SAP Labs India ties up with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) to train youth for employability
New Delhi, India, January 25, 2014: SAP Labs India today announced that in the first year of its partnership with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), the program has exceeded its first-year target to successfully train 38 mentors, who have in turn trained 72 entrepreneurs across India on various aspects of running a successful business. In addition, SAP senior executives are mentoring growth companies such as, Involute Automation and Vaatsalya.
Executive Director at National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) India K. Srikrishna said, “Emerging entrepreneurs are poised to play a vital role in driving economic growth and addressing societal needs while building successful ventures that create new jobs. The National Entrepreneurship Network’s goal, through collaborations with SAP, is to inspire, educate and support this breed of entrepreneurs by providing mentorship, knowledge, skill building and access to capital and technology needed to succeed.”
Involute Institute of Technical Training (IITT), the job skills training arm of Involute Automation, was able to overcome business growth challenges to quickly scale its operations and training network with mentorship from SAP senior executives. Over the past ten months, SAP mentors guided IITT’s leadership to optimize business processes, create an information management system and develop standard operating procedures; enabling it to open facilities in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The expanded network has enabled IITT to train and place 3,200 youth in appropriate jobs to date, putting it in close reach of its goal to train 4,000 socio-economically disadvantaged people by March of 2014. IITT expects its newly gained business efficiencies and expanded capacities to allow it to train 8,000 youth in India this year. The institute aims to skill 140,000 unskilled and semi-skilled youth for employment readiness over the next ten years.
SAP mentors also work with hospital network Vaatsalya’s senior leadership team, utilizing Design Thinking methodologies to find innovative answers on how to bring adequate quality healthcare to large communities living in rural India.
In 2014, the second year of SAP’s partnership with NEN, SAP is committed to training 30 more mentors, who will in turn train 120 emerging entrepreneurs. SAP also hopes to directly mentor between five and seven growth businesses this year and augment their growth with technology solutions.
Managing Director for SAP Labs India Anirban Dey said, “We are proud to be a partner in enabling NEN and organizations such as Involute to achieve their goals and generate employment opportunities. We believe entrepreneurs are key leaders of innovation and SAP is committed to supporting these endeavors in the long term through our skills-based volunteering and mentorship; and also through providing talent, technology and capital.”
SAP’s work with NEN is part of the company’s regional and global CSR commitment to entrepreneurship, education and technology sharing, in pursuance of its mission to help the world run better and improve people’s lives.
