10000 tribal youth benefit from Maruti Suzuki and Gujarat government’s driving training initiative

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), India’s leading passenger vehicle maker, today announced milestone achievement of training 10,000 tribal youth in professional driving in ‘All Gujarat Institute of Driving, Technical Training and Research (AGIDTTR)’ located at Waghodia, Gujarat.

Set up as a public-private-partnership between the Ministry of Tribal Development (Gujarat) and Maruti Suzuki in 2009, AGIDTTR has consistently focused on providing gainful employment opportunities to the tribal youth through comprehensive driver training programs.

Mr. R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said, “Our objective is to make the students employment ready through driving training and soft skills, and help them get suitable employment. These youth have shown tremendous enthusiasm in improving their quality of life. With support from the state government the institute has witnessed an increase in enrollment as compared to same time last year. We are optimistic on sustaining the momentum and providing the youth with opportunities through more such establishments.”

About AGIDTTR

Set up under the Gujarat Government’s Vanbandhu Welfare Scheme, AGIDTTR is specifically targeted at the tribal students concentrated in the eastern belt who work at farms as labourers and at construction sites. In the 45-day residential training programme the youth are imparted with driving skills and soft skills such as basic English-speaking, table manners, workplace etiquette, yoga, crafts, map reading and entrepreneurship.

Spread across 20 acres, the institute comprises a driving track, classrooms and lab infrastructure along with four simulators and 18 vehicles for driving training. It has witnessed an impressive placement rate of 73 percent, with employers including large scale companies across diverse verticals such as pharmaceuticals, food & beverage, auto manufacturers and telecom.

Further, scaling up its efforts Maruti Suzuki has now introduced a new course for Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV). The training will be done on the recently launched Super Carry. At present driving training is offered for light motor vehicles (LMV), heavy motor vehicles (HMV), HMV trucks and forklifts.

The LCV module will benefit the learners through:

• Aspects of cargo handling like loading/unloading, vehicle placement, weather proofing etc.
• Transportation of cargo - route planning & delivery
• Features of a light commercial vehicle – Super carry
• Fuel efficiency for transport vehicles
• Safety precautions in transportation of cargo

Maruti Suzuki’s driving training initiative:

Maruti Suzuki started its driving training initiative in 2000 as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. The Company currently manages six IDTRs in partnership with state governments, including two each in Delhi and Haryana. The Company has also set up over 370 Maruti Suzuki Driving Schools (MDS) in partnership with dealers. MDS are neighborhood driving schools for training individuals on passenger vehicles. Over the years Maruti Suzuki has laid down standards for quality driving training, including a dynamic curriculum covering theory and practical sessions. The Company uses state-of-the-art driving simulators and training vehicles and has developed instructors to impart quality training.