New Delhi, July 22, 2020.

Airtel Payments Bank and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) today announced a partnership to skill youth in rural India and enable them to find employment opportunities within the financial services industry.

Financial services, viz. banking, payments, insurance and allied services – are growing rapidly in the country and in particular, the underpenetrated markets comprising of villages and Tier 4/5/6 towns. These services present a massive opportunity in tandem with the Government’s vision for financial inclusion. Youth population coming from the emerging markets has the potential to be a part of this growth journey.    

The partnership aims to combine NSDC’s rich experience, deep training infrastructure, and wide network with Airtel Payment Bank’s industry insights to design and conduct targeted skill development programs for rural youth.

·                  The Skill Development Programs will be tailored for imparting knowledge and skills for entry-level jobs such as Business Correspondent, Field Sales Executive, etc among others within the financial services sector. There will be a strong focus on adoption of digital tools to drive online banking and digital financial services given the growing penetration of affordable smartphones and 4G networks in the country.  

·                  Airtel Payments Bank and NSDC will leverage their industry linkages and help the participants in finding suitable jobs.

·                  The partnership will also encourage skill trainees to become entrepreneurs, such as distributors/resellers of financial services, thereby creating employment opportunities for people in their local geographies.

Further, Airtel Payments Bank will also conduct an awareness drive at NSDC’s training centres. Under this drive, the Bank will organize sessions highlighting importance of digital banking, its benefits and also provide hand on digital banking experience during these sessions.

This collaboration will also extend to Eskill India, NSDC’s digital skilling initiative. Special learning modules will be built to create awareness about digital financial service and will be introduced on the platform.

Commenting on the partnership, Dr. Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC said, “Financial inclusion empower people and promote ‘inclusive’ growth of the nation. Through our strategic partnership with Airtel Payments Bank, we aim at imparting the youth with knowledge and training that render financial and banking services more accessible to rural and semi-urban India.”

Mr. Anubrata Biswas, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Payments Bank, said, “India has the largest youth population in the world and a large proportion is residing in small towns and villages of the country. We believe they must become a key part of India’s growth journey and be able to fulfil their dreams and aspirations. We are delighted to partner with NSDC to empower our youth and build a financially inclusive India.”