City-based cradle of technical training Shavak Nanavati Technical Institute(SNTI) will complete 99 years tomorrow. Tata Steel’s SNTI has made seminal contributions in expanding the frontiers of learning and development practices and has consolidated its reputation as one of the premier corporate training institutions in the world.
Tata Steel was established in 1907. In order to run the plant equipment, technicians were required from abroad, as there was no institution in the country where Indians could acquire a sound knowledge of metallurgy or steelmaking. Tata Steel, in 1916 while undergoing an expansion and diversification, felt an acute shortage of skilled manpower.
To meet this increasing demand of skilled personnel and to be self-reliant, B J Padshah came up with a comprehensive plan to establish a Technical Institute at Sakchi. On November 1, 1921, Jamshedpur Technical Institute (JTI), a pioneering technical training initiative was taken up by the company. Over the years the Institute has evolved from one that imparted training in the maintenance areas to a Centre for operational training.
In 1992 the Jamshedpur Technical Institute was renamed as Shavak Nanavati Technical Institute in memory of Shavak Nanavati, its first Graduate Trainee who went on to become the Managing Director of Tata Steel.
In 1993, training in process operations was introduced and the first batch of process operation trainees were recruited. Exhaustive training documentation was created in the areas of skill to standardise training output and improve quality. This greatly helped to enhance the quality of outgoing Trade Apprentices, who bagged ten medals in the seventh Work's Skill India Competition (Eastern region), held that year.
In the same year Usha Martin Ltd. collaborated with SNTI for upgrading their technical training systems. In January 1997, the institute was assessed and recommended for certification in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001; 1994 by IRQS, making it the first in-house technical training centre in India, to be awarded the standard.
Since then over 25 large companies (both Indian and overseas) and about 0.8 million retail customers have benefited from the large array of programs offered by SNTI. SNTI also launched its e-portal Tata Steel Digie- shala in this year which enables corporate and retail customers to access a world class range of technical education programs that are unique in its content and presentation.
The customer base of the portal ranges from large corporate houses to school children, faculty members of colleges and schools and students who can choose to buy learning products ranging from TQM, Process Safety, Industry 4.0, IOT, and intricate subjects pertaining to major streams of engineering and sciences. SNTI intends to extend its reach to every household in the nation and improve the knowledge, skills and employability of every customer who enrols into our programs.
