Blue edge shapes lives

CHENNAI: Blue Edge: Empowering Lives, an initiative by Blue Dart,  in association with the NGO, Oasis India, celebrated its first graduation day in Chennai.  Inaugurated in April 2011, the first batch comprising 30 young adults from the marginalised sections of the society received certificates and trophies from the Chief Guest, Gopa Kumar, Senior Vice President, South, Blue Dart Express Ltd, and Shantanu Dutta, Executive Director, Oasis India for their performance and successful completion of the six-month programme.Divided into the morning and afternoon batches, the Blue Edge programme imparts training over a period of six months on general awareness, verbal communication, essential computer skills, life sciences and customer orientation to the students. To aid the students post the completion of their course, Oasis India also organised various sessions. These helped the students network with companies for job placements and interact with HR managers. Speaking on the occasion, Shantanu Dutta, Executive Director, Oasis India said, “With Blue Dart’s and DHL’s support, we are happy to mould the lives of theseunderprivileged youths. We have had a very successful run in Mumbai and hope to receive a similar response in Chennai. Today, at the end of six months, many of our students are placed in verticals such as Telecom, IT, FMCG, while some are in talks with Blue Dart too. At the end of the day, our endeavour is to ensure that this programme makes a difference to their lives and equips them to be able to support their families and influence their communities.”Delighted on receiving the Best Performer Certificate and Trophy, Logesh S said, “Since my father left us, I have been shouldering the responsibility of my entire family. I had completed my HSC and was looking for a job. I had planned to work and study at the same time and luckily, I came to know about Blue Edge: Empowering Lives. Through it, I was able to learn spoken English and computer basics for free. I attended job interviews and now, I have joined Cameo as a SIM Verification Executive.”