The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the Information Technology (IT) giant, Infosys Foundation, made an announcement on Wednesday, July 3, which is set to benefit over 450 colleges located in rural pockets of India.

The foundation will launch Centers of Excellence for Women and Youth Empowerment, which will serve as points of skill development and training which will be done online and offline as well. They will also enable job placements in Tier II and III cities of India, stated a report by The New Indian Express.

Financial services and insurance, knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), e-commerce, retail, Information Technology, logistics, banking are a few of the fields that the students will be trained in over three years. The target is to train 48,000 students.

It is in partnership with the NGO ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu that these centres will be established. With an 80-hour curriculum which includes training in core skills and 20 hours of soft skills training, other activities like placements, summits that empower youngsters, coding to solve real-world issues and so on will be offered.

V Srikanth, Chief Executive Officer, ICT Academy, the NGO that works on employability and training, shared that with rapidly evolving industry requirements, the demand for a highly skilled workforce is at an all-time high. "For graduate students, this translates to enhanced employability and greater career opportunities," he says speaking about the centres.

“The initiative will improve their industry readiness and employability in today’s dynamic talent landscape,” added Sumit Virmani, Trustee of Infosys Foundation.