Skill development is a fast-moving environment, says Manish Kumar, who joined six months ago as the CEO of National Skill Development Corporation. With a long career as a civil servant, Kumar has a big task at hand as NSDC implements the Centre’s target to skill 10 million youth by 2020 with an outlay of ₹12,000 crore. In an interview with BusinessLine , Kumar says that economic growth is a cycle and a ready skilled workforce will always be sucked up once growth starts climbing. Edited excerpts:

How far do you think we have come in skilling as a country?

I think the market has matured. For instance, without government support, the Adani Group and Kishore Biyani’s Future group are setting up big skilling centres. Usually, the private sector doesn’t train, as it is wary of poaching. They prefer people to learn on the job. But this doesn’t matter for the government, so it invests in skilling. But then we reach a point where people realise that there is a need for a pool of trained people, as in the IT sector. So, when the private sector starts putting money into skilling, we are heading in that direction. But, knowledge about skilling vis-a-vis productivity is lacking in India. We are now planning to go for this kind of research across sectors.

But, what about the slowdown in job creation, of late?

It doesn’t hurt to be ready with a skilled workforce. When the economy picks up, the jobs will come. Demonetisation will lead to formalisation of economy. As more good money comes in, more productive assets will be created, and formal wages will come. In the next two-three years, growth will go upwards, and we have to be ready for that with a skilled workforce.

What is the placement rate under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)?

If you look at PMKVY-1, it was not much, in fact, it was very low. Placements are a function of the economy and many other things. If you look at the IT sector, there was no skilling at that time, but when growth happened, it sucked up people. So, growth will determine how many people will actually get jobs. Information asymmetry also plays a part. Growth may be occurring in Maharashtra, and the required skilling may be happening in, say, West Bengal. We need to connect the two.

Is it true that lack of social and other infrastructure in urban areas are leading to attrition among the placed youth, especially girls?

We have seen this in textiles. It’s a big challenge, particularly for women.

A lot of girls, especially those trained in textiles, go to Tirupur. They stay there, get homesick and leave. So, it’s not just about a job, the social aspect is also there. I think, there needs to be a common space for migrant workers. One thought process that we are exploring is to promote clusters.

How do you monitor outcomes?

To monitor outcomes, we are creating a big data base with help from IIM-Bangalore, and World Bank, among others.

We are also trying to create an index of skills for all districts of India — non-cognitive, cognitive and technical. We are also working on a common paradigm that can measure skills across sectors.

How are States performing in skilling workers?

Skilling is quite high in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal and, of late, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand are also doing well, as is Odisha.

We have a special package for the North-East and Jammu & Kashmir where we don’t insist on Aadhaar numbers. This is required under PMKVY-2 in other States. But, there are challenges in the North-East, as the standards that we demand are lacking. We are in talks with State governments to ensure that quality is not compromised and skill training is also given.

What are your future plans?

We plan to set up PM Kaushal Kendras in each district. We now have 78 such Kendras. These will be multi-skilling centres, and we are trying to see if these can follow the hub and spoke model.

We are also looking at driver training institutes, as there is huge demand. Ashok Leyland, Maruti, L&T, BEML, etc. are in talks with us, as handling of heavy and construction and mining equipment is a focus area.

Technology is also being leveraged for training. For example, in Gujarat, we have a platform with 360 degree surround virtual reality and 3D equipment. So when you enter the room, you will feel you have entered, say, a rig machine… there will be virtual people, and you can lift pipes with a control in your hands while being virtually trained by an instructor. Critical things can be learnt virtually, so that you do not make serious mistakes in real life work situations.

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