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.



* 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 EDUCATION QUALIFICATION FRAMEWORK (NVEQF)



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.



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.



* 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.



* 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 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



Nikhil Sonawane