HR - India;Sharpening skills

Sreelatha Menon

A new government plan aims to multiply the number of skill development centres and the number of people who get vocational training.


Jayanti is from a village in 24 Paraganas in Kolkata in West Bengal. She hasn’t heard about Singur. She has a cell phone but doesn’t know that it’s a Vodafone instrument. She can’t read an SMS, knows Bangla, studied in a government school till Class IV and dropped out to come to New Delhi through a placement agency which keeps her employed as a domestic help.

Jayanti may become a master cook and even learn a smattering of English from her various employers. But there is no certification of her skills to enable her get a better job. Nor does she have any avenue to develop other skills.

The national skill development policy, which is ready to go to the Cabinet, promises to empower her with choices, filling the gap of skill development, certification and placement to enable people like her to graduate from working in a house to other skilled jobs. In fact, those like her would be expected to have picked up a skill and a certificate in her school in 24 Paraganas in cooking, spoken English and perhaps something else before boarding the train to New Delhi after having been recruited at a “hiring event’’ organised by say Ficci or the CII in Kolkata.

The opportunities promised include not only industrial training institutes but also 50,000 and more skill development centres providing demand-based, short-term courses embracing even the needs of primary-school dropouts, who account for 25 per cent of the 12 million new job-seekers every year, and also illiterates, who are half the new job-seekers.

The aim is to train 15 million people every year. Labour and other ministries today train a bare 2.6 million.

The policy places industry in the driving seat. Industry will preside over the setting up of sector skill councils. The sectors targeted by Ficci, an official partner of the government, are construction, electronics, tourism, electrical, hospitality and IT/ITeS.

In fact, Ficci’s Skill Development Forum will match employers and skilled human resources. It promises not only assured placement but also hiring events and alumni associations. The forum, which was launched by Labour Secretary Sudha Pillai in October, is just a sample of what the skill development policy will be like in practice.

The Confederation of Indian Industries already has such a programme in place.

The entire drive is led by the Prime Minister’s Council for Skill Development, which has top industrialists on board and is holding its first meeting on Monday. That other ministries which offer skill development programmes are also members will ensure stringing of existing programmes.

The labour ministry, which was earlier the only official provider of skills, will facilitate. The ministry has been working like never before. Its skill development budget went up from Rs 101 crore to Rs 1,094 crore in 2007-08.

Apart from upgrading industrial training centres (ITCs) and partnering with industry in 300 ITCs, it has scaled up the number of seats available for courses affiliated to the National Council for Vocational Training from 20,000 in 2004 to 2,50000 this year. Around 100,000 seats were added this year alone. Its skill development initiative and a more ambitious programme to have 50,000 skill development centres are the other tools in its basket.

Only 2 per cent people in India get vocational training and 10 per cent any training compared with 96 per cent in Korea (44.4 million), 75 per cent in Germany (43.5 million), 80 per cent in Japan (66.7 million) and 68 pc in the UK (30.9 million). So that is some task ahead.