Kashmiri youth to be trained as Retail Associates under Skill Development in the aspirational district Kupwara

@JournalistAadil

Srinagar: The Retail Associate Training Project (RATP) centre was inaugurated by 41RR Commanding Officer, Zonal Manager of IIFL Foundation Sahil Hamid and REACHA CEO Nikhil Pant on Tuesday. The centre is located at Sheikhul Aalam Complex, 3rd floor, near Kupwara bus stand. Kupwara Tehsildar Liaquat Ali, former Vice President Ghulam Mohammad Mir and other honoured guests were present at the program.

During the event, Ejaz, Mohsin, Abid, Rohilla and Kamarunisa from Strings of Baramulla, Chinar Jawan Club gave wonderful performances. The artists won everyone’s heart by singing a beautiful song. These children are trained under the joint aegis of Indian Army and REACHA from Art and Culture Centre, running at Chinar Jawan Club, Baramulla. ONGC is supporting this program.

The children were also honoured by Army Officers and REACHA for the excellent performance. Inauguration of the centre was done by cutting the ribbon.

During the program some students of the previous batch, namely – Safina, Ekra, Nilofar, and Kulsooma have shared their experience with the audience. Some of those trainees have also got jobs, they have also inspired other new children to come forward and join the course. The certification ceremony of previous batch trainees was also held during the event.

During this, the trainees were honoured with certificates by Richa’s CEO Nikhil Pant. IIFL Foundation, the CSR arm of IIFL group, is the funding agency of the Retail Associate Training project. REACHA is the implementing agency of this program. Indian Army is the overall custodian of the project. Vijay Prakash facilitated the opening ceremony session on behalf of REACHA.

The objective of the program is to provide market related Retail Associate training, with employability to the youth belonging to district Kupwara in Kashmir. Placements is the key for any skilling centre. The focus of the program will be to provide suitable employment to the students given the availability of jobs in Kupwara and surrounding towns. Srinagar and Jammu will also be explored for job placements, if the students are willing to relocate.

The aim of the project is to reach out to over 180 young men and women in Kupwara in order to bring holistic professional development enabling them to embark on a retail and marketing career path thereby contributing to the economic and social development of the country; students will undergo minimum 250 hours (both Technical and Practical).

Each batch will consist of 30 students, six batches will be conducted. The course duration will be 45-50 days. Classroom training along with field visits would be taken up.

REACHA has been working closely with the Indian Army in setting up and running various skill development and livelihood enhancement projects in Baramulla, Kashmir since 2016, and in Kupwara district since November, 2021. Both are the aspirational districts. Since then, many trainees have been trained in the field of retail and entrepreneurship development.

This effort has meaningfully contributed in strengthening the hands of the Indian Army as part of peaceful means to counter insurgency in Kashmir. REACHA has partnered with RASCI for providing course curriculum, assessments, and certification.

Retail associate training for a batch is already ongoing in Kupwara. Course duration will include core training module focusing on work related training customised as per RASCI and Soft skill training focussing for grooming, dress code, communication skills, resume making and confidence building for attending interviews. Retail Associate training will also include basic computer skills, basic retail and selling skills and customer services and sales related training.

Eligibility criteria for beneficiaries is that youth should belong to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) from rural and urban areas of Aspirational District Kupwara, Kashmir. The minimum qualification for the training module is 12th pass, age bracket is 18 to 28 years and willing to work in this industry, with focus on employability.