High-Calibre Business Leaders From the UK and India to Tackle the 'Skills Gap' Challenge

LONDON and BANGALORE, India, October 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

With employers often frustrated that they cannot find suitably skilled new talent despite the millions of unemployed in search of jobs, how do we ensure appropriate skills development to bridge this apparent gap between education and employability?

This is the challenge that participants on the Dishaa Venture, run by leadership development organisation Common Purpose, will be tackling this week in Mysore, India. Dishaa aims to expand, enrich and energise relations between India and the UK by investing in the development of the next generation of leaders from the two countries.

Many of the participants are from member organisations of the India UK CEO Forum^[1], their presence showing how crucial tackling this challenge will be for stimulating global economic growth.

Business sector participants will be working with those from the public sector and NGOs to foster discussion and build shared approaches to this challenge. The diverse group of participants, 19 from the UK and 19 from India, are skilled and respected practitioners in their fields and looking to effect change both in their organisations and wider society.

Organisations participating in Dishaa include:

• Titan Industries
• PwC
• Fidelity Investments
• BESCOM
• Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement
• HOPE Foundation

During the Venture, based at the Infosys Leadership Institute in Mysore from 2 October to 6 October, participants will meet with experts including:

• Dilip Chenoy - MD & CEO, National Skills Development Corporation
• John Yates - CEO, Manipal City & Guilds
• Dr. Gayathi V- CEO- LabourNet Services India

Through experiential visits to organisations including Bosch, Raman Fibresciences, Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement and Labournet, participants will meet and learn from the leaders who are tackling this real-life challenge on a daily basis.

The group will undertake research tasks beforehand, develop their thinking and work together to come up with innovative approaches to the challenge. They will then present their findings and models to a cross sector group of policy experts from the UK and India, potentially leading to future policy change that could help tackle one of the defining problems of the 21st century.

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1. Established by Indian Prime Ministers David Cameron and Manmohan Singh to strengthen economic ties http://ukindiaceoforum.com

The Dishaa Venture is run in partnership with the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office and sponsored by United Business Media (UBM), Tilda, Cisco, and PwC. British Prime Minister David Cameron is patron of Dishaa and launched the Venture in July 2010.

"What the world needs today is a compelling vision to drive and deliver change," says Deepak Kapoor, Chairman, PwC India. "It's a matter of pride for PwC India to be associated with the Dishaa Venture, which is doing this by bringing together diverse groups of young leaders from the UK and India to collaborate and work for a better tomorrow."

Notes for editors

Common Purpose is an independent international leadership development organisation. Over the past 21 years, Common Purpose has designed and delivered courses that help people at all stages of their career become more effective leaders in society.

Common Purpose runs courses that give people from the private, public and not-for-profit sector the inspiration, skills and connections to become better leaders both at work and in society. Common Purpose helps people, organisations, cities and regions to succeed, by broadening the horizons of their leaders and developing their ability to work together and lead complex change.
http://www.commonpurpose.org and http://www.commonpurpose.org/ventures

Key information

• Four-day intensive Venture in Mysore, Karnataka - 2 October - 6 October 2012
• Participants from organisations including  PwC, Fidelity Investments, Titan Industries, HOPE Foundation, India Skills, IOC, BESCOM,UBM, HM Treasury, Devon & Cornwall Police, British Red Cross
• Interviews with and quotes from stakeholders, spokespersons, participants and alumni of Dishaa available
• Photographs and videos from both current and previous Dishaa Ventures available
• At each event the participants will be presented with a challenge to explore. They will investigate the challenge locally, and work together to come up with ideas and recommendations. Each year a different challenge will be selected for that year's participants to investigate.
• The challenge for the first Dishaa Venture in February 2011 was: Heart surgery at $1,000 (USD) - what has to change in how society operates and innovates to make this a reality? The final report which includes models and solutions from this is available upon request.
• The challenge for the second Dishaa Venture in November 2011 was: Unique carbon cutting measures are happening locally in India and the UK. How do we accelerate and multiply our actions to reduce carbon emissions by 50% in the next five years?
• Dishaa (meaning "Direction" in Hindi) is part of a series of Ventures run by Common Purpose Ventures bring together leaders from different locations across the world to learn and work together in a fresh and exciting way to tackle common challenges, developing innovative approaches to problems both new and old.

For further information please contact:

For India

Munira Sen
Director
Bangalore, Common Purpose India

T: +91(080)41123339
M: +91-98455-27836
E: munira.sen@commonpurpose.org.in

For UK

David O'Connor
Senior Course Manager
Common Purpose UK

M: +44(0)7557-679506
E: david.oconnor@commonpurpose.org.uk