PUNE, India — Power management company Eaton announced the successful completion of the 6th season of the Garnishing Talent Program – an initiative focused on enhancing employability of women engineering students from vernacular, semi-vernacular, and rural backgrounds. Through a series of focused sessions delivered by a passionate team of Eaton’s employee volunteers in India, the program helps these students acquire soft and social skills that are critical to achieve professional success.
Commenting on this unique program, Nitin Chalke – managing director, India, Eaton said, “Garnishing Talent has been an outstanding opportunity for us to contribute our time, resources and skills to an extremely important population in the community. This is a cause that Eaton is deeply committed to and it is encouraging to see how the program has contributed to building a diverse, confident, industry-ready talent pool.”
Confederation of India Industry (CII) and Eaton, in collaboration with Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, had designed and launched the Garnishing Talent program in 2011. Eaton expanded the scope of the program in 2015 to include Padmashri Dr. Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil Institute of Technology & Engineering, Polytechnic College at Loni, Maharashtra.
Applauding the impact of the program, Suhas Pawar, Assistant Professor for Basic Science and Humanities at the Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, said, “Our students have benefitted from enhanced self-confidence and acquired techniques for improved communication, which is essential in the professional world. The dedicated and dynamic team from Eaton has made the program immensely popular among our students.”
The program takes a batch of selected students every year at the two colleges through a specially designed training framework, spread over six to eight weeks. Over the years, Eaton’s employee volunteers have conducted over 120 sessions in both these colleges on topics ranging from spoken English, networking skills, work ethics to social media and personal branding. The program has impacted more than 600 women engineers in the last six years.
Sharing her experience as a participant of the program, Ameya Manure, a student at the Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune, remarked, “The program has equipped my friends and me with skills that are really critical for personal and professional success. Sessions conducted by the team from Eaton immensely helped us in building our confidence. Garnishing Talent is a wonderful program and I highly recommend it.”
Garnishing Talent is one of the many initiatives that Eaton drives in India that is focused on encouraging women in engineering. Eaton also runs a unique scholarship program called ‘Pratibha’ for women students in some of the top tier engineering colleges in India, including IIT Chennai, IIT Kanpur, College of Engineering, Pune and Cummins College of Engineering for Women, Pune. To encourage all-round personal development, the program evaluates women engineering students not only on academic performance but also their achievements in extra-curricular and community activities. Over the last three years, Eaton has awarded Pratibha scholarships to 36 multi-faceted women engineering students across India.
Tagged with Eaton, engineering, India, tED, Women in Industry