JOIN USAccording to the report Strong and Steady 2011, released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), India’s retail sector, which is currently estimated at about 500 billion USD, is expected to grow to 900 USD billion by 2014.
Even though the retail market is experiencing tremendous growth, it is facing a huge skill gap and absence of a reliable channel for hiring a quality frontline workforce. To bridge this gap, Bharti Walmart in partnership with Centum Learning is striving to address these issues. The Bharti Walmart Training Centre is one such endeavour in partnership with the Governments of Karnataka, Delhi and Punjab. The programme is aimed at bridging the shortage of skilled resources in the rapidly growing retail sector by empowering the youth from traditionally economically weaker sections of society.
Course specifics
Bharti Walmart Training Centres run three, short-term vocational programmes to equip candidates as floor associates, business development associates and team leaders. A candidate must be a Class 12 graduate (Bangalore centre will accept Class 10 graduates too), above the age of 18. Each student undergoes a stringent selection, training and certification process, using an ‘Employability’ model.
Successful candidates are co-certified by Bharti Walmart and Centum Learning on the basis of written evaluations conducted at the end of the programme.
Courses include Floor Associate (Duration: 2 weeks) involving a 48-hour training module on retail, cash and carry, associate roles and responsibilities, customer service, sales and communication skills; Business Development Associate (Duration: 2 weeks) course with a 48-hour training module on roles and responsibilities of a BDA, targeting customers, pre-sales preparation, post-sales customer service, day planning and communication skills; The Team Leader (Duration: 3 weeks) course is a 72-hour training programme on developing leadership traits.
All enrolled candidates are awarded 100 per cent scholarships by Bharti Walmart.
Placements
In Bangalore, the Bharti Walmart training centre was launched in March 2011. The programme has helped place 134 students through job placements in leading companies and has trained 1, 314 students in modern retail.
Apart from training the youth in various categories of retail, the centres also provide placement support free-of-cost. Successful candidates from the training centre are not only employed by Bharti Walmart but are also hired by other leading brands.
Value addition
Centum Learning is responsible for sourcing, deploying a stringent selection process, training and certifying the candidates. It also employs a sourcing approach which includes presentations in colleges, seminars in rural areas, display of collaterals in colleges and villages and referral schemes to mobilise and attract local talent.
These courses have been designed in partnership with Walmart and is the first to train its students in the ‘Cash-n-Carry’ model as it is a new concept that has recently been introduced to the India market. Students, on successfully completing the course, are co-certified by Centum Learning Limited and Karnataka Vocational Skills Training Development Corporation.