Around 170 students have benefitted from this program in the past two years. This year 103 students have been shortlisted for the program. The students are from mechanical, instrumentation, information technology, computer science and electronics & telecommunications disciplines of engineering.
How much of the course is practical? Chalke says that there is a lot of emphasis on the practical aspects. "We recognise that the industry today requires confident and industry-ready talent pool and we are happy that we have been able to contribute resources and skills for this cause. It is encouraging to see the program maturing into what we had envisioned."
Given the immense value of this programme to the industry and society, is Eaton looking to tie-up with any recognised university or educational institute to further enhance the scope of this programme? "Yes, ‘Ignited innovators of India' is another initiative by Eaton in association with College of Engineering, Pune (COEP).
The initiative is aimed at providing a platform to students who aspire to become social entrepreneurs and intend to bring in small yet significant changes in the world around them. Eaton has been providing mentoring, funding and networking support to the participants at every stage of their project lifecycle. Eaton has supported this program since 2011," Chalke shares.
Traditionally, very few women take up hardcore engineering jobs that would expose them directly to the shopfloor. Does Eaton encourage more female employees on its shopfloors? Chalke says that Eaton firmly believes openness to diversity widens our access to the best talent and inclusion allows the organisation to engage the talent optimally.
"We foster an inclusive environment by reinforcing behaviours that recognise value and leverage the different perspectives and backgrounds of our employees. These unique perspectives help us generate more innovative ideas and make better decisions for our company and customers," he says.
In fact, every year diversity workshops for women and physically challenged engineering students are organised as part of Eaton's India University Relations initiative. "We initiate diversity centric activities every year at plants to encourage women to take up shop-floor roles."
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