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What about aspirations?

IN SEMINAR AFTER SEMINAR, THE HERCULEAN SKILLING TARGETS PROVIDE THE TALKING POINT. THE 4TH GLOBAL SKILLS SUMMIT BY FICCI DEPARTED FROM THE TEMPLATE AND PROVIDED SPACE FOR INDIVIDUAL DESIRES

HE figures have been done to death. The skills fraternity knows the target of 500 million persons to be skilled by heart now. As Roy Newey, Group Board Director of A4e puts it, even in dreams he sees that figure. But will the skills world get down to the task of achieving that figure? And take care of quality, while ensuring the quantity (numbers)? That was the question that was paramount at the FICCI 4th Global Skills Summit held in New Delhi on September 15-16, which was attended by the whos who of skills and vocational development in India from Government and corporate sector, as well as British, German, New Zealand and other foreign delegations. The formation of Sector Skills Councils and framing of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework constituted important talking points at the gathering, and much experience sharing from foreign delegations happened on these themes. But a fresh note was struck at the conference when, starting with RV Kanoria, Sr Vice-President, FICCI, speakers and those in the audience raised the question, amid this target setting and struggle to meet the numbers, what happens to individual desires, aspirations and inclinations? Awareness about glitzy lifestyle has permeated down to villages, and the youth of today cant be kept curtailed at lowest levels of manufacturing/ services. What happens when a chauffeurs son doesnt want to remain a driver or your cooks son doesnt want to remain a cook but wants to do BA/ MA, ie wants a career progression? Are we going to make provisions for these aspirations and academic possibilities for a person pursuing vocational field, or will a person, once a plumber, forever remain at the same level? Because if not skilling the youth is calling for demographic disaster, then not meeting their aspirations will also feed into their frustration. In future discourses on skills and vocational development, this career and counseling aspect will have to be given due space. The other area neglected in earlier conferences which was duly emphasised was traditional arts and crafts. The conference suggested some healthy models for providing them livelihood, while retaining their esteem.
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Thoughts from the top

galaxy of skills stalwarts brainstormed these issues. Emphasising the importance of skills development, S Ramadorai, Adviser, PM National Skills Development Council, said in his keynote address, If we look around the globe, we find that nations that have succeeded in tiding over the global economic slowdown are those that have traditionally invested in skill building. Countries like Germany are still doing well in a highly-depressed European economy, due to their highly skilled workforce. Lauding the IT industry example, he said, A highly skilled workforce can be the passport to Indias success. The IT industry is a standing example of the success that can be ours, provided you have people trained to global standards. Indian IT by default trained for an overseas market, a market that was short on programmers. What began as a rudimentary work, today has moved up to value adding, cutting edge innovation because we showed that we could raise the bar at an attractive price point. But reminding the audience that career suitability was essential, he said that while there were posters even in rural areas inviting the youth to join IT courses, not everyone is suited for the job, so we need to direct people to other emerging opportunities as well. We need world class plumbers, top class welders, well mannered chauffeurs, trained domestics and healthcare workers. There is a need to respect these skills and provide upward mobility so that people can see these as stepping stones to further success. He raised a pertinent point about artisans and craftsmen, saying, Not being able to manage a livelihood, many are doing menial jobs in programmes like NREGA. Can we not find a better use of their talent? We should either find them a better market connect for their goods or migrate them into jobs where their dexterity and creativity are leveraged. He urged stakeholders in the skills field to extend training support to states like MP, UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Orissa, where almost half of the population resides, and to focus on skills related to agriculture like dairy, agro-processing and animal husbandry, which will help generate local employment. He gave the example of tribal district of Valsad in Gujarat, where dairy farming reformed an entire tribal community. In his inaugural address, Sharda Prasad, Director General, DGET, expressed happiness that the skills agenda has moved from margins to the centrestage and from largely Government sector to private sector. Also that

S Ramadorai, Adviser, PM National Skills Development Council

the number of ITIs has increased from about 5,000 in 2006-07 to 9,500 now, and DGETs own outlay has increased form about 100 crore to about 1,200 crore per annum. And the placement in ITIs has increased from 35 per cent in 2003 to 80-90 per cent in 2010-11. But he stressed on the challenges of quantity, quality, relevance and systematic reforms, and the solutions to these in the form of NVQF, Sector Skills Councils and modernisation of all the employment exchanges in PPP mode. Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO, National Skills Development Corporation, described in detail the six sector skills councils which had been approved, besides others which were yet to be approved; besides detailing the 33 projects of training providers that NSDC had cleared. Talking of challenges, Chenoy also brought home the point that brand awareness was necessary to remove the social stigma. As of now skills means blue collar work, and has low aspirations associated with it. He suggested the following ways to bring about a change: Use of local opinion leaders and influencers Spending time on counselling it is time well spent Skill mapping and profiling Availability of finance Campaign to make vocational training aspirational Let there be a national campaign to make skills aspirational, he said, adding that events like WorldSkills
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Left: Rt Hon David Blunkett, Member of Parliament, UK; Right: Thomas Matussek, Ambassador of Germany to India

Competition, which NSDC is coordinating this time, and a Business Plan Competition focused on skill development, would go a long way in attracting the youth. At the same time he said higher salaries for trained resources, and soft skills training as part of training modules, would also add to the glamour quotient of vocational fields. Rt Hon David Blunkett, Member of Parliament, UK, gave a new mantra to the gathering when he said that the keywords in skilling should be delivery, delivery, delivery. He warned India of repeating the mistake that UK did in its skills development programme and said that the UK ended up not skilling or reskilling but accrediting what people already did. The real ambition was not to accredit but to transform people with no skills to highly-skilled, or those with basic skills to even highly-educated.

Thomas Matussek, Ambassador of Germany to India, linked the recent unrest in England to lack of prospects for future, and said skills development provided hope and social stability to countries. In his valedictory address, Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, said the summit had taken place at a very correct point of time as the approach paper to 12th Five Year Plan was being finalised and welcomed the industry leaders present there to come forward with suggestions. He said that while there will be fiscal constraint in the 12th Plan, education and skills, health and infrastructure will be three priority areas and will get high budgetary support at the cost of other areas. At the same time he urged the industry leaders present there not to miss an opportunity that comes once in a lifetime, or else we will not have so many hands to work with, as we will have mouths to feed.

AWARDS
Best Skill Provider - Government Funded Winner Runner Up Best Skill Provider - Bottom of the Pyramid Winner Runner Up Best Skill Provider - Private Winner Runner Up Best UK India Partnership Winner Runner Up
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Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) Kushal (CREDAI-PUNE NSDC Initiative)

ILF&S BASIX Academy for Building Lifelong Employability Limited

NIIT Foundation Mannat Foundation Trust

IndiaCan Education Private Limited IndiaSkills

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Execution on ground

HE question of how to do it was amply demonstrated in the case studies presented in the summit, and in the exhibition held alongside.

Festo Didactic: Volker Schmid, Head of Business Development, Asia/Pacific, made the presentation. Festo is a leading provider of automation components, with direct presence in 58 countries and representatives in further 170 countries. The company has 14,800 employees. Its learning arm Festo Didactic is seminar provider for more than 35,000 participants per year, and provides inhouse solutions to companies. It is also the main sponsor for mechatronics competition in WorldSkills. The company also has presence in India since 1963 Festo India. The company is headquartered in Bangalore and has

ly evolve. Dont go for static curricula, which is difficult to change. Also, offer courses only after understanding needs and requirements. He concluded that confidence of the industry should be benchmark of any training programme. Vox centres: The presentation was made by Roy Newey, Group Board Director, A4e, which is running the Vox centres. Vox means giving people voice. The Vox centres in the UK tackle the problem of dropouts and students above 12 years of age, who are misbehaving, take drugs and are prone to other anti-social tendencies. Vox has set up centres for these youth at the risk of exclusion from education. Vox moves into a school and sets up 3-4 classes in various vocational streams, say

Left: Volker Schmid of Festo Didactic; Right: Roy Newey, Group Board Director, A4e

seven own training centres. Its latest step in India is an industrial training institute for Shalimar group. While describing the how to of training, Schmid laid emphasis on: Layout: A training centre doesnt have to be dark. Give it an image makeover so that the youth are proud to work in the shopfloor. Broader area: By training in niche areas you close opportunities. There has to be cross-sectional training. Take care of cross-sectional needs. Short-term: Dont go for long-term programmes in the beginning. Start with short-term programmes to gain confidence of the industry Curricula: It cant be static and has to constant-

hair-dressing, catering, hospitality, construction. Errant students are given the incentive of finishing school work, upon which they will be given the chance to attend the vocational classes a few hours per week. So an element of discipline is brought in in the school. Further, the vocational training providers expect adult behaviour from these students, and the experience is that young people have responded positively. It brings out the best in the youth, says Newey, who gives an example of a young girl prone to drugs who is now enjoying her work as a hair dresser. Citing the success rate, Newey points that there is 92 per cent student retention; 72 per cent students are getting at least one level qualification and 75 per cent are showing progression in training, education or
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employment. A4e is in talks with the MHRD to start similar centres in India, Newey informs Skills Ahead. Bradford College, UK: A team from Bradford College, UK, made a presentation their training model. Talking to Skills Ahead, Ronnie Todd, Project Manager, described how they are developing faculty infrastructure. The college has 23,000 students and also trains 1,000 teachers per year at primary and secondary levels. The college imparts training in practically all trades, and for

Ronnie Todd (right) of Bradford College with Kathryn Oldale, Vice Principal, Curriculum and Quality, Bradford

these trades, they invite industry practitioners, impart them skills to become teachers and employ them full time. The college keeps sending them back to industry for knowledge upgradation, through its 30-day professional development programme. Functional skills like numeracy and enterprise are essential components of each trade. Todd gives the example of course in photography, wherein a student is taught not just how to take a great picture but to convince the client why he should buy that photograph. Todd informs that 99 per cent students passing out of these programmes are either self-employed or have the capacity to be self-employed. Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu: Representatives from several Indian states showcased their success stories. CV Som, Commissioner of Schools and Chief Executive Officer, Gujarat Knowledge Society, giving Tata Nanos example, described how the company had recruited thousands of people for its project, and also trained them. Going further, he described how the involvement of industry in individual ITIs had turned these institutions around. Thus L&T has trained 20,000 youth in construction trades like bar bending and masonry because it
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requires a large manpower base. Similarly Toyota provides Toyota certification to the candidates it trains. Describing the Gujarat Knowledge Society, he informed that it runs 300 skill development courses, and the idea is to utilise the infrastructure of schools, colleges, ITIs, polytechnics and other institutes whenever these are free. From Tamil Nadu, M Sakrapani, State Livelihood Specialist, described Pudhu Vazhu Project, which has enabled VII class pass candidates to earn `20,000 per month. The project is participatory in nature, wherein communities themselves identify the poorest of the poor candidates to be trained. Training is done by the industry. The project has involvement of companies like Nokia, Samsung, HCL, St Gobain etc. 1.5 lakh people have already undergone training. Their earnings mean that `635 million is going to the villages, as earnings of the youth. AK Sacheti, Project adviser, Rajasthan Mission on Skills and Livelihood (RMoL), described that for this much popular project, they had received about 2,000 applications from ITCs, NGOs, professional institutes and corporates, and only 63 were given approval, such was the strict criteria adopted. And now there are only 19 providers in the project. ICRA had been invited to identify the areas where training will be required. And so, based upon its findings, starting with initial 32 courses RMoL is now running 192 courses, of 40 to 90 day duration. There is a provision of tool kit, soft skills training and EDP as part of the programme. As of now, 72,117 youth in the age group of 16 to 35 have been trained in varied sectors like food processing, mining, oil and gas. Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC): This organisation, under the aegis of Apparel Export Promotion Council, got the award for Best Skill Provider Government Aided category, in the Global Summit. Talking to Skills Ahead, Col (Retd) DP Dimri, National Coordinator of SMART training project of ATDC, described both the long-term and short-term programmes that they are running to train manpower for the apparel sector.

Reports released

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iMOVE moves to India

ERMANYS International Marketing of Vocational Education (iMOVE) was the Institutional partner at the event and was a major presence at the summit. iMOVE is an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and promotes international cooperation through

Ulrich Meinecke from the German Embassy

collaborations in education and skills development. In the summit it shared its expertise on German skills setup and structuring of Sector Skills Council. A day before the summit iMOVE and FICCI jointly organised a special India-Germany workshop on German Vocational Education & Training in Specific Sectors Lessons for the Formation of Sector Skills Councils in India. iMOVE has set up its office in India and will be proactively fostering engagements in the field of technical education. Earlier this year, it signed an MoU with NSDC for transfer of know-how in this domain and to promote private sector initiatives in India by bringing the stakeholders of the two countries together. Ulrich Meinecke, Counsellor, Social and Labour Affairs, Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, informed Skills Ahead that iMove, as part of an MoU with FICCI, will also support it in the Sector Skills Councils that the industry body is working on. At the same time, it is also working with IL&FS in curriculum development and training of trainers in about 100 multi-skilled training institutes in Delhi-Mumbai corridor. Similarly, the Festo Didactic-Shalimar project, which will come to fruition around January, has also been enabled by iMOVE.

The long-term programmes, of more than six-month duration, are now run under IGNOUs community college scheme, leading to an associate degree. The second, shorter route is Skills for Manufacturing Apparels through Research and Training (SMART) courses, targeting 1.72 lakh BPL youth in the next five years. Since ATDC comes under Apparel Export Promotion Council, understanding market demands, making changes in training accordingly, and providing experienced trainers comes easily to the institute. Across the country, in all locations, the course content is streamlined and standardised. There is a quality control team to control training quality in all locations. The fact that there are no franchisees and all the centres are own, also helps control quality. Col Dimri tells that ATDC has 72 per cent placement record, the remaining actually opting to become self-employed. e-Jeevika: Richa Panday Mishra, Founder and CEO of e-Jeevika, described her organisations philosophy and work to Skills Ahead. e-Jeevika was an exhibitor at the event. Its an IIT-incubated initiative and has presence in Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, MP, UP, Punjab, Assam and Andhra. Mishra says that when the target of 500 million Indians to be trained is raised, the question that arises is, who are they, where are they and what are their aspirations. e-Jeevikas role is to locate those potential trainees, do

Richa Panday Mishra of e-Jeevika

their competency mapping and provide these trainees to training providers. They go to rural areas, source the human resources and connect youth to stakeholders like training providers or employers. The work doesnt stop at connecting the two ends. E-Jeevika also identifies their skill gaps and suggests career paths, because, as Mishra says, you cant force someone to take up a career against his aptitude and inclination, NREGA having ensured at least basic livelihood.
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1. RCM Reddy, Chairman, FICCI Skills Development Forum, sets the agenda for the conference 2. Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, discussed the 12th Five Year Plan 3. Dilip Chenoy, MD and CEO, NSDC, calls for branding of skills through competitive events 4. The audience, in rapt attention 5. Paul Comyn, Senior VT and Skill Development Specialist, ILO Decent Work Team, shares ILO perspective 6. A model of Vox centre on display in the exhibition area 7. A visitor in exhibition area, learning by doing 8. Col Dimri of ATDC and his team receive the award 9. Winners pose for a photo-op

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