More skills training institutes needed

While everyone talks of grooming candidates to make them industry ready, the President of India Staffing Federation Rituparna Chakraborty says, “India's skill crisis has its roots in three issues – matching (connecting supply to demand), mismatch (repairing supply for demand) and pipeline (preparing supply for demand).”

“Each of these seem to be in disarray and skill development is more than a buzz word,” says Ms Chakraborty, responding to a questionnaire from BusinessLine .

Statistics show that only about 2 per cent of the country's organised workforce has had any formal vocational training.

The National Occupational Code (NOC) data suggests that 90 per cent of our jobs require skills while 90 per cent of the candidates passing out of colleges every year have knowledge, but lack in skills.

“Grooming candidates is merely a last mile intervention and part of the repair process,” says Chakraborty.

Stating that the focus at campus is completely different from industry needs, the Chairman of Layam Group GS Ramesh said that students are imparted some soft skills and behavioural training to prepare them face interviews and secure a job. “But that's not enough. There are times when even after providing training, the candidate fails to get employment. This is a bigger challenge,” says the Chief of this hiring company.

Layam targets students who have no great academic record, but have the right attitude and skills to excel in their career.

“We hire students from down south in TN from places such as Nagapattinam, Tiruchy, Salem, Madurai and so on, place them in different MNCs, provide on the job training for two years, after which many candidates are placed by the MNCs,” says Ramesh.

The Chief Executive of LabourNet Gayathri Vasudevan, while admitting that the formation of NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) in recent years gave room for emergence of social enterprise/ training institutes, the industry would need private players and social start-ups to foray into skill development segment to support the government in the Skill India dream.

To a query on challenges in skill development, Ms Chakraborty said. “Many people in the Government believe that Corporate India is not doing enough. The reality is these corporates are not willing to pay for training. They are willing to pay trained candidates. The job seeker (freshers particularly) is not willing to pay for training till he/she lands himself/herself a job. While India needs a massive scaling up of skill development institutes, one needs to ensure that financing is linked to outcome and not to input,” notes Chakraborty.

Correction

This copy has been modified to correct the name of Layam Group, from Layman Group.

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