SABIC, the Saudi Arabia-headquartered chemical company, has announced the expansion of its skill development corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme aimed at developing capacity in the plastics processing industry in India.
The programme, run in collaboration with the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET), under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, trained 50 youth from less privileged backgrounds in Chennai in its first phase and is now aimed at training 90 more from Hyderabad and Ahmedabad in the next phase.
This collaboration is a part of SABIC’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) commitment to create lasting value across the economic, social, human and environmental dimensions, a press release from the company said.
The programme entails a six month residential skill development course including a full scholarship that covers course fee, boarding and lodging costs. The students were selected through a comprehensive screening process undertaken independently by CIPET. Based on a special curriculum developed by CIPET with inputs from SABIC, students in CIPET, Hyderabad will be trained on plastics extrusion while students in CIPET, Ahmedabad will be trained to operate Injection Moulding Machines.
Upon successful completion of the course, the students will be certified by CIPET and SABIC. These students will be equipped with skills to gain employment in various plastics processing hubs, the release said.
Speaking at the launch of the programme here yesterday, Janardhanan Ramanujalu, Vice President, SABIC South Asia & ANZ, said, “We are delighted to take our partnership with CIPET to the next level with the second phase of this skill development programme. After the overwhelming success of the first phase of the programme in Chennai, in which all graduates received employment offers, we look forward to enabling such high-potential youth in Ahmedabad and Hyderabad to access similar opportunities in the industry.”
“Given the potential of the plastics processing industry in India, we believe that this programme will add more skilled frontline workers to the industry and contribute to Government of India’s vision of making India a global manufacturing hub,” he said.
Dr. Pradeep Upadhyaya, Professor and Head, High Learning Centres, CIPET Ahmedabad said, “As the leading academic and research institute in the field of plastics, CIPET conducts programmes to equip people with skills that are in line with the latest requirements in the plastics industry. We believe that the success of such programmes rests heavily on collaboration with industry leaders such as SABIC, which help bring in industry orientation to the curriculum and greatly benefit students. We are confident that the skills acquired by the participants of this programme will help them capitalize on the opportunities presented by the growth in the plastics processing industry.”
The release said that, in alignment with SABIC’s global CSR policy, SABIC in India focuses its CSR efforts on the promotion of education, with special attention to less-privileged children and youth. Other SABIC CSR activities in the area of education include reconstruction of schools in Bengaluru and Vadodara and an eye-care campaign targeting 50,000 less-privileged students in government schools in Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon and Vadodara, to facilitate their education and empowering underprivileged women by undertaking skill development programme to develop useful articles using plastic waste, teaching children responsible ways to dispose plastic waste.
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