HP awards Rs 3.63 crore for entrepreneurship education

New Delhi: Hewlett-Packard India (HP) has announced the 2009 grant award recipients associated with the HP Entrepreneurship Learning Program (HELP). These grant awards, worth Rs 3.63 crore ($758,553) will provide 5,290 entrepreneurs with the right technology training to be able to solve everyday business challenges, enabling them to grow their businesses and create new jobs.

These entrepreneurs, or 'microenterprises' are the fastest growing businesses worldwide, creating most jobs. According to CIA World Fact Book, 25-30 percent of the world's labor force is unemployed or underemployed.

The 2009 HELP grant awards were announced following a thorough analysis of the 10 NGO-operated training centers across India and the Asia Pacfic Japan region by the program partner, Education Development Center (EDC). EDC has also conducted a competitive review of all proposals submitted by the centers, and has been instrumental in assisting HP identify award grant recipients. This year, the program aims to target and develop business and IT skills in young people and recent graduates through the introduction of the GET-IT curriculum into the program.

Bina Raj-Debur, Director-Corporate Marketing, HP India said, “Over 70 years ago, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard founded HP, a micro enterprise in a suburban garage-today that suburb is Silicon Valley and HP is the world's largest IT company. We are proud to support the next generation of entrepreneurs through the HELP program. We believe combining the power of technology with creative and effective partnerships to create economic and social value for communities is very important. We trust these grants will contribute to strengthen the skills of aspiring entrepreneurs and enable them to grow. Through HELP, we are glad to deepen our engagement with organizations that reach out to individuals who are at the forefront of change.”