Dubai-based  Entrepreneur from Aligarh establishes the first Centre of Skill Development Academy in India

ALIGARH : More than three decades back a young lad from a non descript village near Harduagunj in Aligarh district who had just graduated from the Aligarh Muslim university left this city for uncharted lands . He belonged to a Muslim Rajput family which  had moved to Aligarh where he and his siblings were all fortunate enough to complete their higher education at the AMU.  Sometime in the mid nineteen eighties Tariq  Chauhan with an empty pocket but eye full of dreams headed for Bombay for trying his luck at the corporate capital of India . He started at the bottom of the ladder but the rough and tumble of the business hub in India taught him many a vital lesson . He decided to resign from his job and try his luck in the magic city of Dubai .  Then fortune smiled and sheer dint of hard work he started his climb to dizzy heights.  Today he is co founder and owner of  a company with an annual turn over of over three billion dollars with operations in 25 countries of the world. He has more than twenty five thousand people working for him out which nearly two thirds are Indian. He is a prominent member of the India Business council at Dubai . But Tariq Chauhan has not forgotten his roots and so decided that it was his payback time for him to do something for his native city Aligarh and his country.  In a pioneering step aimed at the upskilling and modernizing India’s huge talented work force Tariq is through his EFS GROUP  setting up Training centres all over the country which would enable India’s workforce to acquire skills in various trades which would enable them to get employed all over the globe . The first such centre was inaugurated at Aligarh yesterday.  This entire project is in collaboration with the government of India under its ” skill India ” Project .

Inaugurating the first branch of the Skills Development Academy, established by the Dubai-based EFS Group at Aligarh today, the Managing Director of the National Skill Development Corporation of India (NSDCI), Mr. Ved Mani Tiwari said that the opening of the first branch of this Academy, which is working in tandem with Skill India Mission, is a landmark event in India’s leap to become the skill capital of the world.

Tiwari said that by taking this pioneering step, the EFS Group, which is a global leader in integrated facilities management services, would serve as a role model in bringing the Indian workforce at par with international standards and would thus provide a major boost not only to Indian industry but also open the doors to the Indian workforce for enabling to equip themselves for entering the international market.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tariq Chauhan, the Dubai-based Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of the EFS Group, said that within the next few weeks, his organization will be signing MoUs with the NSDC for opening similar centres in three other parts of the country, including Orissa, Meghalaya and Hyderabad.

He said that a special feature of this Academy is that each centre would be providing high-quality training through short courses to about 2-5 thousand workers for upskilling. He said that the Aligarh Centre would be open to applicants not only from Aligarh but from all over western UP where they will not only acquire skills with the latest international trends but would serve as the passport for them to seek employment in the Middle East and the West, especially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as the EFS Academy has been officially authorised to issue certificates to those pass these short term courses, thus enabling them to get employment in that part of the world.

He said that initially established in the year 2000, the EFS Group is operating in 25 Middle East, Asia and South African countries, and its clientele includes top 300 global multinational companies of the world

Later, while talking to newspersons, Tariq Chauhan, in reply to a question said that he had decided to establish the first centre of his organization in Aligarh primarily because he belongs to this city and is a product of the AMU. He said that the driving force behind this venture is to make a “humble contribution by paying back his debt to his home country and his home city”. He said there was no profit motive behind this step and it was just a token of his gratitude to his native place.

He said that this step marks the first step between his Dubai-based organization and the Government of India, especially the Ministry of Education, in upskilling the mammoth workforce in India which is highly talented but needs a massive effort in modernizing its skills.

Presently, the main thrust of the centre is to provide skill training to workers and technicians in the field of electrical services, plumbing, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, he added.

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