Skill Express Jan 2010

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FICCI Skill DevelopmentForum Update

India has seen a rapid growth in the last few years.

This growth cannot be called inclusive as it has not

been able to bring about development at the

grassroot levels. The overall skill gap in the country is

estimated at over 10 million per year and growing.

To address the National Skill Gap and promote

inclusive growth, FICCI launched a Skill Development

Forum in 2008.

Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, stated that

the Forum has been launched to bring all FICCI

initiatives for skill development under one banner,

and supplement government efforts through

different interventions. Dr. Mitra further added that,

FICCI directly & indirectly supported by 2,50,000

industries, has a critical stake in skill development

requirements of the country. If India has to compete

in the global market, having a skilled workforce can

contribute immensely to the competitiveness of the

country. FICCI has therefore identified skill

development as a priority area.

January 2010

SKILL

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Feature article

Forum News

Forum Events

FICCI Skill Development Forum Update

Federation of Indian Chambof Commerce and Industr

(From Left to Right: Mr. B. P. Pant, Mr. Sharda Prasad,

Dr. Amit Mitra, Ms. Sudha Pillai, Mr. Anurag Jain)


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FICCI Skill Development Forum has the following

objectives:

1. Discuss and critically examine the skill

development policies in the country and improve

/ strengthen interface with the Government on

skill related issues.

2. Advise / interact with the National Skill

Development Corporation and put forward the

views of the private sector / vocational training

providers.

3. Implement / execute programmes / projects on

skill development related issues with the Central /

State Governments, NSDC, DGET and other

national or international bodies.

4. Strengthen the private sector initiatives in skill

building, network with ITIs and ITCs and extend

financial, technical and managerial support tothem and share best practices / models through

information sharing.

5. Set up skill development centers / institutions and

advice / support entrepreneurs in this task.

6. Support / organize conferences, meetings,

discussion groups on skill related issues to bring

the subject to the forefront.SKI

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ESS Feature ArticleInclusive growth can come from

holistic life skills developmentAnurag Jain, Chairman, FICCI Skill Development

Forum

India has, in the recent years, seen dramatic growth

which has been driven by the growth in new age

industries. However, the growth can by no means be

said to be inclusive. While on one side, the increased

purchasing power has created demand for a new

level of quality of service, on the other side, there is

an immense shortage of skilled manpower in the

country specifically with regard to vocational skills.

Even the most conservative estimates put the overallskills gap in the country at over 10 million and

growing. India adds about 12.8 million workers per

year out of which 40 per cent are illiterate, about 25

per cent have primary education, and only 35 per

cent have middle or high school education. Further,

the lack of learning opportunities through the

lifecycle not only means that we have a workforce


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with lower productivity but also a workforce that will

not grow through the years. While the Government

is taking proactive steps to bridge the skills gap, with

the setting up of the National Skills Development

Corporation (NSDC), the new programmes executed

under the PPP model such as the ITIs is the need of

the hour. At FICCI, we are committed to partnering

the government in this endeavor.

FICCI will work towards bridging the National Skill

Gap by focusing and mobilising efforts towards the

deployment of a viable and sustainable framework

for skills development.

We are doing this through an eight pronged strategy.

Building awareness: Current challenges in the

informal sector include lack of respect from the

society for vocational jobs, limited information being

available about job opportunities, limited thrust

from the current educational system in India. Our

shared endeavor is to take the awareness about

vocational training to the level of successful

campaigns such as the ITC E-Choupal, Pulse Polio,

Jagore.com, Teach India, China-English dissemination

programme etc. Further, we would commission

Regional Profiling Studies to identify region specific

skills demand of industries and develop a

communication plan which is delivered by local

brand ambassadors to drive a greater sense for

dignity of labour.

Mobilise funds: Inadequate credit profile of those in

the informal sector means that they have to borrow

money at exorbitant interest rates which leads to a

credit spiral. Lack of sustainable sources of funds is

another issue. Our ITIs need investments and fresh

funding to move on the level where excellence is

nurtured. Skills development is a national agenda

and therefore, the society needs to contribute

generously to take India to the next level. At FICCI,

we believe that the solution lies in creating a

framework for sustainable sources of funds. A

National Skills Loan Guarantee Fund developed in

conjunction with Government, FIs and Aid agencies

to incent banks to deliver loans consistently will go a

long way in creating a structure to support inclusive

growth. The fund should facilitateMicro-Credit with

flexible repayment schemes and the Government


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should create funding business models premised on

engagement, sustainability and reliability.

Creating new infrastructure: Most of our ITIs have

been built in tier1 and tier 2 townships. We need to

take these training centers closer to the people and

remove inconsistencies in terms of number of such

institutions in different regions. The overall capacity

of ITIs is about 3.4 million people vs the current

demand of over 10 million people. The additional

capacity can only be created by enabling private

enterprises to enter the field and create standardised

facilities and processes. Further, by building alternate

mechanisms such as e-learning, distance learning,

Mobile classrooms etc, we can reduce the costs

involved and improve the reach.

Standards: How does one ensure that the products

of the vocational/skills development programmes are

of a high level of quality and consistent across

centres. The answer lies in developing standards for

the curriculum, facilities trainers and students.

Standardised assessment and certification processes

will remove regional imbalances, spur geographic

mobility by ensuring consistent product despite

inconsistent inputs, and create an increased industry

acceptance of candidates coming out of this

standardised system. Further, we should create aframework that helps in evolving these standards

with the changes in the industry. FICCI is currently

engaged in developing these standards to ensure

that the skills development programmes deliver a

high quality product consistently.

Vocational training framework: People in the

informal sector have varied educational levels and

different experiences, which creates several

challenges in the development of a vocational

training framework including managing the diversity

of input skills, lack of gradation in the courseware,

misalignment of courses with input skills, and lack of

certification processes. Our vision at FICCI is to

create a competence based framework thatnormalises the diversity of inputs to deliver

consistent normalised output. The framework

includes training and certification for people as well

as trainers and creates better coordination between

the higher secondary, diploma and engineering

systems.

Employment: Lack of credible employment

opportunities for people with vocational skills quite

often pushes workers into grey and black markets.

Currently, there are no bodies that can ensure

effective matching between skilled resources and

employers. FICCI will act as the clearing house for

placement of skilled resources to match employers

and skilled resources by creating online portals,


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referral programmes, alumni associations, assured

training placement programmes etc. We will

endeavor to get industry buy-in and acceptance for

candidates coming out of this standardised system to

ensure meaningful career opportunities are available

to skilled resources.

Career progression: Our vision is to develop

roadmap for career progression from blue collar to

white collar jobs by creating support processes and

development plans to ensure holistic development

through the life cycle. This will be done through a

nationally consistent yet flexible progressively tiered

framework that is facilitated by the industry for all

qualifications by providing continual learning

opportunities.

Nonlinear growth: By infusing new technologies

across the above seven points, we are confident of

accelerating our progress in pursuit of our national

skills development agenda. FICCI is partnering the

Government in creating a draft framework for skills

development and will shortly be working on a

national campaign to promote benefits of vocational

education to the people. Further, we will help build a

National Skills Loan Guarantee Fund in conjunction

with Government, FIs and Aid agencies to incent

banks to deliver loans. On one side, FICCI will work

with the industry to pilot public-private partnership

models for skills development and on the other side,

we will develop standards that consistently deliver

high quality normalised product despite inconsistent

input skills.

We will act as the clearinghouse for placement of

skilled resources by matching employers and

resources. Further, FICCI will engage itself in

developing skills through the lifecycle of trained

resources to ensure meaningful career opportunities

and transition from blue collar to white collar. Being

an industry body it gives us a strong understanding of

industry needs as we continue to understand and

align with industry requirements.


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Engineering graduates lack skills, says FICCI-World

Bank survey

The FICCI-World Bank survey of 150 firms,

conducted during September and October this year,

found that 64 percent of surveyed employers are,"somewhat", not very", or "not at all" satisfied with

the quality of engineering graduates' skills. The

survey noted that the top 3 most important general

skills are integrity, reliability, and teamwork, while

the top 3 most important specific skills are

entrepreneurship, communication in English, and

use of modern tools and technologies. This survey

provide new and better information to students,

faculty and colleges on what constitutes an

employable engineer' on today's labour market.

This finding confirms that colleges and institutions

need to focus on employability and quality of

graduates. "If colleges want to improve the

employability of their graduates, they have to focus

on reducing skill-gaps through improvements in

curriculum and teaching methods," World Bank

Analyst and co-author of the Employer Satisfaction

Survey Hiroshi Saeki said. According to Dr. Amit

Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, "This finding shows

that the faculty and deans of each college have to

closely interact with employers to design education

programs that respond to the specific skill demand

of the employers.

FICCI to conduct skill mapping

FICCI is planning to undertake a pan India skill

mapping project to counter the problem of

workforce migration and unemployment. The

proposal envisages identifying region specific

industrial clusters in the country and advising the

state government to set up training institutes

accordingly.

After the study is completed the industry body will

suggest the state governments to set up Industrial

Training Institutes (ITI's) imparting specialization skills

in sync with local demand facilitating ready

absorption in the local clusters. The body has also

received assurances of co-operation from some state

governments and has signed a Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU) with the West Bengal

government.

FICCI Skill Development Forum website will be

launched in February

FICCI Skill Development Forum website will be

launched in February, 2010. The website will provide

information on FICCIs Skill Development Forums

initiatives, events, activities and research.


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ESSFICCI Skill DevelopmentEvents

Past Events - FICCI Global Skill Summit 2009

FICCI in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour

and Employment, Govt. of India, organised the

GLOBAL SKILL SUMMIT in August 2008 & August

2009, where United Kingdom and Germany

collaborated as Country Partners. Besides,

Switzerland and Australia also shared their

experiences. In the Global Skills Summit held on

August 20-21, 2009 both, speakers & participants

exchanged new initiatives & ideas. The theme forthis year was "Emerging Skill Challenges - Vision

2020". The two-day summit among other issues,

discussed the emerging skill development, public-

private participation in skill development, its role in

poverty alleviation and sectoral demand for skill

development. Based on the views of the participants

and the reports released at the summit, various

recommendations were made to the National Skill

Development Corporation.


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ESSCurrent Events -

Regional Conferences on Skill Development:

FICCI In collaboration with the Department of

Technical Education, has organized four Regional

Conferences across India. The Regional Conferences

have been held this year in Nagpur, Kolkata, Kanpur,

and Chennai in May, October, November, and

December respectively. These conferences have been

well attended, and have sensitized the Vocational

Training Institutions/Partners on the need for skill

development to promote employability. During these

conferences, the problems and issues of Vocational

Training Institutions are discussed, and information is

sharing bout up-gradation of ITI's under PPP mode,

and the Modular employability Skill Programme. The

fifth Regional Conference was held at Madurai on

January 11th, 2010.

District meeting of VTP's at Mau, UP

The forum conducted a district level meeting of VTP's

at Mau, Uttar Pradesh on 7th January, 2009. Out of51 VTP's in Mau district, 49 participated in the

meeting coordinated by FICCI. The meeting provided

an opportunity for VTP's to highlight their success

and voice their concerns and issues.

Skill Express Jan 2010

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