The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : LABS to train 1.5 lakh youth LABS to train 1.5 lakh youth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 25, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

LABS to train 1.5 lakh youth LABS to train 1.5 lakh youth

Staff Reporter

Aims to expand scope of activities internationally

HYDERABAD: Eight years since its inception, Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) of the Dr. Reddy's Foundation, is expanding its scope of activities nationally and internationally. And by this year-end, it aims to train 1.25 lakh youth in the country of which 35,000 are to be from Andhra Pradesh alone.

"We are into a mission mode for the next 15 years for the cause of the school drop outs to help them fit into the 40 million workforce India is to provide to rest of the world by developing and upgrading their skills," said Nalini Gangadharan, Executive Director, Dr. Reddy's Foundation, here on Sunday.

Entry-level chances

Addressing a press conference, she said that DRF (www.drreddysfoundation.org) was already working with the Government, corporates and others and it was open for tie-ups with any organisation - private or public, willing to help in life, learning and livelihoods of the young from the poor sections of the society.

LABS is a new economy livelihood promotion programme designed for dropouts, unemployed secondary school students, street youth, migrant youth, etc., among the urban poor. From 1997, it has been to train more than 25,000 youth and provide them entry-level opportunities in different corporates in financial services, telecom, IT, retail, ITES, healthcare, hospitality and so on.

Ms. Gangadharan said the industry was more receptive to taking LABS products as exemplified in the Taj Group of Hotels agreeing to recruit them in their expansion of properties and `Naukri.com' coming forward to put their CVs of the students on its website. An entire eSeva office in the city was also being manned by LABS trained youth.

Banks like the ICICI too has come forward to help fund its entrepreneurship programme for skill training. "We are also into upgrading the skills of our alumni wanting to grow up the ladder," she said.

LABS was functioning in 178 centres all over the country and three abroad. Its operations are to cover States of Gujarat, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, UP, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Nicobar islands. Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Nepal and China are among the overseas destinations.

DRF resource persons including Child and Police Project Director, Gurpreet Bhatia, Sriram, Lakshmi, Mrinalini and others spoke about their areas of work.

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