Accenture Grants Quest Alliance India an Additional US$623,000 to Equip Disadvantaged Young People with Career Readiness Skills

Accenture and Quest Alliance India today announced that Accenture and the Accenture Foundations have awarded Quest Alliance India an additional grant of US$623,000 to help the organization provide approximately 3,000 disadvantaged young people with career and workplace skills. The grant brings Accenture's direct support to Quest Alliance India to more than US$950,000 since 2009.

The award reflects Accenture's global corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed, which will equip 250,000 people around the world by 2015 with the skills to get a job or build a business. The grant, which consists of cash as well as the time and skills of Accenture employees, will allow Quest Alliance India to work with nonprofit vocational training partners to develop and implement a blended learning curriculum in English and workplace readiness. The curriculum, which will combine face-to-face classroom instruction with computer-mediated activities, will focus on retail customer interaction skills.

“Supporting Quest Alliance India helps exemplify Accenture's commitment to building skills and improving the communities in which we live and work,” said Jill Huntley, managing director of corporate citizenship at Accenture. “Quest is proving it's possible to develop replicable and scalable programs that teach crucial job skills and help disadvantaged young people.”

“India's workforce is quite young and in need of formal training so we are constantly seeking ways to provide disadvantaged young people with the skills necessary to find long-term employment and to provide for themselves and their families,” said Aakash Sethi, founder and executive director of Quest Alliance. “Working with Accenture and leveraging their technology and skills has allowed us to enhance the capacity and quality of our training significantly.”