Human Resources

Why it is important?

While growth projections appear encouraging, the major challenge for India
would be to meet the emerging human resource requirements of an
expanding economy. The fast rate of growth both in service sector as well as in
manufacturing sector in India has led to enormous shortage of talent.

The contemporary focus on skill building or skill development in India is

derived from the changing demographic profiles in India vis--vis China,
Western Europe, and North America. These changing demographic profiles
indicate that India has a unique 20 to 25 years window of opportunity called
demographic dividend.

The so called demographic dividends can wither away very fast if young
India is not represented by people with right skills.

India to be great super power.

Issues:

Shortage of skilled workers:

According to NASSCOM-McKinsey Report (2005) about 25% of technical
graduates and 10-15% of general college graduates from India are suitable for
employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries respectively. A relatively
recent report (2008) by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston
Consulting Group (BCG) also highlights the fact that over the next five years
the Indian economy will experience a severe shortfall of skilled workers in the
presence of huge surplus of unskilled manpower

the lack of quality trainers and training institutes

According to the Eleventh Five Year Plan Document, only 2% of existing

workforce in India has skill training, while the corresponding figures are
96%, 80% and 75% respectively for Korea, Japan and Germany.

The quality of the students is questionable. According to Narayan Murthy,

Chairman of Infosys Technologies, only about 25% of over 3 lakhs
engineering graduates coming out of colleges each year are employable.

Though ITIs have grown in size, they have fallen short in fulfilling the skill
requirements of the country.
The ITIs are not able to match the realities of the employment scenario.
Trainings offered by them mainly cater to the needs of the organized
manufacturing sector, whereas over 90% of Indias workforce is actually
engaged in the unorganized sector.
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 ITIs have been slow in adapting to rapid changes in the economy, more
particularly in the post reform period.
Weak institute and industry interaction lead to a gap between course
curriculum and industrys requirement.

The disabled population of India has been left totally behind. No country or
society can ever progress or develop leaving 20 million of its population
behind.
The most grievous mistake our policy makers and decision makers have made
is to have looked at disability as a charity issue, as a welfare issue. It should
rightly be development issue, a progress issue

Our present capacity for skill development programmes is for 3 million.

The target is to raise it to 15 million during the 11th Five Year Plan and to 500
million by 2022, with emphasis on inclusion in terms of gender, rural/urban,
organized/unorganized, minorities, SC/ST, regions with balanced development
etc.

Hindrance to growth of Industries:

Too many firms in India stay small, unregistered, unincorporated, largely
informal, or in the unorganised because they can avoid regulations and taxes.
These firms have little incentives to invest in upgrading skills of largely
temporary workers.
The jump from small to medium enterprise especially entails loss to several
perks.

Govts Efforts:

The Centrally Sponsored Scheme "Vocationalisation of Secondary

Education" was launched in 1988.

NATIONAL
VOCATIONAL
FRAMEWORK (NVEQF)

EDUCATION

QUALIFICATION

NVEQF is a descriptive framework that organizes qualifications according to

a series of levels of knowledge along with skills.

Subsequently, 1396 Government ITIs are being taken up for upgradation

through public private partnership (PPP).
Under this Scheme, an Industry Partner is associated with each ITI to lead the
process of upgradation.
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Therefore, it becomes important to have active industry collaboration with

academia to fulfil development needs of our vast human capital.
There are some examples of corporate initiatives to enhance capabilities of
uneducated, underprivileged, poor children such as Times of India Teach
India initiative, which brings together children in need of education and
people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them.
Another important aspect in which industry can collaborate with academic
institutions is in development of vocational education.
The third important aspect of such collaboration is active role of corporate
world in higher education, particularly in management, engineering and
other professional courses
Last but not the least; collaboration is also required to provide training to mid
level executives in the corporate sector.

Rural Development ministry has taken an initiative from 2008-09 to set up

dedicated training institute for skill training of rural BPL families for self or
wage employment. These institutes named as the Rural Development and Self
Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) would be set up in each of 600
odd district of the country in partnership with the state owned banks.
Public sector banks such as Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank, along with Sri
Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Educational Trust, an NGO, initiated the
RUDSETI concept in Karnataka in early 1980s. The lead bank of the
respective district imparts training programmes to rural youth after doing a
need assessment survey and the Rural Development ministry finances the cost
of the training programme in the RUDSETIs.
Under the RUDSETI model, rural unemployed youth will be provided training
facilities under the entrepreneurs development programme, in at least 50 areas
such as dairy management, horticulture, poultry sericulture, mushroom
cultivation, photography, videography and garment manufacturing.

In India it is the NGO sector which is delivering services in special education.

The Govt of India should be proud of the sector and strengthen it. The NGO
sector needs to be reckoned with and appreciated and considered as partners in
development as presently this sector is the only entity looking after the
disabled in India.

A number of new educational programme at degree level have been started to

take care of the knowledge needs of the sector.

Due to the shortage of qualified professionals, new economy businesses such

as software organizations in India have been recruiting engineering graduates
irrespective of their disciplines based on their analytical and learning
capabilities.
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Indian organizations have been increasingly working towards enhancing the

linkage between pay and performance.

Indian organizations are investing substantial resources and efforts for career
and succession planning.

The way ahead:

Vocational training plays a crucial role in transforming the unskilled people

into skilled human resources and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are key
components of the vocational training system in the country.

Only a quality human resource will ensure emergence of a true knowledge

society which will ultimately enhance the countrys competitiveness in the
global economy.

For education to be able to achieve this objective, we need a curriculum that

can impart a modern outlook to people while encouraging them to retain all
that is good in their own culture a curriculum that is sensitive to the culture
and value systems of the tribal people.
We need to look at the education of tribal people in a holistic manner and
redefine our goals and delivery mechanisms to suit the needs, culture, values
and sensibilities of the people.

Indian organizations should have access to the latest knowledge and

technology to remain competitive and to sustain growth.

National Skill Development Mission

Why?

To reap the benefits of demographic dividend, the Eleventh Five Year

Plan had favoured the creation of a comprehensive National Skill
Development Mission.

National Skill Development Initiative will empower all individuals

through improved skills, knowledge, nationally and internationally recognized
qualifications to gain access to decent employment and ensure Indias
competitiveness in the global market.

The skill development initiatives will harness inclusivity and reduce

divisions such as male/female, rural/urban, organized/unorganized
employment and traditional/contemporary workplace.

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The skill development initiatives support the supply of trained workers who
are adjustable dynamically to the changing demands of employment and
technologies. This policy will promote excellence and will meet the
requirements of knowledge economy.

Coordinated Action on Skill Development

The action aims at creation of a pool of skilled manpower with adequate skills that
meet the employment requirement across various sectors of the national economy.
Three-tier structure:
1. PM's National Council on Skill Development
Apex institution for policy direction and review
The Council has set a target of creating 500 million skilled persons by
2022 with emphasis on inclusion so as to deal with divides of gender,
rural/urban,
organized/unorganized,
employment
and
traditional/contemporary work place.
2. National Skill Development Coordination Board
NSDCB has taken upon itself the task of coordinating the skill
development efforts of a large number of Central Ministries/Departments
and States.
3. National Skill Development Corporation
The NSDC has geared itself for preparing comprehensive action plans
and activities which would promote PPP models of financing skill
development.
About 8 percent of the total work force in India is employed in the
organized sector, while the remaining 92 percent are in the non-formal sector.
Employment needs to be generated in all the sectors, namely primary,
secondary, and territory.
It is necessary to promote main employment generation activities like

agriculture,
labour intensive manufacturing sector such as food processing, leather
products, textiles
services sectors: trade, restaurants and hotels, tourism, construction
and information technology and
small and medium enterprises.

Innovative schemes to promote skill development like Skill Development

Initiative (SDI), Kaushal Vikas Yojana (KVY) for setting up Industrial
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Training Institutes and Skill Development Centers in uncovered areas and skill
development plan for districts affected by Left Wing Extremism, would help.
Initiatives being taken up by Banks - Case of State Bank of Travancore

Setting up of Rural Self Employment Training Institutes

The objective of these Institutes is to provide intensive short term
residential self employment training programmes with free food &
accommodation, to rural youth for taking up self employment initiatives
and skill up gradation for running their micro enterprises successfully.

Skill Training for Employment Promotion Amongst Urban Poor (STEP UP)
This scheme launched under Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) is
focussed on providing assistance for skill formation/upgradation of the urban poor
to enhance their capacity to undertake self employment as well as access better
salaried employment.
Wayanad Rural Micro Credit Training Institute
State bank of Travancore set up the Wayanad Rural Micro Credit Training institute
(WRMCTI) at Kalpetta in Wayanad District in 2005, to impart training to rural
entrepreneurs in Micro Credit Activities / Agriculture and Allied Activities jointly
with Government of Kerala, under the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) .
The role of NGO in skill development:
Given the important role of Non-Governmental Organizations in reaching out to
various sections of society to deliver various goods and services, including skill
development, a daylong workshop was organized by the Office of Adviser to the
Prime Minister, National Council on Skill Development on Saturday, 13 October 2012
New Delhi with select NGOs across the country involved in vocational training and
education.
The objective of the workshop is manifold, and the following issues were discussed:

Sharing best practices and knowledge about the different models through
which trainings are currently being conducted by NGOs,
Exploring possibilities of scaling up existing operations,
Identifying ways in which skill development can be delivered to those who
will work in the informal sector,
Making the training and skill development programmes more cost effective
and outcome oriented, and
Exploring ways in which NGOs can work with PSUs to help them achieve
their CSR goals
Determining how best to leverage strengths of NGOs for skill development
agenda
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Nikhil Sonawane

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