A few months ago while attending to my 88-year-old father recovering in a reputed heart institute I observed that the nurses, paramedics and helpers were in continuous discussion — medication for the patient in the next room, the weather, their boss, tough shifts — oblivious to the fact that their constant chatter was disturbing the patient.

During a recent visit to a top private sector bank, a young cashier refused to accept three bearer cheques together for encashment as she wanted to handle one cheque at a time. Her rough voice and rude looks put off a patient customer like me.

At a dinner at a star hotel last week I noticed that the barman would disappear every now and then to take a call on his mobile while the guests waited, not-so-patiently, for their drinks.

These are not fiction but real stories from India's burgeoning services sector that makes up two-thirds of India's $1.2-trillion economy. The Indian Government is keen to skill 500 million Indians to take up jobs that would be generated over the next 10 years so that the Indian economy continues to grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) well beyond its current 8-9 per cent annual growth rate.

An ambitious target, considering that current skill development programmes churn out 3.1 million candidates annually. The UPA Government addressed the issue by making enhanced allocations to the Indian Institute of Science some years ago. This was followed up with new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as well as the upgradation of the Regional Engineering Colleges to IITs.

In the 2007 and 2008 budgets, the then Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, made specific allocations to revive and upgrade the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and the polytechnics.

The Government's serious intent took the shape of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) in 2009. Charged with the task of skilling 500 million Indians, between 19 and 59, on a wide range of skills, in partnership with the private sector, it identified 20-plus key sectors that needed to be powered by India's demographic might.

While the monies have been allocated — Rs 1,000 crore for NSDC and Rs 15,000 crore expected from the State Governments, public sector undertakings, and the like — the Government's track record in the PPP mode has been less than satisfactory.

Speaking at a World Economic Forum last month, Home Minister P. Chidambaram said only 50 per cent of the money contracted for roads is ever used for the purpose and went on to describe it as the “biggest swindle” in the country.

The private sector has chipped in with the industry body, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), partnering with many ITIs to upgrade their infrastructure, identifying the key skills needed by industries in the vicinity and build a curriculum that is robust and in tune with the times. Many CII members offered to be training grounds for ITI and polytechnic pass-outs.

Earlier this month the appointment of former TCS Chief, S. Ramadorai, as an advisor to the Indian Prime Minister on skill development has been hailed as a positive move.

The National Skills Development Policy believes that it must provide skills to India's teaming millions to make them employable and help them secure “decent work”. Key to the strategy is skill development for those engaged in the unorganised sector while inculcating dignity of labour and building greater awareness on environmental, safety and health concerns.

Adding an edge to the services sector

Even though it is generally accepted that skilling is more to do with hard core skills deployed in the manufacturing and technical areas, the NSDC plans to cover streams such as retailing, banking, hospitality, healthcare, IT and ITeS among others.

Bolstering the workforce with soft skills will enhance employability and raise the levels of customer care, on-time performance and zero service default to international standards so that a job is performed efficiently and predictably.

Employability must also prepare Indians to be skilled for jobs that are closer to their residence to avoid the strains of mobility on the already stretched urban infrastructure. More importantly, the Government needs to make it clear, when offering opportunities to Indians to skill themselves, that the task of finding jobs would be their own. In fact, adding this newly skilled talent to the existing entrepreneurial system would help create employment opportunities for their community.

Are skills alone panacea for all ills? The answer lies in checking around one's home and work environment. Does the best technician in your neighbourhood live up to his time commitment? Does the customer representative of your utility provider live up to his organisation's promise? Does your radio taxi driver carry a map to guide you to your destination in the city? There are good chances that the answer to all the three questions is a No.

Imperatives for Success

The key imperatives for the success of this skill development programme include:

Examine as to why the ITIs, polytechnics and engineering schools set up since Independence have failed to live up to their promise?

Hasten the pace of curriculum updation and adaption to bring dynamism to this programme.

Use instructional design principles and technology for ease of replication and scalability.

Skill the workforce with the right attitude to ensure high degree of customer orientation.

Engagements with the private sector should be handled with care as the output of these “skilling” institutes is Indians looking to be productive and gainfully employed. The Government will be dealing with the aspirations of Indians, so a ‘poorly-skilled' and ‘ill-equipped' output could cost the nation as these people cannot be scrapped.

India needs to imbibe a work ethic that has a strong bias for action, results and zero transmission loss of men, money and materials. Only then will we be able to call the skill development programme the new mantra for roti, kapda and makaan for 500 million Indians.

(The writer, a strategic communications and PR counsel, was brand custodian of NIIT until 2006. He can be reached at >Sanjiv.kataria@gmail.com )

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