandemic, Mahindra Group with Naandi Foundation as the implementation partner, will re-calibrate the curriculum to impart emplouable skills required in the post-COVID era. The program will look at expanding the curriculum to new domains of agriculture, healthcare, e-Commerce, services and entrepreneurship in addition to technology. Mahindra Pride School will also treble the pace of job creation by providing 100,000 additional jobs in the next five years.

Commenting on the skilling initiatives, Anandh Mahindra said, “Mahindra Pride School was created with an aim to nurture and unlock the potential of youth from weaker sections of our society. The more I interact with the Pride School alumni I wonder why we address them as youth from ‘weaker’ sections, their indomitable spirit in fact

Through the Mahindra Pride School programme we created a unique curriculum that enabled such youth to access these ‘Job readiness courses’ and ensured they got secure proverbial ‘five figure salaried jobs’

makes them the ‘stronger’ section of our society.

Their achievements and career trajectory strongly complement this viewpoint. I couldn’t be more heartened to see the impact Mahindra Pride School has brought to these youth, living up to the promise we made years ago.”

Manoj Kumar, CEO, Naandi Foundation, said, “Despite our demographic advantage, millions of India’s youth from socially & economically disadvantaged communities never make it to the Job Market in the organised sector. Through the Mahindra Pride School programme we created a unique curriculum that enabled such youth to access these ‘Job readiness courses’ and ensured they got secure proverbial ‘five figure salaried jobs’. The 100,000 jobs that we created is a testimony that the misfortune of an ovarian lottery can be reversed. But for that, we all need to support such efforts.”

Sheetal Mehta, Senior Vice President – CSR, Mahindra Group, said, “It has been fulfilling to see our graduates being offered placements based on skills learned at Mahindra Pride Schools. Through their jobs, not only have their standards of living improved, but more importantly they are looked upon with respect from their communities. We are confident that in the future too we will be to create more jobs by focussing on demand driven skills training.”