India’s largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India on Tuesday announced that it has partnered with Tata Institute of Social Sciences – School of Vocational Education (TISS-SVE), Mumbai, to train youth in automotive retail.
Under the partnership, the company and TISS-SVE will offer a customised three-year Bachelor of Vocation (B.Voc.) in Retail Management with specialisation in Automotive Retail.
The programme will impart industry-relevant technical and soft skills to the youth, making them readily employable in the automobile retail value chain.
Manoj Agrawal, Executive Vice President, Maruti Suzuki India and Professor Shalini Bharat, Vice-Chancellor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, signed the partnership agreement today in a virtual ceremony.
Named as ‘Sales Master,’ the three-year programme will comprise one-year classroom training followed by two-year on-the-job training at Maruti Suzuki authorised dealerships.
The course curriculum, co-created by Maruti Suzuki and Tata Institute of Social Sciences – School of Vocational Education, is in line with the UGC guidelines and covers full-spectrum business processes of the automobile trade.
These include Basics of Automobile Technology, Sales, Customer Relationship Management, Auto Finance, Auto Insurance, etc. Apart from giving hands-on experience at the dealerships, the students will also be taught Japanese work culture, soft skills, etc., which are essential for their growth in the automobile retail environment. Industry experts will be imparting these best practices during the course of the programme.
Sessions for the first batch of the academic year 2021-22 will start from October 2021. In addition, under the ’Earn while Learn’ concept, the students will also get an opportunity to earn a stipend during their on-the-job training at the dealerships.
Manoj Agrawal, Executive Vice President, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said that one of the automobile industry's key challenges is the availability of skilled personnel. 'With our association with Tata Institute of Social Sciences - School of Vocational Education, we aim to bridge this skill gap,' he added.
Professor Shalini Bharat, Vice-Chancellor, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, said the industry integrated programme will provide theoretical and practical knowledge to students with regular industry interaction and on-the-job training. The course will allow the students to build a promising career in automobile sales in India.
Maruti Suzuki’s tie-up with TISS-SVE is in continuation of its effort to offer skill-based training programmes to youth across the country.
Earlier, the company initiated similar courses with Shri Vishwakarma Skill University in Gurugram, Haryana, GLS University in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and Savitribai Phule Pune University Pune, Maharashtra.