In order to give an opportunity to meritorious girls from economically challenged backgrounds to realize their dreams in the field of technology, ABB and Lila Poonawalla Foundation (LPF) have collaborated together on a holistic merit-cum-need based scholarship program. Every year Lila Poonawalla selects 100 girls and they are supported by ABB to pursue an engineering degree and develop core skills and competencies so that they can sustain in this competitive world without worrying about their family financial constraints.
The program focuses beyond academics so as to equip girls with all-rounded experience. ABB employees themselves volunteer to impart industry knowledge to the selected girls through well structured, pre-planned sessions. By doing this students receive real time experience and can improve their problem solving skills too. Currently 600 girl students have been provided virtual training by ABB employees, for over 50 hours. The volunteers of ABB have interacted with students to introduce students to a technical subjects like Data Analytics, Cyber Security, Industry 4.0 etc.
Lila Poonawalla, Chairperson, Lila Poonawala Foundation and a recipient of Padma Shri award has extended his gratitude towards ABB and its volunteers for their initiative to share the real time knowledge with the girls. He also said that the partnership with ABB, will enable these girls to pursue their BE or BTech degree in the discipline of their choice and thus realise their dreams.
"Education and Skill enhancement has been one of the core areas for our local CSR initiatives. Our as-sociation with Lila Poonawalla Foundation for a holistic scholarship and skill building program is a small step towards enabling outstanding young girls to become the future leaders in technology and bring about a more equitable world, Considering the overwhelming response we’ve been receiving for our ABB volunteering initiative, we are planning to scale up this initiative and develop a holistic mentorship program to enable ABB employees to mentor these girls on an ongoing basis and accelerate their learning curve," said Sanjeev Sharma, Country Managing Director, ABB India.
Academic knowledge and scores are not enough to compete with the peers, it has to be supplemented with desirable skills and practical knowledge. We require more number of women role models in the field of technology too and it is possible if more such partnerships and volunteers come up to support women. Besides the volunteering initiative of ABB, multiple interventions are introduced by LPF to ensure a comprehensive training and development for the scholarship recipients.
At present, the scholarship program is open to engineering colleges in Pune, Wardha, Amravati District and Nagpur city from Maharashtra and from four Hyderabad districts from Telangana. Interested girls with a strong academic back-ground can apply for the scholarship with Lila Poonawalla Foundation in the month of July every year.
