VFS Global and Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) in association with Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council, undertook hospitality training of 25 young women from the marginalised communities. The 150-hour training programme was conducted at PMKK Lucknow through an affiliated training partner Mahendra Skills. All participants were awarded with completion certificates and 16 participants received full-time employment offers with an average salary if INR 10,000 per month from some of the leading employers of the Tourism & Hospitality industry.

The training programme aimed at –

• Providing meaningful employment opportunities to women from marginalised communities.
• Developing the technical and behavioural capabilities of the participants and helping them to build a career within Tourism & Hospitality industry.
• Improving earning potential by bringing them into the formal workforce.

This programme is aligned with VFS Global’s focus on women empowerment and youth skilling in India and was initiated to support WITT – TAAI’s social initiative to support women in the travel and tourism sector.

“CSR initiatives for skill development is a wonderful initiative. There are many youths who after completing school education are not able to afford courses which can help them to get gainful employment opportunities. Through this special initiative, female youths will get hyper local job opportunities and add substantially to their household income. More and more women skilled workers are joining the travel, tourism & hospitality industry and there will be a day when they play more than equal role in the countries employment scenario.”

Ms Jyoti Mayaal, President TAAI

“Caring for our Communities is an important pillar of our Sustainability strategy, and we continue to support communities around us through strategic collaborations with industry partners and credible social organisations while aligning with local needs and government priorities”

Ms Sukanya Chakraborty, Chief Communications Officer & Head of CSR

Mr Rajan Bahadur CEO THSC conveyed his special thanks to TAAI & VFS for giving this opportunity to THSC and its partners. An initiative like this by an Industry body of Tourism & Hospitality sector will build trust and confidence among job seekers who are aspiring to join the ever-growing sector. He also appreciated the efforts taken by partners for mobilising a special batch of Women Skilled workers and wished them the very best for their future.

THSC, established in 2014, is an apex body for vocational education & skill development in India focusing on Tourism & Hospitality. Since inception in 2014, THSC has successfully certified over 11 lakh youth. Having a network of 600+ Institutes, 100+ Colleges & 2000+ Industry Members, THSC’s vision is to create a robust industry-aligned skilling ecosystem to promote Tourism & Hospitality sector and meet its mission of impacting millions of beneficiaries to get respectable employment opportunities for serving customers’ needs.

VFS Global is the world’s largest visa outsourcing and technology services specialist for governments and diplomatic missions worldwide. The company manages the administrative and non-judgmental tasks related to visa, passport and consular services for its client governments. Through their CSR initiatives they wish to impact lives of youth by providing them skill development opportunities ensuring job readiness.

Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) was incorporated during 1951 and is India’s premier, nodal, largest, and oldest Travel & Tourism Association. TAAI has more than 2500 leading Indian companies as its members who are involved actively with Tourism.

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