A TV debate on the topic “Skills for the Future” organized in connection with the India Economic Summit, addressed the critical issue of how to make use of the potential in India through skill development. The India economic summit was organized by Confederation of Indian Industry along with the World Economic Forum.

Joint Participation of Government, NGO’s and Industry to develop skills

The session focused on various issues related to employability, vocational training and also on job shortages. According to Dilip Chenoy, Chief Executive officer and Managing Director at National Skill Development Corporation, we should design and develop a model that will include the government, various non government organizations and the industry under the same roof that will help in overcoming the challenges that we face with skill development. He added that the vocational training space in India is not regulated and has large scope for investment. He stressed that the very objective behind setting up of National Skill Development Corporation was to oversee the introduction of large, for profit vocational institutions by giving viability gap funding which will promote skill development

Anand Sudarshan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Manipal Education, spoke about the complementary relation between education and skill development in the process of achieving productive manpower. According to him the students graduating out of colleges does not form skilled workers. So in order to produce a pool of skilled workers, there is a need to link our education system with the process of skill development. In the case of skill development, he said that there are three main factors that need to be considered and they are friendly eco system, policy impetus, and entrepreneurial energy that will provide incentives and motivate students to acquire skills. He added that in order to facilitate the efforts to make India the center of human capital, the government needs to retreat and let the industry to operate under a roof of rules and regulations.

Change in labor laws needed

Reuben Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions at Indian School of Businessopined that the relation between demographic dividend and demographic nightmare is very sensitive and now India has to deal with it carefully. He said that the matter of demographic nightmare should be given due consideration and taken seriously on an urgent basis. He then went on to speak about the rural-urban migration. Based on the policy perspective, he added that there need to be a significant change in the labor laws so that surplus labor in the agriculture sector can be utilized by the manufacturing sector. This is because there is a shortage of labor in the manufacturing sector and the only possible way to fix it is by absorbing surplus labor from the manufacturing sector.

NGO’s have a greater role to play in matching demand and supply

In India, there is a mismatch of demand and supply of labor and this is becoming a serious concern for every employer. More over there is a mismatch between the education and jobs. The education system in India is not able to produce skilled labors as required by the industry which is another matter of concern for the employers. According to John Hewko, General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer, Rotary International, USA, the Non Government Organizations has a major role in addressing this issue. He emphasized on the fact that NGO’s have a wide reach as far as small and medium sized cities are considered. He said that NGO’s are responsible for implementing number of projects in the grass root level and has been successful in doing that. Even though an NGO may be considered small individually, their combined effort can bring about significant changes in the society. With such kind of impact, NGO’s has a greater role to play in our society. Models should be worked out on how NGO’s can work with government to bridge the gap that exists in our society with respect to skills.

Change in the education system

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Executive Director, Corporate and Legal Affairs, TESCO, UK, was also among the panel members. She was of the opinion that, in order to overcome the challenges that India face, it requires high level of commitment to deal with the current problem. She has made it clear that the Indian education system is much of academic oriented and pays no attention to leadership skills, communication skills, team skills, etc which comes under the soft skills. This calls for an urgent need to include such soft skills in the curriculum which will make graduates better employees.

Need for a social transformation

Another member of the expert panel, Rajendra Joshi, Chief Executive Officer and Director, Empower Pragati Vocational and Staffing, commented on reluctance of the public to take up blue collared jobs. He called a massive social awareness among the public to bring about transformation to change the out look of the people towards blue collar jobs. He said that people need to understand the benefits of vocational education which make larger impact than the formal education. Mr. Joshi is of the view that the industry has more to do with bridging the demand and supply gap. In that case government has to provide incentives in the form of tax breaks for the companies to provide on the job training. There is a striking relationship between acquiring skills and earning income. He emphasized on the point that apprenticeship model should be given more importance in India which not only trains workers but also provides wages.

The role of tourism sector in generating employment opportunities

The Indian tourism industry has a large potential in terms of generating revenue both from inside and outside India. It also provides huge opportunity for employment, says Simon Cooper, President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Mariott International. According to him the Indian tourism industry employs large number of unskilled employees. Developing infrastructure in the tourism will help in generating even more employment opportunities and more revenue.

There exists a need for improving the skills among the employees or prospective employees, for which we need a change in our education system.