The Hindu Business Line : `TN must set aside Rs 700-cr skill development fund'

The Tamil Nadu Government will have to set aside a Rs 500-700 crore Skill Development Fund for education and training to create a skilled workforce to meet the industries' needs in the next decade, according to a study commissioned by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Outlining the report to presspersons here on Monday, Mr B. Santhanam, Chairman, CII-Tamil Nadu, said the State has the potential to create 4 million skilled jobs and 9-11 million unskilled jobs by 2015. The study has pointed out to the gaps in quality and quantity of output and has suggested a strategy to address these issues.

Emerging jobs

Most of the new jobs would be in automotive, information technology and IT-enabled services, textiles, leather, light engineering, construction and financial services. The State's economy will be shaped by these industries, which will absorb 65 per cent of the additional workforce.

These are industries that are expected to grow 2 to 5 times their current size in the coming decade. But this is only a potential that can be realised with appropriate management, cautioned Mr Santhanam, of which human resource is an important component.

The study, "Mapping of human resources and skills for Tamil Nadu - 2015" prepared by ICRA Management Consulting Services, says that the State needs more educational institutions and infrastructure to produce 80,000 more students a year through Public-Private Partnership.

This would mean more engineering, arts, science and commerce colleges, polytechnics and training institutes.

Skilled manpower

The demand for skilled manpower will range from the mass segment of school educated and school dropouts constituting 70-75 per cent, 23-29 per cent of skilled (college educated) workforce and 1-2 per cent of the specialists.

This could be addressed through a grass root level skill development initiative for the unskilled workforce, a cluster-based skill development initiative for the middle level and creation of centres of excellence and innovation to produce the highly skilled top-end workforce.

More Stories on : Human Resources | Industry Associations | Tamil Nadu

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page