Venture Center becomes inaugural recipient of Stanley Black & Decker Makers Grant

New Delhi: Pune based Venture Center has found its name among the recipients of first “Empower Makers” Global Impact Challenge by Stanley Black & Decker.

Venture Center has been named as a Makers Grant Recipient for its efforts to set-up a Makers Hive at Venture Center as an open access DIY and training facility for budding inventors, entrepreneurs and other trainers with a focus on cutting, drilling and engraving wood, hybrid & sustainable materials.

Initiated in 2021, the Global Impact Challenge grant program will award up to $25 million in grant funding over the next five years to nonprofits that are supporting trade workforce development initiatives in the construction and manufacturing sectors. With the first applications submitted in October 2021, 240 entrants were evaluated based on number of people served, outcomes projected, sustainable impact, depth of programs, and diversity, among many other considerations. Venture Center was selected as one of 86 organizations that will help skill and reskill roughly 180,000 makers throughout 2022.

“Venture Center is excited to be an inaugural recipient of the Stanley Black & Decker Makers Grant. We look forward to setting up and operating the Makers Hive at Venture Center as part of this grant. This will add new capabilities and momentum to our efforts in upskilling, nurturing and supporting hardware product developers and innovators.,” said Dr. Premnath, Director at Venture Center.

The Makers Hive aims to help inventors and entrepreneurs to build prototypes of their ideas and generally “tinker” around exploring new physical, manufacturable product ideas. The Makers Hive intends to empower entrepreneurs in the manufacturing & materials (including constructions, packaging etc)  domains by building an enabling ecosystem and necessary training.

“Stanley Black & Decker is immensely proud to support Venture Center as they work to skill and reskill the next generation of trade professionals,” said Stanley Black & Decker Vice President of Social Impact, Diane Cantello.

He added further: “Currently in the U.S., there are an estimated 650,000 open construction jobs and 10 million unfilled manufacturing jobs globally. Our purpose is to support ‘Those Who Make the World,’ and being able to fund educational programs and non-profits that are revitalizing trade careers directly connects to our core mission. Thanks to this year’s Makers Grant Recipients, together we will be one step closer to closing the trade skills gap.”