NEW DELHI: Participants and delegates at the CII Global Skills Summit called for channelling investments and global partnerships for skill development in India to sector-specific needs and opportunities.
This was among the suggestions that emerged at the valedictory session of the CII Global Summit on Skills Development, chaired by Prof Narendranath Akhnouri, Professor, IMI. Reporting back on the sector-specific sessions held on skills development in the automotive, construction, financial services, healthcare and retail sectors, session chairs concurred that key to furthering skill development was greater interaction between industry and the education sector and the development of a national standards framework.
Public-private partnerships were advocated across sectors. Sharda Prasad, Director-General Employment & Training, Government of India, said that an institutional structure at the state level had been suggested in the draft policy to be approved by the Cabinet.
To achieve the objectives of developing skills, raising productivity and income levels, the states had to be on board, he said. Therefore, State Skill Development Councils headed by the Chief Minister and State Skill Development Corporations to serve as funding mechanisms had been envisaged.
He called for industry to look upon partnering the upgradation of ITIs as a long-term investment. The Government has made large allocations but this funding should be viewed as a catalyser and to jumpstart the programme, suggested Prasad.
Highlighting linkages with industry and development of soft skills, Kelly Raj, Counsellor, Department of Education, Government of Australia, Education, hoped that India would operationalize and impellent the collaborative opportunities identified at the Summit.
Australia was keen to partner India in this endeavour. Presenting the synopsis of the automotive session, Prince Augustin, Senior Vice-President, Mahindra & Mahindra, advocated setting up special auto training institutes and development of special training modules catering to the needs of the auto industry.
He revealed that the auto industry had indicated its willingness to adopt 100 it is, and already 57 had been taken. J Ganguly, Executive Vice-President, Larsen & Toubro, outlined suggestions pertaining to the construction sector and called for a seamless supply chain of placement, retention and career progression.
A special concern was the need to rationalise the wage structure given the prevailing sub-contracting system. An interesting point came up in the session on skill development in the financial services sector.
As Ms Rita Soni, Country Head, Yes Bank, explained, training assessment may be conducted in different languages so as to widen outreach and incorporate the rural population into banking and financial services.
Print
Top
