The manufacturing sector has always been dominated by men. However, women employees are now slowly making their presence felt on the shopfloor as well as other manufacturing related divisions. The good news is that the industry too is keen to promote participation of female employees in key engineering roles. In fact, many like Eaton are also addressing the issue at the grass root level.

Eaton has recently launched the third batch of ‘Garnishing Talent' in association with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Cummins College of Engineering for Women (Pune). This is a two-month program, which is aimed at enhancing the employability of women engineering students. This year the program includes third year engineering students as well as students from second year who have joined after completing diploma courses.

The Garnishing Talent initiative assists women engineering students from vernacular and semi-vernacular backgrounds to acquire soft and social skills. For the third consecutive year, Eaton will provide funding and training support to the participating students from Cummins College. Hundred students from engineering disciplines such as mechanical, instrumentation, information technology, computer science and electronics & telecommunications will be identified through a defined assessment process. A team of 16 Eaton employee volunteers will design and impart focused training sessions for the students.

Nitin Chalke, Managing Director - India, Eaton, is happy to get associated with the program for the third consecutive year as it gives Eaton an opportunity to further strengthen its efforts and belief in ‘Inclusion & Diversity. "Soft skills are important for individual and professional development. I am confident that the participants of this program will benefit from this unique experience," he says.

So what motivated Eaton to start this initiative? Chalke believes that through this programme, Eaton has taken its Skill Development and Affirmative Action initiatives a step further. "The program is a reiteration of Eaton's commitment to enhancing employability of the student community. The program is focused on equipping students from vernacular, semi-vernacular and rural background with appropriate soft and social skills critical to achieve individual and professional success.

The program leverages Eaton's association with leading academic institutions in Pune region and facilitates interactive sessions between students and experienced trainers from Eaton." The success of the programme since last two years has encouraged Eaton to support this significant cause yet again.