Date:25/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/04/25/stories/2005042501401300.htm

Back Dr Reddy's Foundation to train 1.25 lakh youth

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , April 24

THE Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS), the flagship programme of Dr Reddy's Foundation (DRF), proposes to expand its scope of activities both in the country and overseas.

"We aim to train 1.25 lakh youth in the country by the year-end. Of this, 35,000 would be from Andhra Pradesh," the DRF Executive Director, Ms Nalini Gangadharan, told reporters here on Sunday.

LABS is a new economy livelihood promotion programme custom-designed for school dropouts, unemployed secondary school graduates, street youth, retrenched workers, migrant youth and resettlement community members.

According to Ms Gangadharan, DRF aims to provide 10 lakh livelihoods by the year 2010. Towards this, it proposes to partner with governments, businesses and NGOs across the country and the East Asian Region.

LABS has so far trained thousands of youth and provided them with entry-level opportunities in different corporates in financial services, telecom, information technology, retail, healthcare and hospitality.

LABS is currently functioning in 178 centres across the country and three centres overseas.