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Perspectives on Skill Development

A Collection

Contents
Chandrajit Banerjee

Towards Creating A Skill Ecosystem

S Ramadorai

Evolution of the skill development ecosystem in India

Pramod Bhasin

Message

S Mahalingam

Message

Rajesh Agrawal

Linking Skills to Jobs - A Government Perspective

Pankaj Bansal

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Skilling & Job Market in India Suiting up for 2020

Rituparna Chakraborty

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Degrees dont guarantee dignity

Ambarish Datta

16

Linking Jobs to Skills

R Dinesh

19

Linking Skills to Jobs - Logistic Sector Perspective

Dr Pawan Goenka
Skilling a Nation

21

K Krishan

24

Sectoral Perspectives on Skills

Jayant Krishna

26

Skilling India through Apprenticeship

Arun Maira

29

Emerging challenges in job creation

Dr Santosh Mehrotra

32

Employers Self-interest lies in doing more on


Skill Development

Raghav Narsalay

35

Creating stable futures: A five step action plan to


stemVET drop outs

Satish Reddy

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Skill Scenario in India - LifeSciences


Sectoral Perspective

Sunita Sanghi

42

Linkages between skill development, productivity


and employment potential

Nirmal Singh

47

India at 75: Global capital of talent

Dr Shubnum Singh

49

The Skill Scenario in India- A Healthcare Perspective

Rajesh Uppal
Sectoral Perspective on Skills Automobile

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Towards Creating A Skill Ecosystem

Chandrajit Banerjee
Director General
Confederation of Indian Industry

India sits at the forefront of the new economic paradigm. It is one of the fastest growing
economies with GDP growth targeted at 9 per cent.
Most analysts expect the Indian economy to grow at sustained high rates during the coming
decades and emerge as one of the largest economies in the world. According to Goldman
Sachs, India is projected to become the second largest economy in the world by the year 2050.
One of the main reasons behind the positive wave of the Indian economic growth emerges
from its demographic profile. Indias current population of 1.2 billion is expected to enlarge
to 1.8 billion by 2045. The significant aspect of this increase relates to the expansion in
the size of its working age (15-64 years) population. The emerging demographic dynamics
of the country ensures that it will have one of the youngest populations in the world, with
the bulk of the population belonging to the working age category. By the year 2026, 64.8
percent of the Indian population is expected to be in the working age bracket.
Demographics as well as growth figures portray Indias future as perfectly aligned, however
its success is anything but guaranteed.
Circa 2000, inspite of a demographic advantage the impact of employability on the overall
demand-supply situation indicates that India could face a huge issue with a shortage of skilled
people, that is, engineers (~6 lakh), graduates (~39 lakh) and vocationally trained personnel
graduates (~7 lakh) in the next five years. Today, India is poised at a stage where its status
as a break-through economy depends on its focus and attention on building its human capital.

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For our economy to grow at 8-9%, secondary tertiary sectors will need to grow at 10-11%
with agriculture sector at 4%. Large migration from agriculture (primary) to secondary/
tertiary is imminent. Hence a large skill gap will exist requiring skilling development. The
Projected demand of skilled workforce is 400mn workforce by 2022, with 150mn required
in the manufacturing and services sector alone.
If this issue is not addressed effectively, the economic and social implications will be drastic.
The role of the government, private sector, skill training providers and society cannot be
overemphasised as it is mandated to imparting the necessary skills to the workforce. It is
equally important for the business sector to engage with sincerity and enthusiasm in the
dialogue of skill enhancement to make the Make in India mission a reality.
The last one year has seen a positive move from the Government with the creation of a
dedicated Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. In support, we at CII have
been working towards creation of a demand-responsive eco-system for Skill Development
with a multi-pronged approach.
First, we have recognised the need to create awareness on vocational training through policy
advocacy and competitions such as WorkSkills and WorldSkills International. CII believes that
there is a need for a framework to ensure career progression. The National Skill Qualification
Framework (NSQF) has been meticulously planned to ensure seamless mobility between
the education and technical training system.
Second, we believe that it is necessary to utilise the existing training institutions and ensure
that they can scale themselves to match demand. CII has made a conscious effort towards
creation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) to rejuvenate institutions such as the Industrial
Training Institutes (ITIs) with CII members adopting and upgrading 398 ITIs. A blue book to
guide Institute Management Committee (IMCs) members has been brought out. An impact
study of 100 ITIs has been conducted to assess the performance of the ITIs with suggestions
for improvements. We have initiated pilot projects to create appropriate standards for these
Institutes. Industry has embarked on flexi MoUs with the Ministry of Labour & Employment
giving companies the flexibility to design training programmes at ITIs tailored to industry needs.
Third, quality assurance has to be emphasised when delivering and assessing trainees. CII is
a National Assessing Body for the Modular Employable Skills Scheme (MES) and the recently
launched Prime Ministers Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY).

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Fourth, creation of additional Sector Skill Councils (SSC): providing industry participation in
setting standards and certification approach. CII has promoted SSCs Beauty & wellness; BFSI;
Furniture & Fittings; Green Jobs; Healthcare; Infrastructure Equipment; Life Sciences; Logistics;
Paint & Coatings; Person With Disabilities; Strategic Manufacturing; Tourism & Hospitality
Fifth, the policy level recommendations submitted by CII have been instrumental in creation
of Apprenticeship Act 2014. The industry needs to realize the benefits of bringing in a
robust apprenticeship regime as this will enable lifelong learning and ensure generations of
trained and skilled labour.
Sixth, we need to promote many more skill development Institutions in rural and urban
areas. Opportunities for training are prevalent in the urban areas however, there are lesser
avenues in rural areas. With a specific focus on skilling the rural youth, CII in partnership
with PanIIT has created Skill Gurukuls with 100% placement in remote districts of India.
Lastly, there is a need to create employment exchanges to link training to employment and
to create a skill repository to link trainees to jobs. For this, CII is working closely with
Ministry of Labour & Employment to convert the existing employment exchanges to Model
Career Centres.
CII strongly believes that Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is imperative to engage the
large skilled uncertified labour force. CII supports the RPL initiative by the Government of
India which will train workers in the Construction sector and utilise construction sites as
training centres.
To ensure that the economy grows at a sustainable rate with rise in industrial growth,
industry has to create an enormous pool of skilled workforce. CII, as an organisation, that
has witnessed the power of training to create an industry, believes that this timely focus on
skills development in India at present is critical and highly welcome.

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Evolution of the skill development


ecosystem in India

S Ramadorai
Chairman
National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) &
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

The Indus valley civilisation, one of the earliest civilisations in the world, is famous not only
because its script is yet to be deciphered, but for the immaculately planned cities, including
roads, covered drainage systems, metallurgical superiority, large granaries and nicely designed
toys. Imagine the kind of skills which would be needed to create, design and build all of
these wonders at that point in time. Today we are well set on our growth path and with
the various new initiatives launched by our Government, skill development is the need of
the hour. We are lucky to be blessed with human capital and a demographic advantage of
a vibrant young population, we can very well become the skill capital of the world!
To realise this potential a herculean collaborative effort is required since 93% of our workforce
is still unorganised and only 4.69% of our total workforce in India having undergone formal
skill training as compared to an average of above 50%, across the developed countries
in the world.1 Large sections of our conventionally educated youth do not possess the
necessary skills that are required for a job while a larger section of our workforce base
are uneducated and unskilled.
Since the year 2007, skill development in India has caught the attention of government and
industry alike, spurred by C K Prahalads landmark India@75 paper where he articulated
that India would need 500 million skilled workers by 2022. The Government has taken
multiple initiatives and for the first time in Indias history, a dedicated Ministry for Skill
1

National policy on skill development and entrepreneurship, 2015

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Development & Entrepreneurship has been created. In fact skills development has gotten
a further impetus with our Hon. PM Modis mantra of Skills, Scale and Speed as his top
areas of focus for developing India. The Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
is responsible for co-ordination of all skill development efforts across the country, matching
of demand and supply of skilled manpower, building the vocational and technical training
framework, skill up-gradation, building of new skills and innovative thinking for jobs. The
National skill development Agency (NSDA) is in the process of creating a National Labour
Market Information system which will act as an aggregator of the entire database relating
to skill development with various stakeholders.
The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) has been launched. The NSDA is
tasked with operationalizing the NSQF across the country. This is an integrated education
and competency based skill framework that will provide for horizontal as well as vertical
movement among vocational training, general education and technical education, thus linking
one level of learning to another. This will enable a person to acquire desired competency
levels, transit to the job market and, at an opportune time, return for acquiring additional
skills to further upgrade competencies. NSQF will also facilitate Recognition of Prior Learning
(RPL) that is largely lacking in the present education & training scenario. RPL is important
from the perspective of transition of people from unorganised to organised sectors.
The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a one of a kind PPP has facilitated
setting up of Sector Skill Councils (SSC) across 37 sectors and having representation from
Industry Members, Industry Associations, Business Leaders, Training providers and Government
bodies. SSCs have been tasked with the job of defining the entire skill map for their sectors
as well as National Occupation Standards and Qualification Packs which detail out the roles,
responsibilities, knowledge and skill requirements for all trades in a sector. As of Sept 2015,
8310 unique National Occupational Standards (NOS) and 1507 Qualification Packs (QPs)
have been created across 31 sectors of which 921 QPs have been registered as National
Standards.
The ministry formulated the National Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship,
2015 with an objective to meet the challenge of skilling at scale with speed and standard
(quality). It aims to provide an umbrella framework to all skilling activities being carried out
within the country, to align them to common standards and link skill training with available
demand.

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The National Skill Development Mission recently launched by our Hon. Prime Minister will
provide a strong institutional framework at the Centre and States for implementation of
skilling activities in the country.
We are also looking at learning from international best practices. NSDC and NSDA have
signed MOUs with various countries (Canada, UK, Australia, France, USA and recently
Germany to name a few) with the purpose of technology transfer in vocational training,
training of trainers, setting up of centres of excellence, and international mobility by aligning
our standards with global skill standards.
NSDC is implementing the Flagship program of the Ministry of skill development and
Entrepreneurship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY). The focus of this skill
program is to cover around 24 lakh persons with a focus on new learning as well as on
recognition of prior learning (RPL).
NSDC also launched an advocacy campaign called Hunar Hai to Kadar Hai which means
With Skills Comes Respect to generate awareness about skill development programs and
to break the social stigma towards vocational jobs among youth. Participating in worldwide
competitions like the World skills competition is now being encouraged and people are
being trained specifically to participate in such vocational skill competitions with support
from the ministry through NSDC.
The collective impact of - NSDCs catalytic role in scaling up training providers, a single
national standard through the NSQF and a national database with real time data through a
National Labour Market Information system will have a very visible impact over the next few
years. Coupled with the fact that this effort is on mission mode and under the leadership
of none other than the Prime Minister of the country, speaks of the significance assigned
to Skill Development.
In the words of the poet, Ernest Hemmingway, It is good to have an end to journey
toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end. In our journey of skill development,
our foundation has certainly been built strong, what matters now is how we construct the
actual (skill) building across India !

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Message

Pramod Bhasin
Chairman
CII National Committee on Skill Development &
Founder, Genpact &
Chairman, The Skills Academy

Our countrys future is tied directly to the skills of our employment pool. As a million people
join the workforce each month, their livelihoods, aspirations and quality of life is directly
correlated with the skills they acquire at an early stage in their journey.
This has huge implications for our economy. The right kind of skills can make our industry
highly productive and globally competitive, with a corresponding impact on job creation,
and economic growth.
Compared to global examples, the percentage of people trained in skills in India is very
low and rapidly needs to be increased. To achieve this we need to build and expand the
entire eco-system for skills, from trainers to institutions of quality to industry involvement
in every aspect of skills training.
The Government has announced major steps to take this initiative forward. Make in India
will happen as long as we have people skilled to support both manufacturing and services.
Industry and CII will play a very major role in this transformation-by setting standards,
differentiated pay for skilled workers and through partnerships with Government to build
the eco system and help make the necessary investments.
We have a long ways to go but we can and should also expect to see a major impact in
this area over the next few years.

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Message

S Mahalingam
Former CFO & ED
Tata Consultancy Services

Advanced economies have come up with a winning formula in its approach towards skill
development and they have realised huge manpower productivity gains through this approach.
They have moved towards a sectoral approach - to engage both industry and education
more effectively in upgrading skills relevant for that sector and preparing the new generation
workforce.
India faces an additional requirement in that a large part of the labour force is engaged in
the unorganised sector. For India to bring in internationally benchmarked Indian standards,
it is most important to also engage the unorganised sector. So, in India, it goes beyond
merely tackling the demand supply mismatch. It is about creating an ecosystem wherein
the sector benefits by a unified approach and yet the standards meet the needs of both
organised and unorganised sector.
Through the policy directive India has started progress on SSCs and 12 have been supported
by CII. The standards along with the direction provided by the National Skills Qualifications
Framework (NSQF) are envisaged to provide standardisation, mobility, lifelong learning and
outcome-based skill assessments. The Apprenticeship Act 2014 has given industry a high
degree of freedom to develop standards to best meet the needs of their occupations.

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Linking Skills to Jobs - A Government Perspective

Rajesh Agrawal, IAS


Director General
Directorate General of Training &
Joint Secretary
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
Government of India

Skill India seeks to give all Indians, the opportunity to aspire and achieve a better future for
themselves and their families. A combination of demographic, economic and social factors
makes skill development an urgent policy priority for India.
The challenge is immense. 54% of Indias population is below 25 years of age and over 62%
of the population is in the working-age group. By 2025, almost 1 in 5 of the worlds working
age population (18.3%) will be Indian. Yet, a substantial portion of the Indian population does
not have any formal skills training. More than 90% of countrys workforce is in the unorganised
sector, where they acquire skills through informal channels and lack formal certification. Recent
skill gap reports suggest that over 109 million incremental human resources will be required
in India alone, across 24 key sectors by the year 2022. Though this assessment of incremental
requirement can be contested by many, and is dependent on many other economic assumptions
holding good, there is no denying the fact that Indias kill training ecosystem needs to be
optimally and urgently equipped to cope with these diverse challenges.
Although the supply side challenges in the workforce have been highlighted time and again,
focus needs to be drawn to the demand for skilled labour in industry as well. It is essential
to link each and every skilled person to gainful employment, be it wage or self-employment.
This will close the loop between skills and employability, simultaneously according aspirational
value to skills training as well as increasing the overall productivity of the workforce.
India has been experiencing an average annual economic growth rate of around 5% in the
last few years. The manufacturing sector has been hit hardest in terms of growth rates.
This has impacted job creation and employment with new jobs being created at a low rate

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of around 3%, and the average unemployment rate pegged at 8%. More recently, the
economy has experienced growth rates of around 7%, and with initiatives like Make in
India, the manufacturing sector is set to make a comeback with approximately 100 million
jobs expected to be created by 2025. This illustrates the opportunities available for skilled
labour in the country. Further, the international job market is also expanding at a fast pace.
This combined with the fact that most countries are faced with an ageing population, offers
an additional advantage to the Indian workforce.
A few focussed initiatives are required to elevate Indias skill development landscape and
bring it at par with international standards. Firstly, industry ownership in skill training is
essential. The employer needs to be involved at every step of the training process from
setting standards for training, to overlooking training delivery, assessments, certification and
ultimately employing successfully trained workers. This will ensure quality and relevance of
the training conducted. Due to the fragmented, privately operated training system currently
prevalent in India, this quality and employer connect is often lost in the gamut of profitoriented ventures. There is a need for industry to come forward and take ownership of
the training systems in the country. They can play a major role in crucial functions such
as training of trainers, on-the-job training, apprenticeships, sharing of infrastructure and
machinery, adoption of training institutes/ITIs, and development of training content and
pedagogy, among others. Moreover, the employer has the power to incentivise skill training
by offering higher salaries to skilled workers. This would help in creating a robust market
for skilled workers and mainstreaming vocational training to a large extent.
Secondly, access to quality skill training needs to be made available to every individual across
the country. Disadvantaged segments of society such as economically weaker sections,
persons in difficult areas, differently abled persons etc. face inequity in all walks of life, and
the chance at a quality vocational education could open a plethora of livelihood options
for them. The government needs to play a proactive role in ensuring greater outreach
of skill development programmes in this regard. The Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship, along with 21 other central Ministries, has undertaken this task through
various schemes and programmes, targeted at reaching out to a greater section of the Indian
population. The recently launched National Skill Development Mission seeks to converge,
coordinate, implement and monitor skilling activities on a pan-India basis.
Thirdly, it is necessary to integrate vocational education and training with the formal education
system in order to provide pathways for growth to school dropouts. Creating multiple

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entry and exit points in the vocational educational system with a robust credit framework,
along with firm linkages to the formal educational system through bridge courses, will allow
students the flexibility to migrate between verticals. This will aid in establishing linkages
between the two ecosystems right from the secondary school level. Inculcating the value
of practical, hands-on skills among school students has the potential to alter the way we
view vocational education in the country. A shift in the perception of skills training will go
a long way in establishing its value and acceptability in society.
Moving forward, it is vital that the private sector, industry associations, training providers
and government institutions play a proactive role and collaborate to scale up skill training
efforts across the country. These initiatives are an important step towards meeting industrys
human resource requirements and will boost growth. Importantly, they will also give Indias
aspiring youth access to stable employment opportunities and sustainable livelihoods.

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Skilling & Job Market in India Suiting up for 2020

Pankaj Bansal
Co-Founder & CEO
People Strong

An economy growing at the rate of ~7.5% along with being the most preferred destination
for investments in the world, new workforce joining the market, employment ratio increasing
and a large portion of unorganized workforce (~93%) that is looking forward to join the
mainstream jobs! There cannot be a more opportune moment for the Skilling Industry of
India if it wants to make a mark in the History of India. Past one year saw Jobs and
Skills arriving at the centre stage of Governments decisions. Launch of Skill India, the New
National Skills policy, along with National Career Services initiative have been the highlights
of the year 2015 for this industry. However the real test begins now. Three important
aspects that I think will define the success of these initiatives are:
1.

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Job-Skills matchmaking:- Jobs are changing every passing day. Traditional jobs are
getting broken into skills and matchmaking candidates skills with each job holds the key
especially when the next gen workforce is opting to enter into skill specific part-time
jobs. In 2012, U.S. economists Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapley won the Nobel Prize in
2012 for their match-making theories relating to supply-demand issues prevalent in the
market. Their work underpins the economics discipline by providing insights into how
scarce resources can be allocated. And it is time to implement these principles to the
most critical resource of today Talent. The pressing need is to understand that Indian
economy is no longer about 4 metros, or the Top 10 major cities. Infact the future of
Indian economy lies in about 32000 pin codes spread across the length & breadth of
the country. It is thus important to drill down to the level of each pin code and work
to create an ecosystem for matching Jobs & skills. The idea of transforming employment
exchanges to develop the new age Model Career Centres is a welcome initiative in this

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direction. I really hope that this pilot project gets running in full swing and we are able
to have a network of MCCs where the matchmaking of skills & jobs happens.
2.

Use of Smart Technology: Another game changer would be use of technology.


The targets that we are looking at in terms of skilling are not possible to be achieved
without technology. On top of it we will be dealing with the smartphone generation that
checks their handset 110 times a day on an average and is used to ease & experience.
This means extensive use of technology - skilling needs to go as virtual as possible, job
interviews for frontline jobs might need to be replaced with online assessments, Video
interviewing, In fact mobile compatible video interviewing will pick up pace, applicant
tracking focuses on candidate experience keeping them informed of various process stages.
All this would require technology deployment and adoption both at the supply side and
demand side. It is no longer an option, but has become a critical aspect. If we look at
the talent landscape, the demand side (corporates/employers) has at least adopted these
technology systems either completely or in parts. But the supply side, especially the one
from rural areas would need support to reach that level. It thus becomes imperative that
our skilling programs take this into consideration. It might we worthwhile to coordinate
the efforts from Digital India campaign and create some measurable impact!

3.

Push towards internships/corporate training: The last aspect is creating a formal


training/apprenticeship framework especially for the fresh workforce. Reports suggest
that Countries with well-defined training/apprenticeship programs across domain areas
often rank better on employment numbers. A formal internship program can work
wonders in reducing gap between the expectations of talent supply and demand sides
and increase employability.

Having said that as we enter into the next stage, lot of transformation would be needed in
our way of working. For instance: The way we look at the employment data. Currently, we
look at unemployment rate which for India is about 5%. For a country like India, where most
of the working population lies in unorganized segment this number is not the true reflection
of the state of employment. Hence as we take up the target of moving the majority of our
workforce to organized segment it would be worthwhile to study employment ratios and
target on improving them.
A lot more changes will happen as we make a move to create the India of our dreams
by 2020. We all need to be on our toes and make every moment and every effort count.
After all we have our tryst with destiny in just 1850 more days!

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Degrees Dont Guarantee Dignity

Rituparna Chakraborty
President - Indian Staffing Federation &
Co Founder and Senior Vice President - TeamLease

If we put together some of the disturbing facts that have surfaced in recent times, the
writing on the wall is pretty clear. 147 standalone B-schools and MBA programs offered
by engineering institutions across the country closed down in the last academic year. No
of CAT Registrants have constantly declined over the last couple of years. And amongst
those who registered last year 22% didnt show up on exam day. Out of the 1.5 million
engineers Indian churns out annually, 30% of remain unemployed. 58% of our graduates
are either unemployed or underemployed. Clearly degrees are losing their signaling value
and there are two reasons for same A) Degrees dont guarantee skills B) Degrees can be
fake (MadeinIndia fake degrees leads the pack globally).
More alarming is the fact that NOC data suggests 90% of our jobs require skills and zero
knowledge while 90% of our kids coming out of colleges and universities have knowledge
but zero skills. In light of this predicament we need to redefine vocational education and
make efforts to strike a balance between skills and education. There is an artificial partition
between education and vocation. This divide has to end, resulting in jobs and extending certain
training schemes for non-engineering graduates as well. There has to be an intersection and
interception of three most important factors viz, education, employment and employability.
One of our bigger issues is our society and its view towards vocational skills. This bias against
vocational training is dysfunctional and is stealing our youth of their future. Our dogged push
towards degrees is actually setting our children up for failure.
But I would like to make a case that there is hope. Much of it based on some impactful
initiatives which can definitely create precedence for widespread change in our environment
Vocational University In a country where a million new faces are getting added to the

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workforce we need to equip them with the right skills to make them employable rather
than destining them to ignonimity. We need vocational universities built around the concept
of community colleges which allows vertical mobility. TeamLease Skill University is attempting
to do exactly that and its difference from any other regular university would be 3 things A)
They pray to one god jobs B) Academic modularity C) They offer blended learning through
a combination of classroom, cloud, distance education.
Massification of Apprentices - The biggest short-term impact in our current lo equilibrium
skill situation would come from rebooting our dysfunctional formal apprenticeship regime.
India has only 3,00,000 formal apprentices because of the outdated provisions of the
Apprenticeship Act of 1961. Smaller countries like Germany and Japan have six million and
10 million apprentices respectively. We need atleast 20 million apprentices in India and
recent amendments to the Apprenticeship Act shall hopefully contribute to that number.
We also need to encourage many more Public Private Partnerships like NETAP (National
Employability through Apprenticeship Program) which creates flexibility and inspiration to
skill millions and provide them with the necessary academic corridor to build their career.
MOOCs - We need to marry MOOCs with apprenticeships for those who want to create
an opening balance in their career. MOOCs is also an effective upskilling tool for those
who are already in the formal workforce but are feeling the pressure on account of the
competitiveness, fluctuating economic certainty and unemployment, to keep them employable.
At the same time, growing availability of broadband and the digital revolution have opened
up new forms of learning content delivery. Cost, scale, quality is an impossible trinity in
Skill Development. Vocational University, MOOCs and NETAP are innovations which each
represents an optimal solution around the three.
Lastly Ministry of Skills is a masterstroke. Government so far has been organised vertically
while Indias problems around Skills and Jobs are horizontal. Creation of Ministry of Skill as
a horizontal is a brave move and all eyes are on how imaginative and forward thinking our
National Skills Policy would be to address one of Indias biggest roadblock towards future
growth and prosperity.
My limited years of experience in India have made be realize that while all stakeholders seems
to know what needs to be done around jobs and skills, we miss the bus in execution. While
the signs are optimistic the task ahead is uphill. Time to show some courage and walk the talk.
(First appeared in Financial Express on 15 June 2015,
reproduced with permission from the author)

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Linking Jobs to Skills

Ambarish Datta
Founder Director
BFSI Sector Skill Council of India

One of Indias supreme challenges today is its increasing unemployment rate. Ironically India
is said to have the highest youth population in the world. According to the 2010 population
figures one in every five young people in the world is an Indian. However the industry
does not seem to get access to this group. Industry also routinely indicates the challenge
of getting skilled resources and timely availability of these resources.
While there are multiple reasons causing this mismatch, one of the key reasons is an
ecosystem built on Information Asymmetry. The situation thus occurs wherein the Industry
needs people but has difficulty doing a forward projection of skilled resources required.
Even if they do so, it is often vague and necessarily do not indicate the need of skilled
resources with clarity. On the other hand, there are students seeking job opportunities but
dont know where to find them. This asymmetry and lack of a common platform, sets of a
chain reaction among other stakeholders like training providers, students and government
thereby jeopardizing their constructive participation.
Further, the training providers end up arbitrarily acquiring students for skill trainings and the
students without any visibility of jobs at the end of the training end up enrolling, for any
course that they may come across. Finally resulting in the government sponsoring benefits
without linking the students to actual available jobs.
This information asymmetry causes further challenges like:

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Students get trained and wait for job opportunities. This process is often time consuming
and finally by the time the interview takes place, the student either has forgotten most
of what he has learnt or lost interest.

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Every delay made in placing the skilled resources leads to low strike rate of conversion.
So, you train X and only a small percentage gets recruited in reality, the rest usually
drop out. These drop out candidates are skilled and certified but still remain unemployed
and join the pool of unskilled, uncertified resources despite being skilled and certified.

The cost incurred for skilling these resources does not yield any returns in many cases
since the students who undergo skill courses, clear certification and stay on bench till
placements, and if the process of placements is delayed the student tends to seek any
job opportunity that comes their way.

Students who undergo such skill training usually do not have digital footprints. Every
delay makes it more difficult for the training provider to reach out to them to notify
them with regard to any openings. For e.g. students frequently change mobile numbers,
it therefore becomes difficult to reach out to them.

In addition to the above, training providers also go through a lot of stress planning to cater
to this need. Since there is lack of projection which is accurate, they in their rush to acquire
students, end up sourcing them across the country arbitrarily. Most of such acquisition is
unscientific and is done without keeping the real need in mind. As a result, students forcibly
get enrolled in a skill course without any real interest to seek the job which probably exists
at end of the training. One of the major reasons they mostly enrol is for the cash reward
incentive which they can get at end of the training program. These situations lead to skilling
students on programs which they have no intention to work for. There is no pre-test or
aptitude mapping done pre training to ensure that this mismatch is minimized.

Remedial Measures
The Information asymmetry phenomenon usually assumes that at least one party to a
transaction has relevant information, whereas the other(s) do not. In the case of linking jobs
to skill resources, this is exactly what happens. The Industry knows where the next job
opportunity will occur, how many in numbers, which location and exactly when. However
the student who is the other key party to this transaction has no visibility of this information.
One of the scientific ways of addressing this issue is by using, what is known as signalling
and screening methods of information dissemination.
While the former makes is possible for people to signal their preferences thus believably
transferring information to the other party and resolving the asymmetry. In this context of

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the job market, this means that a student, who has undergone a skilled training and has a
certificate from the Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), indicates his level of competency, interest,
geographical preferences, etc. The latter is actually the opposite of this which assumes that
the industry which wants to hire the skill resources is the buyer in this transaction. Screening
would thus mean that the industry which wants to hire these resources can now offer a
range of job options for the candidates.
What this does is, that skilled resources now have visibility of jobs available in addition to
other key metrics like location, salary, etc. Additionally, industry which wants to hire these
skilled resources knows where they exist and can accordingly calibrate hiring plans.
A digital platform which does this seamlessly can be a possible solution. Leading to visibility
of skilled jobs. Students can register themselves before enrolling for a skill course and learn
about relevant vacancies. Training providers reduce cost of student acquisition and now seek
registered students to enrol for a program thereby eliminating middle men and agents who
charge for bringing students to the training provider. This platform will also help building
transparency and keep a trail of skilled resources who were placed through it.
The building of this supply chain can now allow training providers to scale up training
infrastructure, hire competent faculties, and deliver a quality training basis availability of jobs.
The benchmark of a quality training is not the number of hours of training done, or fancy
infrastructure where it was done but the outcome of a good course. Which in this case
is employability. This linkage also allows the government to reward and incentivize to learn
based on real market needs. Leading to more bang for the buck and ensure precious tax
payers money is effectively deployed.
It is time now to collaborate and build this digital platform and create the linkages which
have now been long missing.
(With inputs from Mahima Kaushal, Research Associate)

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Linking Skills to Jobs - Logistic Sector Perspective

R Dinesh
Joint Managing Director
TVS Sons Ltd

The Logistics Sector is an all pervasive enabling sector for Indian Industry, and is important for
the Country by way of its employment potential especially at the level of below supervisory
cadre. Being a largely unorganised space, there has been no organised skill training such has
happened for the Manufacturing Sector by way of the ITIs/ Polytechnics and so on. Thus
other than jobs which have regulatory requirements such as Drivers, Crew on vessels, Air
Cargo operations, Customs etc., we largely have an untrained, unorganised work force,
which kind of learns while it earns, leading to inefficiencies along the way.
Realising the need for educating practitioners of Supply Chain Management (SCM) various
educational Institutions such as the CII Institute of Logistics have been set up which has
resulted in a reasonably trained Middle Management. However the skill gap from the entry
to supervisory level is an area of concern which needs to be urgently addressed. Realising
this the Government of India has been very keen on promoting the Sector Skill Council for
Logistics. CII has taken the lead to partner the Government in this effort which has as its
key mandate skilling the entry level work force in the logistics sector.
Operating under the guidelines of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the
LSC has created the Occupational Standards for Job Roles in demand in subsectors such
as Warehousing, Transportation, Courier and Express Services and will eventually cover the
entire spectrum of sea, air and land logistics. LSC has affiliated over 40 Training Partners and
about 10 Assessment Agencies who have been doing the training delivery. I understand that
as of date about 40,000 candidates have been certified by LSSC. This, though a milestone
is literally a drop in the ocean and much more needs to be done.

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Indian Industry has come of age in terms of outsourcing their logistics requirements. 3PL
and 4 PL have become standard Boardroom parlance. The Make in India campaign and even
the Swachh Bharat movement would need to ride on the strength of streamlined logistics.
Are we ready for the future Indian growth story in terms of skilled HR is a question we
need to answer now? I would think we need to have much more focussed efforts. In skill
training we cannot adopt the one template fit all policy. Every Sector, in-fact, every sub
sector in Logistics itself calls for specialised manpower and consequently dedicated training
delivery methods. Let me illustrate this with a few examples.

The delineation between Retail and Logistics functions is fast disappearing, with the
Delivery Boy explaining the nuances of operating an equipment purchased online. Thus
sales function has got added on to the logistics of delivery.

Packaging is branding products and packaging products for shipment needs awareness
of product, modes of transportation, delivery conditions which will decide the type of
packing. Technical SCM requirements has become a must know for the Packer.

Wastage in transportation of fruits, vegetables and dairy products occur due to the
weakest link in the cold chain, that is, transportation. Drivers of Reefer Containers must
know that it is important to maintain temperature of dairy products at 40 C to prevent
bacteria growth. Awareness of drivers must thus extend beyond driving skills.

With Port Infrastructure becoming more and more mechanised, HR deployed are both
user and maintainer. It is not uncommon for Graduate Engineers operating Quay side
cranes or being Supervisors at Oil Terminals managing the transfer of liquid cargo from
ship to shore.

What we are seeing is a gradual overlap of functions promoting multi skilling. The demarcation
between technical and non- technical skills just does not exist. The logistics work force has
become the integrator of the procurement- production and distribution functions.
Major Logistics Infrastructure Projects are on the anvil such as the Delhi-Mumbai Infrastructure
Corridor, Chennai-Bangalore Logistics Corridor, and the bill declaring 101 rivers as National
Waterways. All these projects will bring in equitable development across the Country,
with the Logistics Industry as a growth driver. The logistic chain will thus transform into a
major value chain, and logistic service providers and their staff will become critical value
propositions. Can our workforce be brought to speed for this logistic revolution? We can,
if we understand that we must.

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Skilling a Nation

Dr Pawan Goenka
Executive Director
Mahindra & Mahindra

SKILL - A simple word has many connotations and implications. Is skill inherent or is it
acquired? Is skill, an enabler or an outcome of an economy? Should India be known for its
skilled workforce or low cost workforce?
So far, India has leveraged its eager workforce to create a distinct advantage. A rich talent pool
and superior language abilities, has helped India establish its competiveness as a knowledgebased society and has strengthened Indias position of being a dominant service economy.
With about 10 million capable and flexible human capital joining the workforce every year,
the country begs to wonder, what got us here - will it take us further?
The Make in India initiative among other strategic government initiatives, have gone a long
way towards bringing focus on the manufacturing sector which is core to economic growth
and job creation. However, world class manufacturing and gaining sustainable competitive
advantage, requires high degree of skills. And if not adequately focussed on, manufacturing
will soon become a commodity - relying purely on basic skills like assembly, basic level
engineering and mature manufacturing technologies. While this may yield top-line benefits,
it delivers limited profitability and perception for Brand India.
Rightly so, the Skill India movement, has definitely brought back the focus on skill
development. The National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), significant investment
by the government in the Centres of Excellence (CoE) scheme at ITIs, and entry of private
sector, are steps in the right direction towards catalysing vocational education and training
across the country.

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However, we have an uphill task. India specific challengesincludes, spread, heterogeneity and
the inability to gain access to learning facilities. About 93% of the labour force in India
which works in the unorganised sector - is largely untouched by any kind of formal training.
Further, a World Bank paper indicates that in-service training is received by only 15 per
cent of workers in the Indian manufacturing sector, which is far below what is observed in
many developed countries.
For those who have access to Vocational training, it has been limited in scale and scope. Leading
to a need for significant skill upgrading and reskilling for entry to corporate world. For those,
who cannot get entry to corporate world, or those who choose to be entrepreneurs are
faced with challenge of inadequate skills. Additionally, Young India has lost its focus on skill
development. Largely because, industry to begin with and society at large, have glamorised
managerial roles over technical roles, making the pursuit of vocational skills less aspirational.
Perhaps, we can learn a lesson from South Korea, which is widely recognized as a model
of economic success through competitiveness of its human resources. Since the 1960s,
Korea has been linking education to macro-economic development plans, so as to provide
trained workforce that supports industrial policy. With a sequential expansion approach,
Korea has gradually increased the scope and quality of skills imparted, from the primary
to secondary and to higher education levels. This was enabled through sustained public
investment in education.
For India too, enhancing skills of its workforce calls for formation of a nationwide agenda
that is aligned with macro-economic development plans. The success of the skill development
agenda will have a large bearing on the success of the manufacturing sector.
The Government, both at the Center and States, in partnership with Industry, needs to
establish an ecosystem for skill development. This plan needs alignment with the national
priorities on science, technology, manufacturing and export focus areas. The plan calls for
differentiated approaches for the existing and for new workforce. In addition, there needs
to be a strategy for upgrading of trainers, where Industry too should participate. The overall
plan should consider regional expertise, while keeping the cultural fabric intact, by supporting
skills related to handloom, artefacts and handicraft as well. Adequate incentives should be
planned for supporting skill development especially to disadvantaged socio economic groups.
Skill enhancement will facilitate entrepreneurship equally in rural and urban India.

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The future calls for academia to take a broader view on skill development and work closely
with industry. It is through these partnerships that the industry can influence course content
that is globally benchmarked and updated, investment in training infrastructure, and quality
of programs. Result will be a smoother transition from college to corporate and eliminate
re-skilling/upskilling at the entry level. Academia partnerships should be leveraged by industry
for upskilling of existing workforce. This investment will enhance technical ability and help
improve quality and productivity.
Industry expectations have to be re-aligned to the need for skilled workforce versus only
manpower. This realignment will yield good results in efficiency and simultaneously help
Indian manufacturing go world-class. Additionally, industry should have processes in place
for encouraging skill acquisition, and providing growth opportunities on merit of skill and
specialization. This will help remove the social stigma attached to vocational skills, making
these skills aspirational.
In conclusion, developing a highly skilled workforce is an investment for tomorrow and calls
for establishing a skill development ecosystem that fuels the economy. I would like to believe,
that we as a country, are making, and will make the right choices in this direction. To me
personally, true success will be, if a decade from now, India derives competitive advantage
from the skills and capabilities of its workforce and not on basis of cost arbitrage. Brand India
will have moved up the value chain and will demand a premium at the global marketplace.

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Sectoral Perspectives on Skills

K Krishan
Chairman
CVC (India) Infrastructure Ltd

Skills Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ) is amongst the most recently incorporated Sectoral Skills
Councils. This Council was promoted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and
Confederation of Indian Industry, as part Skill development through Industry participation,
initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. SCGJ scope covers the
entire gamut of Green Businesses, viz Renewable Energy, Green Construction, Green
Transport, Solid Waste Management, Water Management & e-Waste Management. With
such a mandate, the start-up team of SCGJ is highly excited and immensely invigorated.
Yet, it didnt take long for realisation to dawn, that SCGJ has potential to impact every
household of India, rural or urban, and consequently, the task seemed daunting. We, hence,
took inspiration from these words of Francis of Assisi (Patron Saint of Italy, a rich nobleman
who devoted his life to uplift the poor and is role model for current Pope) Start by doing
what is necessary, then do what is possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
Faith can be a great motivator, nevertheless, desired outcomes will not materialise if key
issues are not analysed and addressed. As SCGJ is barely a month old, I will be sharing only
perspectives. In the coming years, SCGJ would provide empirical data and tangible achievements.
The first issue relates to skilling new entrants into the job market, forecasts range from
12 to 18 million per year, depending upon literacy levels. It is generally accepted, amongst
Industry as well as Governments, that a robust Apprenticeship programme is essential
for skilling this youth resource. However, vocational education still lacks adequate support
from Industry, due to inadequate mechanisms to bridge schools/ vocational training institutes
with Industry. There is also perception issue; young people are, generally, not interested in
apprenticeships because of demanding work conditions, as compared to office jobs. However,

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if brand equity of apprenticeship programmes is enhanced, the youth will realise that,
possessing certified vocational skills will enable them to get superior jobs in Industry or
become entrepreneurs (as SME vendors to Industry). To achieve this, it will be necessary
to eschew traditional approach, where Schools imparted education & Vocational Training
Institutes took training & employment responsibilities. Modern apprenticeship envisages
an integrated approach, with shared responsibilities between Schools, Training Institutes &
Industry. This is the model adopted by MSDE and will be followed by SCGJ.
The second issue relates to skilling illiterate workers. As per 2011 census (source : The Mint,
dated 7th Nov 2015) there are about 55.5 million marginal workers in India, representing
those who are employed for less than 6 months a year, bulk of whom are illiterate. This
represents focus area for Skills Councils. However, skilling an illiterate person requires specific
communication tools & techniques to impart learning experiences, with minimal level of literacy.
The dramatic technology evolution in ICE (Information, Communications & Entertainment)
sectors enables this. Through adopting SBT (Server Based Training) systems, with high video
content, it is possible to skill illiterate youth in rural areas, employing technologies that have
led to wide spread use of social media. Through video conferencing, the Plant can be made
to come to the trainee, who can also take a simulated walk-through, receiving explanations,
from Trainer, in vernacular language. Empirical knowledge is thus transferred through simulated
experience of real world situations. SCGJ intends to adopt SBT, of course, with anticipated
strong support from Industry, in creating Training Tools & establishing Teaching Infrastructure.
The third issue relates to skilling existing workers. As per 2011 census, there are about 362.6
million main workers in India, out of which 130.2 million (35.9%) have literacy below secondary
school level & further 71.5 million (19.7%) have studied between matriculate and undergraduate
level. Thus, more than 200 million main workers face increasing vulnerability of their current skills
being inadequate, or even irrelevant, with disruptive technologies changing not just manufacturing
processes and distribution systems but also consumer expectations. Hence, Recognition of Prior
Learning and skills upgradation would be a key component of SCGJ activities. Occupation
Mapping and Qualification Packs preparation would be an ongoing exercise, ensuring that
Skilling is done as per Industry needs, with continuing technological evolution.
SCGJ has a pan India role and bulk of the jobs will be created in rural India. It is hence,
appropriate that I end with this quote of Mahatma Gandhi, Man often becomes what he
believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is
possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have
the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have
it at the beginning.

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Skilling India through Apprenticeship

Jayant Krishna
Chief Executive Officer
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)

Rejuvenating Indias outmoded apprenticeship regime is one bright idea whose time has
come. As a matter of fact, Apprentices Act was first conceptualized in 1961 when the
infant Indian industry was largely manufacturing based under a license-quota regime along
with an insignificant service sector. In the initial couple of decades of independence, our
industry perhaps lacked adequate maturity and hence a prescriptive regime for notification
of apprenticeship quota and strict controls may have been necessary.
More than five decades have elapsed with sweeping changes having taken place in the Indian
industry. Despite a significant growth in the manufacturing sector, emergence of an even
larger service sector and introduction of a large number of vocational and other relevant
courses beyond ITIs, we only have less than 3 lakh apprentices currently in India. This is a
very small proportion of over a crore people annually joining our labour-force of 48 crore
workers. As against that Germany, Japan and China have 3, 10 and 20 million apprentices.
Clearly, the scale of apprenticeship in India has been abysmal.
Industry has been pleading for an apprenticeship regime that is business friendly with reduced
governmental controls. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) led the process of countrywide
consultation with the industry to understand their pain areas associated with apprenticeship.
This eventually led to the emergence of a consensus that a self-regulated regime would lead
to a sharp increase in the number of apprentices voluntarily trained by the industry. Reforms
propelled by National Skill Development Agency (NSDA) and CII coupled with a long-drawn
advocacy process and inter-ministerial consultations eventually resulted into amendments in
the Apprenticeship Act passed by both Houses of Parliament a few months ago.

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As the most significant change, the outdated system of trade-wise and unit-wise regulation
of apprentices under a prescriptive regime has been dismantled and substituted with a
minimum target equivalent to 2.5% of employees. To dispel the allegation that apprentices
may be used as cheap labour, the maximum permissible number of apprentices would be
10% of employee strength. Deployment of apprentices in service sector has also been
made compulsory now.
To bring respect and dignity to apprentices and make them cover their basic necessities,
the stipend payable has now been directly linked to minimum wages at the state level. The
revised stipend would be 70% of the minimum wages in the first year, followed by 80%
and 90% in the second and third years respectively. Industry should be free to pay higher
stipend to apprentices. Apprentice Protsahan Yojana has also been started wherein 50% of
the prescribed stipend payment would be made by MSDE, subject to certain conditions,
with highest priority to MSMEs in the manufacturing sector.
Instead of being confined to 259 designated apprenticeship trades of NCVT, the industry
has been allowed to onboard apprentices in Optional Trades also based on the newer
technologies and emergent business landscape. In addition, the scope of apprenticeship has
been expanded to include all undergraduate, post-graduate and other approved vocational
courses.
Penalties like imprisonment and other liabilities have been removed and industry has been
allowed to self-regulate and report its achievements vis--vis the targets. However, the
faulting units would be subject to a token financial fine for non-compliance.
In-house infrastructure for Basic Training is no longer compulsory and companies are
now allowed to outsource Basic Training. To facilitate this, Third Party Agencies would be
encouraged to undertake Basic Training wherever some companies, specially MSME units,
do not have internal facilities to do so. Not only this, if an MSME unit does not have all
facilities to run the complete Practical Training in-house, it would be allowed to split such
hands-on apprenticeship across two or three industrial units.
Duration of apprenticeship has also been rationalized and would now be six months (minimum)
to three years (maximum) but there is a consensus to cap most of the long courses to two
years. Inspection of apprenticeship matters by government authorities can only be done very
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RDAT. Restriction on deployment of apprentices from outside the state has been removed
and they are now allowed to seek apprenticeship in any unit anywhere in India.
To make things simpler for the industry as well as the youth, a web-based Apprenticeship
Portal was recently launched by the Prime Minister where all companies would be required
to publish their trade-wise requirement of apprentices. Apprentices would also be encouraged
to apply online. Apprenticeship contract approval would also be online. This would enable
online interaction among apprenticeship applicants, companies and the Government. Companies
would also publish apprenticeship details on this portal instead of submitting tedious returns
and Government would get data directly from the portal.
The new Apprenticeship Rules have also just been notified to complete the gaps in the
reforms process which were not hard-coded in the amended Act. Curriculum of major
apprenticeship courses accounting for 70% of the existing seats have been revised to make
them more industry relevant, competency based and NSQF compliant. Government and
industry associations are now working together to propagate these reforms to the industry
so that the country experiences a quantitative and qualitative improvement in apprentices
within next couple of years.
Successive studies have proven that given the hands-on focus during apprenticeship, the
industry directly benefits from enhanced skills, higher productivity and better professionalism
once apprentices join the workforce. The payback period is rather short which further
strengthens industrys business case for onboarding of apprentices. Government also benefits
since among a large number of skilling schemes, the efficacy of apprenticeship system is
invariably the highest. Youth undoubtedly are the biggest beneficiaries as it substantially
improves their employability and market value as well as their capability to become selfemployed. Apprenticeship in the post-reforms era, to use the clichd term, is essentially
a win-win for all stakeholders. If driven well, apprenticeship can potentially become the
most powerful vehicle under the overall umbrella of Skill India Mission launched by the
Prime Minister.

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Emerging challenges in job creation

Arun Maira
Former member of the Planning Commission

Could Indias demographic dividend be deteriorating into a demographic disaster? Insufficient


opportunities for youth to earn incomes commensurate with their aspirations is the root
cause of social atrophy, degenerating into violence in many parts of the country, including
Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Gujarat, and in Indian cities everywhere. More jobs must be
created. The problem for policymakers is the world is not what it was. Technology is rapidly
upending industries. New forms of enterprises are emerging. The most exciting companies
in the automobile industry now are Uber, Tesla and Google, companies that did not even
exist a few years ago. Wal-Mart, which had dominated the retail industry with its big-box
stores only a decade ago, is struggling to compete with Amazon, which does not have any
retail store. With these large upheavals, it is not possible to predict what will be the content
and numbers of jobs that youth must be prepared for. Old-fashioned policy solutions to
create jobs and generate skills will not work any longer.
Policymakers mind-sets must change in four ways. First, the architecture of large programmes
for skill development can no longer follow the assembly line model. In this traditional model,
one begins with estimates of what must be produced at the end of the line, i.e. numbers
and descriptions of the skills required some years in the future. Then the training processes
and institutions dedicated to produce the skilled persons are designed accordingly. The
assembly line goes backwards further to vocational training in schools to prepare young
persons for further training thereafter in specialized programmes. Thus, a long process,
stretching over several years, is laid out to prepare people for jobs they will be expected
to do in the future. The problem is that those jobs may not be available then in the shapes
and numbers estimated. Therefore, there will be more frustrated youths who have invested
years of their lives to be trained for jobs they cannot find.

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In an unpredictably changing environment, the architecture of the skill development enterprise


must be very flexible. Its thrust must be to produce good learners, and to provide them
many opportunities to learn in a just-in-time and task aligned manner so that they can
adjust and learn what emerging jobs will require.
India wants to catch up with the opportunity it has missed to grow jobs in its manufacturing
sector. The second mind-set change must be in concepts of manufacturing and factories.
Technology has changed the shape of manufacturing enterprises. Software has become a large
part of most manufacturing processes and products. Factories are becoming deconstructed.
Many operations integral to the manufacturing process, such as design and management of
the process, which used to be done within the factory, are now done outside it, even in
other countries. At the same time, very small and inexpensive machines such as 3D printers
and smartphones are providing powerful capabilities to tiny enterprises that previously only
large companies had. Thus, large factories are being replaced by networked enterprises with
capabilities distributed in many independent units in them.
Thirdly, for success in an unpredictably changing industrial environment, enterprise owners
mind-sets towards their employees must change. Henry Ford, the pioneer of the mass
production factory, complained that, when he wanted only a pair of hands, he would get a
whole human being with feelings, hopes, and complaints. He missed the point that human
beings, because they have aspirations for better futures, which machines cannot have, can
learn to improve themselves. If motivated and enabled to learn, they will also improve
the capability of the enterprises machines and systems, thus increasing the enterprises
productivity. Indeed, the only assets in enterprises with the ability to learn and improve
their own capabilities and the capabilities of the system around them are human beings.
Improvement of an enterprises capabilities and the re-skilling of employees must happen
simultaneously within the enterprise. The supply of human beings seeking work in enterprises
in India is huge. They will also cost less than in most other countries. They can be a source
of sustainable competitive advantage to Make in India, provided they are treated as human
beings with aspirations, feelings and abilities to learn, rather than mere low-cost labour.
The fourth change is to engender more collaboration among stakeholders. The problem
of unemployed youth will not be solved only by developing skills, or only by attracting
investments. At the policy level, skill development, enterprise formation and job creation
must co-evolve, especially when the types of skills required will keep changing with new

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technologies and new forms of enterprises. The skills ministry, the labour ministry and
several industry ministries must break out of their silos and work together as Team India.
Within enterprises, employers, managers, employees and employee unions (whether politically
affiliated or not) must grow together. Employers must respect their workers as the only
appreciating assets in their enterprises with the ability to improve their own capabilities
as well as the competitiveness of their enterprises.
(First appeared in Mint on 1 November 2015, reproduced with permission from the author)

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Employers Self-interest lies in doing more on


Skill Development

Dr Santosh Mehrotra
PhD (Econ) Cambridge
Prof of Economic, Centre for Informal Sector &
Labour Study, Jawaharlal Nehru University &
Author of Indias Skills Challenge (OUP 2014)

Government- and supply-driven systems of technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) tend to fail, while demand- and employer-driven systems are more likely to succeed.
For half a century after independence India hardly had a skill development (SD) system in
place. Vocational education was practically non-existent until the mid-1980s at school level.
The industrial training institutes (ITIs) that came into existence in early 1960s hardly grew in
number until 2007, and there were barely 250 000 odd apprentices in the formal economy.
Only 2% of the workforce had received formal vocational training by 2004-5. The formal
TVET system was heavily driven by government.
In the developed world Germany emerged as a manufacturing giant after the Second
World War. In the developing world Brazil became a major manufacturing nation among
the democracies. Both have employer driven formal SD systems (chambers in Germany,
sectoral industry associations in Brazil), with employers bearing most of the financial cost of
SD, not the government. Employers in India today should not complain about the quality of
TVET, since they are still hardly involved in either financing or providing it although that
situation did change a little in the last five years.
In India until the middle of the 2000s employers were hardly interested in training within
their own enterprises, let alone the system outside their enterprises. However, very rapid
GDP growth during 2000s led to a serious shortage of skilled staff. The government of India
began to respond. For the first time in the history of India the 11th Five Year Plan (2007 to
2012) included a chapter on skill development. But the government- and supply-driven system
was not going to change overnight. The number of private ITIs did grow from under 2000

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in 2007 to 10,000 in 2014. The government also did create a National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC, but NSDC the 51% shareholding from ASSOCHAM, CII and FICCI
has not materialized in fact) in 2010 which is one reason why issues rose recently about
NSDC. However other than the rapid growth of NSDC-funded vocational training private
providers (VTPs) the skill system hardly grew at all, and quality of training remains poor.
Barely 16% of Indian companies were providing enterprise based training in 2007 according
to World Bank data. Indian companies had been free riders on the education system. The
shortage of skilled personnel has raised input costs for them, so that more of them are
now providing in firm training (36% in 2014). However this is mainly confined to the larger
firms that can afford to invest in the infrastructure and trained human resources required to
provide such training. The smaller and medium enterprises are still struggling without skills.
The newly created Ministry of Skill Development (MOSD) has its job cut out. Given the
limited progress since 2007, the number needing TVET is, we have estimated, at least 20
million per year, but the system is barely churning out 5 million per year. The number to be
trained is nowhere as high as the previous government policy believes (500 million between
2012 and2022). Nor is the number joining the labour force (for whom employment has to
be found) is anywhere close to the 12 million per annum that is repeated ad nauseam by
policy-makers, industry and the media; it is no more than 7 million per annum. But the
challenge is stupendous in any case. Without employer involvement the target can never
be met. But involvement has to go well beyond the adoption of ITIs by CII and FICCI. It
has to take many other forms and very urgently.
First, secondary schools, ITIs and private Vocational Training Providers (VTPs) cannot expand
capacity because they are seriously short of industry-ready teachers/trainers. The MOSD is
planning to take on retirees from industry and retired army personnel as trainers - a good
first move but it has to go well beyond this action. However industry help must also reach
the 21 central government ministries offering vocational training which also need trainers. In
addition, about 2000 secondary schools began vocational courses from class 9 in government
and CBSE schools since 2014, who also need instructors, as do the ITIs and polytechnics.
Industry and employers have to offer their staff as instructors to all of them. However
such instructors have to receive pedagogical training which can be provided in the National
Institutes of Technical Teacher Training and Research (NITTTRs).
A second reason for the poor quality of our TVET is that trainees receive almost no practical
training. The global reputation of Germanys dual training system derives from the fact that the

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students spend four days in the week in practical training, and a day or two in a classroom.
Similarly in China all senior secondary school children in the vocational stream spend one of
3 years in an industry environment undergoing practical training. In India there is no such
provision for practical training. No wonder industry complains that trainees coming from
the TVET system have to be trained all over again. SSCs, CII and FICCI have to offer to
arrange this practical training for schools, ITIs and polytechnic. This should be a part of the
deliverables of SSCs and industry associations, which CII should encourage.
A third reason the quality of training is weak is that youth graduating from vocational
schools, ITIs or polytechnics have no understanding of a work environment. This is because
they have never experienced an internship while in the TVET system. Employers need to
arrange internships through the auspices of SSCs, CII and FICCI. This is also not part of the
deliverables of SSCs or industry associations, which also CII should encourage.
There is a fourth way in which industry should become a more responsible part of the SD
system in India. SSCs are currently responsible for preparing National Occupation Standards
(NOS), which are a requirement of the National Skills Qualification Framework, but a
NOS is not a curriculum. There is need to prepare the competency-based industry-ready
curriculum. If industry readiness is a demand of industry from trainees then employers need
to get involved in the preparation of such curriculum. The Central Institute of Vocational
Education of NCERT in Bhopal is trying hard with limited staff to prepare the curriculum
for secondary schools but it needs help that can only come from industry. Similar help is
needed by NITTTRs for polytechnics and the Advanced Training Institutes for ITIs. But this
is also currently not part of the deliverables of SSCs and of industry associations.
Finally, industry needs to get directly involved in the assessment of trainees and students
of vocational education, which should be a deliverable for SSCs and industry associations,
which CII should facilitate.
While India cannot duplicate the dual educational system of Germany, we can certainly
replicate the duality principle theory plus practical training that underlies the SD systems
in countries that have demonstrated success. None of the 21 line ministries of the central
government that fund training will produce industry ready trainees without these 5 principles
being adopted by industry and employers - in other words by ASSOCHAM, FICCI and
CII, who were supposed to be co-financiers of the NSDC supported SSCs in the original
scheme of things.

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Creating stable futures: A five step action plan to


stem VET drop outs

Raghav Narsalay
Managing Director
Accenture Institute for High Performance and
Risk Management Research

India has set aggressive goals of faster, more inclusive and sustainable economic growth
to become a high performance nation. But a large part of its working-age population is
unable to productively engage with sectors identified to drive the nations future growth.
The reason? Lack of market-desired skills.
We conducted a first-of its-kind survey of 2000 trainees, 23 training partners and 20 private
companies employing skilled youth associated with NSDC supported initiatives and those
trained under the auspices of Accentures Skills to Succeed Program in 2013.
We found that the injection of private capital and entrepreneurship is helping to solve two
key chronic deficits faced by the vocational education training (VET) ecosystem: the first
associated with poor quality training and physical infrastructure and the second associated
with a paucity of job offers.
But to address the ambitious national target of productively engaging millions of skilled
youth as set out in the , the training ecosystem needs to address an emerging problem of
drop outs VET-trainees who do not accept job offers or quit jobs due to job profile, job
environment or pay scale.
We used a multivariate stepwise regression technique to understand the factors that drive
trainees to drop-out. We learned that trainees younger than 18 were less likely to drop
out. We believe that younger trainees, those who are right out of secondary school, are

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extremely eager to learn and earn, and this becomes a strong motivation to not drop out.
In addition, trainees with bachelors degrees and those that joined the manufacturing sector
were also found to less likely drop out.
Lessons from the econometric analysis of relevant data were utilized to create a comprehensive
action plan that can help overcome the expectations-delivery mismatch and improve the
attractiveness of VET.
In this article we discuss key elements of Accentures five-step action plan for stakeholders
of the VET ecosystem, aimed at reducing drop-out rates and creating a career ecosystem
that would ensure stable careers for the beneficiaries of VET.

Accentures five step action plan


Step one is to attract prospective candidates at a very young age, preferably between 15
and 18. Deploying best practices from other successful national campaigns such as the Pulse
Polio campaign can make vocational education and training a visible national priority. To
attract youth, the government and training partners must develop a proper understanding
of who and what influences youth to enrol as trainees in VET.
As a second step, training providers should break down course modules into short-duration
semesters that alternate with apprenticeship stints at companies. This would not only provide
on-the-job experience to trainees but also an opportunity to earn while they learn.
Training modules must go beyond providing job skills alonethey must also develop
transferable skills. This third step will especially help individuals from rural, low-income
locations who are placed in companies that operate in cities. For example, computer skills,
English-speaking skills and civic knowledge could all help enhance trainees employability.
Moreover, guidance and support from former trainees can go a long way in helping these
individuals adjust to a new environment.
The fourth step in the plan recommends paying stipends to trainees during their
apprenticeships. This will provide an incentive for them to continue training and set
expectations regarding compensation in a trainees chosen career. The fifth and final step
focuses on stakeholders. Vocational training must cease providing one-time transactional
services and instead support lifelong learning and career growth for trainees. In order to
successfully do so, technologies and integrated operations should be used to help training
providers streamline the post-training follow-up mechanisms.

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What can we start doing tomorrow as stakeholders based on this action


plan?
Lets start seeing the training value at skilling centres being created through a series of a
links in a chain. (See Figure 1.) Value creation starts with the counselling of trainees before
they join a program.
Figure 1: The skilling value chain

1)

VET centers must institutionalize pre-joining counselling. Training partners should appoint
specialist counsellors or impart the necessary counselling skills to their existing faculty.

2)

The Know Your Trainee (KYT) along with demographic information of the prospective
trainee must capture information on the factors that motivate e trainees to join a VET
program. The KYT process must collect information on what a trainee is passionate
about, the soft-skills he or she already possesses and short- and long-term career goals.

3)

Especially during the pre-placement support stage, VET-centers help trainees bridge
soft-skills deficits and support trainees in identifying the right company and job.

4) In the post placement support phase, we can start incentivizing students to upgrade
skills and enrol friends. This can be done by sharing updates on future courses to
trainees on their mobile devices and sufficiently incentivize them to take these courses.
For example: training centers can provide cash vouchers to employed trainees for
redemption at grocery stores or at eating joints near their place of stay or work once
students recommended by them complete training successfully.

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As stakeholders defining and driving the ambition of transforming India into a high performance
we have a task cut out for ourselves. This is the moment to act collectively and decisively
towards empowering our youth to become a part of this journey to high performance.
Co-Authored by:
Kshitija Krishnaswamy,
Vice President - Accenture Services Private Limited
Lead - Corporate Citizenship Agenda

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Skill Scenario in India - LifeSciences


Sector Perspective

Satish Reddy
Chairman
Dr. Reddys Laboratories

Life Sciences Sector, comprising Pharmaceuticals, Bio Technology and Clinical Research,
growing at an impressive 16% py, is a leading player in Make in India campaign. It is possibly
the only sector that is well on course to have accomplished this. Its challenge is now to
successfully transition to Innovate in India, and focus on higher value added products. An
inadequately skilled workforce can seriously hinder this growth and vision. The Life Sciences
Sector Skill Development Council (LSSSDC), which I have the proud privilege to Chair since
its inception just over a year ago, has laid out plans to overcome this key impediment, and
is making good progress. Its thrust is Quality, Inclusivity and Global Connectivity.
The skill gap study conducted revealed that Sector has over 240 distinct job roles. Distribution
is rather skewed. Just 60 account for over 90% of total current job volume of 0.8 mn i.e.
180 job roles account for only 10% volume, with a requirement of under 450 per role.
How can we enthuse any Training Partner to meet skills of such niche job roles, which whilst
being small in numbers are, vital for growth of the sector? Our current focus is the major
4 job roles which account for over a third of job volume of sector. Next we will focus on
the 50 plus roles that account for about 50%. As for the balance, we may need to look at
Centres of Excellence which can cater to bulk of such niche job role skilling.
Our Governing Body has all the active Associations of the sector represented on its Governing
Body. Collectively these 9 Associations cover almost 98% of the revenue and employment
of the sector. We are cognisant that over 90% of an estimated 10,000+ manufacturing
units in the sector are small and unorganised. These are 2-3 room, 5 employee type of

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units. Their requirements of job roles (and skills therein) are very different from those of
large organisations. A prime example is job roles related to Chemists, where this sub-sector
combines various roles into one. Some large units, on the other hand, have segregated/
multiple roles. In this connection, CIPI, the Association representing small scale units is
represented by its Chairman on our Council, and has been playing an active role. Workshops
and interactions (coupled with personalvisits by LSSSDC team to small scale units), has given
us a good insight into the requirements and workings of such units. Their inputs have been
carefully assimilated in the standards that we have put out. Needs of small and unorganised
sector must get due weightage because of sheer number of units and inability to overcome
this on their own, and finally in the hope and belief that a person skilled to perform a wide
array of Chemist related tasks, can as well satisfactorily perform a part.
Cognisant of direct impact of skill quality on human life, our Council will be putting this
parameter ahead of numbers. I believe, we are one of the few Councils that has, with
Industry validation, developed Curriculums in house for the 4 major job roles, which account
for 35% of job volume of sector. Again, it is possibly the only Council to have triggered
development of Contentwhich is now available for 3 of the 4 major job roles. Tight
monitoring systems have led to weeding out Training Partners that were found in violation
of protocols. We will continue to enforce strict vigil in order to attain benchmarks set.
Since India has been deficient in skilled workforce, organisations that can afford it, have been
skilling youth in house. Others either are forced to poach upon this pool by offering higher
salaries, or make do with under skilled workers. This vicious circle can only be broken by
developing an adequate pool of skilled workforce- in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
Both scale and speed, without sacrificing quality, are required. Possibly, organisations, who
are doing in house skilling, can get accredited to LSSSDC and join hands with external
skilling partners to help build scale and speed.
Life Sciences sector, covering spectrum of activity from drug R&D to drug introduction is
manufacturing focused. Skilling with appropriate quality in most roleswhich are technical
needs equipment and therefore capex. How are Training Partners, most of who cannot afford
the capex in the short term, obtain the equipment? We are facilitating this by encouraging
and bringing Institutions such as NIPERs (there are 6 of them), Industry and potential Training
Partners to join hands. We have gotten skilling activity in technical job roles underway in
Baddi, HP in this manner and expect to launch this in AP/ Telengana shortly. Other major
clustersGujrat, Maharashtra and Karnataka will follow.

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Over 50% of revenue of $36 bn of sector is derived from exports. Rightly it is touted
as Pharmacy of the World. Our Governing Body has recently selected 5 main countries
where we will be actively look to benchmark our standards and processes. These are US,
UK, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. Incidentally, we are at an advanced stage of dialogue with
a leading Canadian vocational college to set up a Centre of Excellence.
Finally, skilling I believe, is like running a marathon. It is not a spurt. Whilst scale and speed
are crucial, we will need to be patient to make sure we do most things right, first time.
Think Big, Start Small, and Scale as rapidly

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Linkages between skill development, productivity


and employment potential1

Sunita Sanghi
Advisor
Labour & Employment & HRD Division in
NITI Aayog

Skill development is the focus area of the government policy. It is central to accessing
employment in the formal sector and enhancing productivity in the informal economy for
reducing poverty and risk of underemployment. The National Policy on Skill Development
aims to train about 104.62 million people afresh and additional 298.25 million are to be
reskilled, up-skilled and skilled by 20222. Considering that majority of these labour force
would be self or casual employed, the challenge is to how to improve the skill levels of
these workforce. These categories cut across various target groups or vulnerable sections
of the society. The groups are not mutually exclusive and there are overlaps because the
workers in the self-employed category are a heterogeneous lot while the casual employed
may be intermittently employed and in different unskilled works.
The lack of access to good education and training keeps the vulnerable and the marginalized
sections into the vicious circle of low skills; low productive employment and poverty. The
marginalized group which includes rural poor, youth, and persons with disabilities, migrant
workers and women constitute the highest number of poor. In India 70 percent of the labour
force reside in rural areas and depend on low productive agricultural activity where there
is huge underemployment leading to low level of productivity. The high proportion living
in poverty among women in India is due to their concentration in low productivity work.

Contributed by Ms.Sunita Sanghi, Adviser & Ms. A. Srija, Director, NITI Aayog

National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015.

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The skill development strategy therefore needs to focus on addressing the skill needs of
the self-employed as well as the casual employed. To quote Economic Survey 2013-14,
India can increase its long-term trend growth by unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit
of millions across the country by strengthening the economic freedom of the people. In
accordance, the National Policy on Skill Development & Entrepreneurship 2015 emphasises
on entrepreneurship development as the pathway for creating more wage employment and in
turn growth of the economy. The policy has identified following policy strategy for promoting
entrepreneurship viz; (i) educate and equip potential and early stage entrepreneurs across
India (ii) connect entrepreneurs to peers, mentors and incubators (iii) support entrepreneurs
through Entrepreneurship Hubs (E-Hubs) (iv) catalyse a culture shift to encourage
entrepreneurship (v) encourage entrepreneurship among the under-represented groups
(vi) promote entrepreneurship amongst women (vii) improve ease of doing business (viii)
improve access to finance and (ix) foster social entrepreneurship and grassroots innovations.
Skill development of the self-employed is essential to make the transition from own account
workers to employers or entrepreneurs. The success of the major programmes of the
current Government viz; Make in India, Digital India, Smart City, Swachh Bharat depends
on the success of the Skill India Mission in meeting its skilling target by 2022. The skill
development programmes to promote entrepreneurship are also equally important namely(i) SETU- the Self-Employment and Talent Utilization scheme which is a Techno-Financial,
Incubation and Facilitation Programme to support all aspects of start-up businesses, and other
self-employment activities, particularly in technology-driven areas, (ii) AIM- Atal Innovation
Mission, an innovation promotion platform involving academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers
drawing upon national and international experiences to foster a culture of innovation, R&D
in India and (iii) Start Up India to promote bank financing for start-ups and offer incentives
to boost entrepreneurship and job creation in the country.

Current and future skill requirements for India


Nearly 56 percent of the workforce in 2011-12 had basic education upto primary and the
proportion of low literacy levels was high among the female workforce (75 percent below
primary) as compared to the males. The proportion of total workforce with educational
qualification secondary was just 11.5 percent while for the female workforce it was still
lower at 5.4 percent. (Table-1)

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Table 1: Education level wise distribution of Work Force


Education

Rural + Urban
Male

Female

Total

Not literate

234

529

317

Below primary

98

93

97

Primary

154

128

146

Middle

192

110

169

Secondary

138

54

115

Higher secondary

75

27

61

Diploma/certificate course

14

12

Graduate

68

31

58

Postgraduate & above

21

15

19

1,000

1,000

1,000

Total
Source: NSSO EUS 2011-12

As regards skill training 75.80 percent of the workforce did not have any skill training during
2011-12 while the proportion of workforce with formal training was only 3.05 percent. The
proportion of workforce that received training through informal modes was 12.46 percent.
(Table-2)

Table 2: Vocational Training Profile of the Work force


Vocational Training

Agriculture

Manufg

Nonmanufg

Services

Total

Receiving formal training

0.08

0.13

0.05

0.39

0.64

Received formal training

0.22

0.51

0.20

1.48

2.41

Non-formal hereditary

3.05

0.77

0.15

0.47

4.44

Non-formal self-learning

0.60

0.61

0.23

0.79

2.23

Non-formal learning on job

0.86

2.02

0.98

1.49

5.35

Non-formal others

0.07

0.15

0.04

0.18

0.44

38.22

7.56

9.45

20.56

75.80

5.81

0.85

0.55

1.48

8.69

48.90

12.60

11.65

26.84

100.00

Did not received any training


nr
Total

Source: Calculated from NSSO unit level data

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From Table- 1 & 2 the education and vocational profile of the workforce throws light on the
challenge that India faces if the labour force consisting of existing and new entrants are to
be provided age appropriate skill training which might include skilling, reskilling and upskilling.
With such low skill levels the profile of our enterprise is such that nearly 95 percent of
the units are micro in size engaging less than 5 workers. The challenge therefore lies in
expanding the size of the enterprises to beyond 5 in number so that the progression of
growth of the enterprises from being a single employer to that of being a partnership or
private corporate entity takes place. Unless this transition is in place the productivity levels
will not improve so will employment. (Table-3)

Table 3: Establishments by size class of employment


Size by class of
employment

Item

1-5
6-9
10 & above

Year
1990

1998

2005

Establishments

93.4%

94.0%

95.1%

Persons usually working

54.5%

58.6%

64.2%

Establishments

3.5%

3.3%

3.4%

Persons usually working

8.4%

8.3%

10.2%

Establishments

3.1%

2.8%

1.5%

Persons usually working

37.1%

33.1%

25.5%

Source: Table 5.12, Chapter V, Fifth Economic Census 2005-All India Report, GoI

Some posers for discussion could be


For Skill development to be a driver of productivity requires improvement in quality,
relevance and accessibility of training by all the sections of populations particularly
marginalised and poor with poor education level. How this is to be achieved in diverse
country like India.
How to measurer contribution of skill development to productivity, wages and employment
growth? There is need for robust data base on different parameters such as wages in the
farm and non -farm sector, data for computing GVA for informal economy as defined by
the National Commission for Unorganised Sector Enterprises
What policies to be put in place to support enterprise development?

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What is the role of various stakeholders?


How to map skill for a country of India size on local levels and how to strengthen the
coordination between different institutions for better results?
What should be the role of private sector?
How to we mobilise resources?
(This article has been co-authored by Ms. A. Srija, Director, NITI Aayog)

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India at 75: Global capital of talent

Nirmal Singh
Founder & CEO
Wheebox

The Eleventh Five-Year Plan has a detailed road- map for skill development in India and
favours the formation of Skill Development Missions, both at the State and National levels,
to create such an institutional base for skill development in India at the national level, a
Coordinated Action on Skill Development with three-tier institutional structure consisting of
the PMs National Council on Skill Development, the National Skill Development Coordination
Board (NSDCB) and the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was created.
The most important initiative in last 12 months was to create a standalone Skills Ministry
headed by energetic and forward looking minister. Though many of these initiatives are yet
to show results for concrete employment for our youth, but they are certainly are in the
right direction. Also it is one thing to start any initiative, its equally important to measure
how effective is it? Especially when it has something as crucial as talent or skills at stake
that holds the future of the country.
Indias GDP is poised to grow at 7.5% and that means the severity of the situation is
accentuated by many levels when the economy is looking up, new jobs are getting generated in
ecommerce, energy, core engineering, retail, hospitality and banking; but there are not enough
skilled people available. It is this gravity of the situation that has started various initiatives
to combat this problem. In fact, the Government of India has adopted skill development as
a national priority over the next 10 years. According to National Skilling Mission the target
to skill 500 million people by 2022 needs a different mind-set and planning.

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First of all it is important to bring different stakeholders like Government, Corporations and
academia to channelize one vision and reflect one mission that will definitely see more of
talent building and thus being employable. The need of the hour is to deploy multi prong
approach to solve the problem, with my limited understanding I propose India to have 4
Mega Universities that can identify, benchmark and train over 100 thousand candidates at
one time in each of the campuses, Create One Mega Digital University that is an authority
to provide degrees in Vocational education and must partner over 100 thousand SMEs to
provide On the Job training for each student of the university for a period of 90 days in a
year,I also propose post offices to be part of imparting skills across Indian villages along with
all Panchayat halls where using televisions and broadband round the trainings are imparted
an students can join as per their convenience for round the clock for aspirants, but the
most path breaking idea to excite millions of candidates to join vocational education will be
when all ITI and Polytechnic colleges will be able to provide a bachelors degree that will
give candidates the much required honour to switch careers right from Civil services, Banks
and financial Institutions, Government and private jobs that needs a bachelors degree and
millions of candidates will aspire for joining ITI and Polytechnic as to have great opportunities
from both sides of Vocational study along with Bachelors degree.
My dream is to create skilling for respect, honour, livelihood, self-employment and better
remuneration, not restricting itself only for jobs. India must also identify future skills that
will arise in next 10 years and prepare skilled teachers, syllabus, training capacity, learning
material and map them to those opportunities.Also we shall identify the needs for core
skills that may arise from our smart cities by 2022 and align our geo spread of training and
employment opportunities around those proposed smart cities.

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The Skill Scenario in India- A Healthcare Perspective

Dr Shubnum Singh
Chief Executive
Max Institute of Health Education and Research

It is a known fact that there is a dire need for skilled and quality manpower in todays
knowledge based economy and there is a good reason behind skill development being crucial
to economic development. As India moves progressively towards becoming a knowledge
economy it becomes increasingly important that the country should focus on advancement
of skills which are relevant to the emerging economic environment. Survey after survey in
recent times belabors the huge mismatch in aspirations of advancing learners and their job
readiness, and the problem only seems to be multiplying with each passing day.
Across the world, skills development have been addressed with considerable seriousness. Skill
creation and skill enhancement of the existing healthcare professionals are both crucial for
human resource development in the country. Healthcare industry is highly labor sensitive. If
the organization is not adequately staffed or the staff is not well trained patient care will be
suboptimal. Quality of service, patient safety as well as productivity will be adversely affected.
Healthcare sector in India has been growing rapidly over the years and is estimated to reach
US$ 280 billion by 2020. Consequently, the sector is also experiencing an incremental demand
for human resources across verticals; from doctors, nurses to allied health professionals and
technicians. A study conducted by IMaCS (ICRA Management Consulting Services Limited)
on behalf of the NSDC has pointed out that the number of workers in the healthcare
services sector was 3.1 million in 2008. For the year 2022, the projected requirement will
be around 15.8 million people, which includes doctors, nurses, technicians and paramedics.
Contrary to what is believed is skill development is not at all an easy business. Traditionally
vocational training in India has been considered for those who are socially or economically

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marginalized. There are many challenges to overcome, starting from convincing the youth
that in demand skill can be more valuable than a college degree particularly when such
a degree does not equip the student with the skills required as per industry. Situation is
further aggravated by the stringency in our education system as there is no vertical or lateral
entry for advanced courses in the universities or colleges for them. The challenge is to not
only to get potential candidates into skill training institutes but the healthcare employers
also have to get convinced on the benefits of skilled workers at differential wages and also
towards its own responsibility in investing in skilling and up-skilling. The challenge is also to
overcome the shortages of health care workers by understanding the reasons for low entry
levels and high exit rates from the health profession.
The policy makers are required to give directions where decisions should be emerging after
taking into consideration views of all stake holders from academia to skill development
institute to employers. There is a need for increased employability opportunities at public
and private structure through appropriate directives and guidelines at national as well as state
level. For example, defined ratio of allied health workforce per patient to impart optimum
healthcare services. At the same time, the employers must also be actively involved in
supporting the skill development movement rather than leaving it to a few entities as at
present, as they must understand that their own sustenance would rest on the availability of
skilled workers in globalized network of production and services. Time has reached where
healthcare Industry should give up its attitude of complaining about lack of skilled workers
and rather bear responsibility of skill based training and employment. They also need to
focus on importance of not only skilling but also up-skilling and re-skilling.
A self-regulation model must be developed through involvement of employer right from
defining the standards that must reduce information asymmetry in the market and increase
transparency of monitoring and enforcement activities will in turn will boosts patient confidence.
Defining the standards as per need of industry for students and training institute, using
independent third-party organizations for evaluating compliance with standards will further
brings transparency in the whole process. For example, employer can be assured of the
standards and can more easily hire a good staff as per the requirement and needs in their
individual healthcare system because of the certification provided as per NOS and NSQF
Level which are dynamic standards and will be updated as per the industry requirement at
defined intervals.

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The government must also support in establishing minimum government and maximum
governance, through ease of doing business and self-regulation. With this objective, Ministry
of Skill Development has guided development of Sector Skill Council including Healthcare
Sector Skill Council that was mandated to develop standards (Qualification Packs-National
Occupation Standards) for job roles in Healthcare Sector especially for Allied Health job
roles. It also provide standard for training institutions for conducting training as per QP-NOS,
curricula, assessment, physical facilities etc.
At last, Health and wellbeing is based on the broad concept of health as set out by the
World Health Organisation, i.e. a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing,
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity and to achieve the same large healthcare
workforce is required to serve not only our country but serving globally through global
recognition of the skilled workforce by using a participatory process to design minimal rules
and regulations and appropriate career progression framework so as to aspire the youth
of the country.

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Sectoral Perspective on Skills Automobile

Rajesh Uppal
Executive Director
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

Automotive industry in India is a sunrise industry and it has great future for the next 10-20
years. Industry growth, fast-changing technologies, a growing economy, larger disposable
income and shorter lifecycles for new cars in the hands of consumers have in the recent
past necessitated a growing need for fresh skilling and up-skilling in the sector. Key factors
that will propel growth in auto industry will be technical skills and mindset towards the
industrial culture.
To meet the incremental human resource requirement in the sector, the entire ecosystem
need to scale-up its training initiatives and aligning themselves to industry recognized national
occupational standards. There is a need for developing special programs and incentives for
enhancing the skillsets of our population especially youth. Much-needed government, academiaindustry connect should be encouraged to determine the standards which should prevail in
the auto sector and increase internship opportunities at all major auto production hubs in
the country. It needs to also adopt a collaborative approach to training that is inclusive of
manufacturers and dealerships, develop online training resources with timely assessments
and focus on increasing practical components in the courses in order to enhance the handson skills of students.
Empowering a large number of people by equipping them with skill-sets that are need of
the hour would enable auto sector to create major buyers for automotive products and
thereby create a bigger market for itself. Owning a car or two-wheelers ranks amongst the
top aspiration of lot of people and thus it would be in the auto industrys own interest to
help raise the earning capacity of potential buyers through skill training initiatives.

52

Perspectives on Skill Development


A Collection

Another area where greater vigil and stronger regulation is called for is in road safety. Road
accidents in India claim more than 16 lives every hour on average. Henceforth it is a critical
area that needs active ruling, training, monitoring and enforcement as the number of road
accidents continue to rise. Its requisite to enforce improvement in on road regulations in
coordination with various authorities and agencies besides providing high deterrence for
defaulters. The same can be attained by adopting scientific and technology driven measures
in traffic management, pedestrian access, highway engineering, road furniture, driving license
issuance, road signage etc. Also ensure effective drivers training at driving schools imparting
relevant theory and practical modules with pre course and post course assessment.
In conclusion, I feel auto industry and government has to work in partnership to undertake
execution of skill initiatives where government can provide necessary infrastructure and
auto industry bring-in the curriculum, the trainers and management expertise in automobile
manufacturing, automotive service and driving, to run the institutes. This partnership can
improve the standard of skill training and will build foundation of Automobile Make in India.

Perspectives on Skill Development


A Collection

53

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment
conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil
society, through advisory and consultative processes.
CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization,
playing a proactive role in Indias development process. Founded in 1895, Indias
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Extending its agenda beyond business, CII assists industry to identify and execute corporate
citizenship programmes. Partnerships with civil society organizations carry forward
corporate initiatives for integrated and inclusive development across diverse domains
including affirmative action, healthcare, education, livelihood, diversity management, skill
development, empowerment of women, and water, to name a few.
In its 120th year of service to the nation, the CII theme ofBuild India - Invest in
Development: A Shared Responsibility, reiterates Industrys role and responsibility as a
partner in national development. The focus is on four key enablers: Facilitating Growth
and Competitiveness, Promoting Infrastructure Investments, Developing Human Capital,
and Encouraging Social Development.
With 66 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 8 overseas offices in
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partnerships with 312 counterpart organizations in 106 countries, CII serves as a
reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

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