(1888PressRelease)
February 22, 2009 - Bangalore : This unique training program is aimed at matriculates, college dropouts and other unemployed youth to enable them to gain access to entry level job opportunities in the organized retail outlets across the country. In India, this is the first ever national level independent training venture targeted at entry level positions for the retail sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms.Suki Iyer, CEO, MetaMorph said “Shortage of skilled manpower in the retail industry is most acute as far as entry level store personnel are concerned. Ironically, every retailer also recognises store personnel as the most important people in determining the success of retail stores, a point repeatedly made by Kishore Biyani of the Future Group in his book on retail. The fastest growing jobs in the retail sector are also at the entry level. Inspite of all talk of a retail slowdown, in keeping with the general slowdown, the retail industry is expected to generate 20+ lakh jobs in the next seven years, and out of that 70% openings will be at the entry level. Add to this, an attrition rate of 40% at the entry level and the need for and opportunity in training becomes obvious”.
Though the criticality of entry level personnel is well recognised, currently there are no national level training institutes offering structured training programs aimed at creating trained and skilled entry level employees. MetaMorph seeks to bridge this gap through the REACH program. REACH will offer its services to retail Houses for training and recruitment of entry level store personnel. Reach will offer Hiring support, pre and post-hire support, training programs for existing personnel to the retail sector. REACH is also in a strategic partnership with Team Lease, India’s leading staffing company that provides temporary and permanent manpower solutions to the retail industry among others. In addition, Reach is also working with NGOs like Karnataka based Ujjivan and Myrada in training people from disadvantaged sections of the society and helping them get employment in the retail sector.
REACH seeks to meet the socio-economic objective of up-skilling un-employed youth and giving them an opportunity to be part of the growing organised sector. By 2011, 25% of all retail trade is expected to be in the organised sector. Through its training REACH aims to create locally available, industry ready, well trained manpower to service this requirement. REACH will have tie-ups with leading retailers to employ trained candidates. Already companies like Reliance and Arvind Brands are on board and more are expected in the coming months. REACH targets training and placing over 1.5 lakh candidates in the next 3 years.
The REACH program is planned to be delivered across the country through different delivery partners. REACH is partnering with Hughes NetFusion to deliver the program at Hughes satellite training centres all over the country. The course delivery will have a unique model that will include conceptual learning via Virtual Classrooms and Self-paced Learning along with practical exposure through Store visits and Experiential Assignments. For developing its e-learning platforms, REACH is in strategic partnership with Ballistic Learning, Moodle’s development partner for India.
“We will offer a structured training program that will include Basic English, Grooming, Communication, Workplace & inter-personal skills. Also included will be training in basic retail job skills like customer service, sales and operations. These skills are not just important in getting entry level jobs but are also critical from a career growth perspective. Today there are a lot of store personnel in retail stores who have not undergone any formal training program before they were employed. Many of them struggle to go up the retail value chain in terms of careers. In contrast a candidate who has undergone formal, structured training could see his salary more than triple in just 2 years time and during which he/she could up from a Customer Service Associate to being a Deputy Store Manager”, Ms. Iyer said.
“Going forward, Vertical growth will come by focusing on specialised retail categories like Apparel, Electronics and Consumer Durables, Lifestyle and even Rural Retail. We will also grow horizontally by including other skill sets in our curriculum”, she added
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