‘Skill development in unorganised sector will increase employability'

Mr Dilip Chenoy, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Skill Development Corporation, strongly believes that it is important to teach a man how to catch fish rather than giving them fish.

Heading the public-private initiative, he says private sector knows what exactly it suffers from. Their presence in skill development efforts makes all the difference. Mr Chenoy was here in connection with inauguration of facility of TalentSprint, a human resources training firm set up with financial assistance of NSDC.

In an interview, he talks on the importance of developing skills of those working in unorganised sector would go a long way in addressing the employability question in the country.

How has been the response for PPP model in improving skills?

Response has been promising. Industry associations such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and NASSCOM have equity and are on the board of NSDC. They hold 5.1 per cent each of equity. This makes a lot of difference in our initiatives. Because of our association with them, we are hitting the bull's eye with our programmes.

What was the scorecard so far?

There were 25 proposals in the first year the four sectors of auto, security, energy and retail. This year, we have added media and entertainment, IT and IT-enabled services. We have allocated Rs 110 crore so far and witnessed employment to 20,000 people through the firms it supports financially.

What are the plans to increase the basket of skills?

We are planning to add 15 more sectors that have potential to cover maximum number of job seekers. We are immediately looking at sectors such as pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, vocations in unorganised sector, beauty business, facility management and food processing.

As against focussing on the top layers in each of these sectors, we fund projects across skill sets. For one, we supported an initiative that sought to improve skills of housemaids and drivers. This, we think, is very crucial for us. Making people skilled in the unorganised sector is very essential to increase employability of large section of people. We do not believe in development skills for the sake of skills. We insist on employability of the candidates.

How do you see this initiative grow in the next three years?

We are in discussions to start 25 more Sector Councils. These councils would study the labour market in a particular sector and collect information. They create competency standards in association with companies in that particular sector. They then would come up with training plans that also include train-the-trainers programmes.

We have committed Rs 1,016 crore in the next 3-4 years, with a specific target of providing five lakh jobs.

How do you monitor the projects?

What we are doing is no charity. We give them soft loans with 6 per cent interest rate. We also give them moratorium based on business plans. In all these cases, we insist on an outcome of at least 70 per cent jobs. That is a minimum. Not achieving this target is viewed seriously.

I believe in the adage that one should teach a man how to catch fish rather than giving him fish. Results so far are encouraging.

Unlike other Government-backed job training programmes, NSDC's model is working well and generating interest globally.

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