The Hindu Business Line : Rural academies in AP to meet retail boom challenges

The sudden boom in the retail sector in Andhra Pradesh has thrown up challenging questions on the steady supply of quality goods at the outlets, as well as the human resources to man them.

On the HR front, there is some good news, with the sprouting of rural retail academies (RRAs). These academies will churn out job ready workforce for the retail chains.

Retail giants such as Reliance, Future Group, Café Coffee Day, Pizza Hut, Spencer's, Trinethra, Magna, Subhiksha etc. could well get `ready to employ' workforce in the near future, especially in the tier-II and rural areas.

Three academies have been set up for the first time in Andhra Pradesh in the districts of Warangal, West Godavari and Visakhapatnam. Employment Generation and Marketing Mission (EGMM), a public-private partnership initiative of the Rural Development Department of the State has taken up this mission.

According to Mr K. Raju, Principal Secretary, Rural Development, "Creating employment for the unemployed rural youth is the clear mandate of the State Government through the venture".

The teachers are local. About 700 students taken in are unemployed youth from the poorest of families and the infrastructure used is unused Government buildings. The EGMM targets the economically and socially disadvantaged youth in the villages to benefit from these academies.

Major role

The self-help groups (SHGs), which are spread across the entire State, play a significant role in identifying the needy youth to be trained at the academies. These SHGs are run by rural women and have formed a formidable network in Andhra Pradesh.

The youth are classified according to their qualifications and aspirations and given an appropriate training in the district. In 2006-07, 15,000 youth have been linked to entry-level jobs in companies such as McDonald, Wipro, Dell etc. The incomes ranged between Rs 24,000 in the district to Rs 60,000 in the metros, according to the EGMM.

According to estimates, entry-level retailing jobs in the southern States would be around 5 lakhs in the next two years. When the retail boom extends beyond the urban areas into smaller towns, the demands for trained youth will be huge. The academies whose number would grow, will cater to part of the demands.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Retailing | Andhra Pradesh | Rural Development

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