Samsung India Electronics has been awarded two Golden Globe Tigers Awards for its initiatives to empower disadvantaged children and youth through its CSR initiatives. The “Samsung Smart Class” initiative received the award for Excellence & Leadership in CSR under the category Support and Improving the Quality of Education, while the “Samsung Technical School” initiative was awarded for Excellence for Sustainability Leadership under the category Best Project Collaboration. The Awards were announced last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Commenting on the Awards, Rajiv Mishra, Vice President, Samsung India Electronics said, “We are delighted to receive the Golden Globe Tigers Awards for our work to empower communities. The Awards are testimony to our focus on harnessing Samsung’s legacy of innovation to transform communities and their lives for the better while opening a new world of possibilities for them. The Smart Class and Technical School initiatives have grown from strength to strength in a short time and reach out to thousands of students; the awards encourage us to continue our work and expand their scale to reach many more students this year.”
The Samsung Smart Class initiative aims at bridging the digital gap in India while improving the quality of education provided to disadvantaged children. Smart Classes are equipped with Samsung interactive whiteboards, laptops, printers and Wi-Fi to enable students to learn in a digital, interactive environment. Over 120,000 students in 200 schools across India have benefitted through the initiative to date. Teachers who teach using Smart Classes testify to increased attention and participation from students during lessons, as well as higher familiarity among students in using laptops and printers.
The Samsung Technical Schools are a response to the country’s need for skilled manpower and an opportunity to engage disadvantaged youth to contribute to the economy. Set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Departments of Technical Education in states such as Delhi, Bihar, Rajasthan, Kerala and West Bengal, the Technical Schools enable youth to gain technical skills that will equip them to seek job opportunities in the consumer electronics manufacturing and service sector. As of March 2015, 18 Technical Schools are operational and over 3,000 students have enrolled in the Schools. Over 1,500 students have already graduated and many of them had job offers at the time of graduation.
