Future Group’s Kishore Biyani and founder of Shoppers’ Stop BS Nagesh created two of India’s biggest retail groups through their respective ventures. Now the duo has trained their eyes on creating skills for the booming retail sector.
Biyani’s Future Learning has tied up with National Skill Development Corporation to train almost 7 million people in various skills including retail over the next 10 years.
On the other hand, Nagesh has floated a non-profit organisation called Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN) to impart not only skill development, but also provide other knowledge, including English language and etiquette, among others.
Nagesh says the retail industry has given him fame and money and has, therefore, founded the trust in a bid to give back to the sector.
He says a study conducted by his newly floated group has found that shop floor staff’s inability to speak English as one of the prominent problems faced by them.
TRRAIN has tied up with Aptech to come up with a module to impart basic English skill to the front-end employees. Then there was a hitch that the retailer companies won’t send their employees to training centres. That’s where Nagesh decided to take the training to their doorsteps.
Nagesh invested R5.5 lakh to purchase a shipping container, installed air-conditioning in it and placed it in the underground parking lot of Inorbit Mall in Mumbai. Since October, TRRAIN has imparted English skills to about 100 store employees who spared one to two hours daily for a daily payment of R49. About six dozen store employees are currently visiting the shipping container to get English lessons. The nascent retail sector that is growing at a faster pace than many of the other sectors will create about 3 million jobs in the next three to five years. So everyone is doing their bits to train people in retail skills. Bharti Walmart, a wholesale retailing joint venture between US-based Wal-Mart Stores and New Delhi-based Bharti Enterprises, has opened several centers to train people in retail.
Meanwhile, Retailers Association of India, an umbrella organisation of more than 400 modern retailers, through the partnership with NSDC called Retailers Association Skill Council of India, it plans to train 5 million people in retail expertise in the next 10 years.
The RASCI initiative plans to target schools in various state to start retail vocational education where students can learn through mock store and interactions. ?These kinds of vocational topics are discussed in countries like Australia, the US and the UK. And we are planning to start in schools in India,? says Kumar Rajagopalan, chairman of the retail association.
Meanwhile, the government is likely to increase the foreign investment (FDI) ceiling to 100% from the present 51% in single-brand retail in the Union Cabinet meeting scheduled for Thursday, sources said. Most of the ministries, including the finance and the textiles, are in favour of the industry ministry’s proposal to open the sector to foreign players.
