IBM & DGR to empower ex-servicemen to pursue corporate careers

IBM has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Directorate General Resettlement (DGR), to offer job opportunities to ex-servicemen. The collaboration will facilitate the seamless integration of talented former servicemen into the civilian workforce.

With this tie-up, IBM aims to narrow the gap between military service and civilian employment, by providing veterans with job opportunities for professional growth and personal development.

The two entities will together identify ex-servicemen with skills and aptitude suitable for various open positions within IBM and its affiliates. Once the candidates are assessed and shortlisted, IBM will use its own resources to hire, train and upskill these ex-servicemen for suitable roles.

The Directorate General Resettlement (DGR) operates under the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (Ministry of Defence). It offers training and helps veterans acquire additional skills in alignment with the evolving need of the corporate world and works to resettle them via a second career. To ensure that the Armed Forces maintain a youthful profile, about 60,000 service personnel are retired/released annually at a comparatively young age. It is the DGR that helps these ex-servicemen acquire additional skills and an opportunity to start another career.

According to Maj. Gen. Sharad Kapur, YSM, SM, DGR, this collaboration “will bring in more visibility of our ex-servicemen to the industry and corporates” and offer them a chance at a “dignified second career”.

Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India, values the “leadership skills and analytical capabilities that are ingrained in the defence personnel” and is confident that this partnership will “create diverse opportunities for India’s ex-servicemen and enable them to build a career beyond their military services”.