New Delhi: NIS Sparta, an educational training institution and part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), on Thursday announced the placement of 2,000 underprivileged youth from rural areas under a special, government-led project.

"The special project for the unemployed rural youth from below-the-poverty-line families aimed to equip them with employable skill-set to help them earn sustainable livelihood," the institution said in a statement.

"The project for skills development is operational in selected districts across states and is funded as special project under the Swarnajayanthi Gram Sswarozgar Yojana (SGSY) with assistance from the Government of India."

The youth have been successfully placed in sales and customer service departments in reputed Indian and multinational companies in telecom, retail, outsourcing, consumer goods and hospitality industries, the institution said.

Reliance Telecom, Nava Bharat Fertilizers, the Godrej Group, Vishal Retail, the Futures Group, Hindustan Unilever, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Tata Teleservices, Aditya Birla and First Source are among the companies that have recruited these youth.

"We are encouraging youth from other sectors to come forward from take advantage of the employment-linked skill-based programme. This will make them independent and provide an opportunity to secure their future," said Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi.

"The special project has been tailor made for the growing job requirement in the urban sector. We are in the process of providing training in skill up-gradation and placing candidates in the formal sector," added Rural Development Secretary B.K Sinha.

According to Goutam Roy, senior executive vice president of NIS Sparta, the institution has been given a target to train and place 24,000 rural youth in the first three years by the government.

The project, a nation-wide initiative, was launched only three months ago and is being received wholeheartedly by the unemployed rural youth across various states, officials said.

Established in 1991, NIS Sparta has provided training and consulting solutions to over one million professionals in over 550 organizations, across 10 countries and in 18 languages. IANS