Article on skill development and decent employment published in various magazines/publications and presented at seminars

PRODUCTIVITY AND EMPLOYMENT GROWTH THROUGH SKILL DEVELOPMENT: THE NATIONAL AND UTTRAKHAND PERSPECTIVE

Colonel (Retd) D P Dimri, PhD

Background

Management of workforce, its skill development and corresponding employment, in the unorganized sector; has always been a subject of major debate and concern. It has been a subject matter, much talked about but least cared and actuated on ground.

Not long ago, Indias skilled labour supply seemed limitless. Today, not only India but most countries in Asia are facing skills shortages. Most companies are facing acute shortages, high attrition and soaring wage levels / costs; with pay raises outstripping productivity increases in few sectors; such as IT, hospitality and some FMCG industries. By 2010, the Mckinsey predicts, India will face a shortfall of 500,000 staff capable of doing work for multinationals. In the lighter vein; it can be said that there will be a time, when in not too distant future, rest of the world will have to work in India or with Indians; unless the challenge of the growing shortages of quality skilled workers, is met on priority. Moreover, the positive relationship that economic growth was conventionally believed to have with poverty reduction, has also been questioned. The fact that economic growth does not automatically translate itself into an expanding employment base or make a decisive dent into poverty, is now becoming a more accepted ground reality. A growth-poverty nexus is now a confirmed mingle.
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As per the recent census, bulk of Indias population, 486 million, is in the 20-59 age group which will swell to 760 million by the year 2020. There will be approx 12.8 million new entrants into the labour force every year, over the five year period 200712. They are young, but will all of them have the basic education and vocational skills to qualify them for full, productive and decent employment? At present, there is total mismatch between supply & demand and acquired & required skills. And, as per a report, skill shortages are expected to grow, creating wider demographic difference.

Skill development is directly linked to the productivity and employment growth. Unfortunately, in India, education and skills are percepted as synonymous to each other, education used as a substitute or surrogate for skills. The difference between the two needs to be clearly understood and implied. We also need to review periodically the constraints and weakness of skills development programmes in India, based on realistic skill-mapping for exact market requirement. The poor quality of education and the resultant skills mismatch , in terms of acquired and required, is accelerating the problem of unemployment, even among the educated. The wide rural-urban wage earning differential is also accelerating the rate of migration from rural to urban areas, with additional implications for employment.

The Government of India, though late, has appreciated the significance of quality skill development and upgradation, with provisioning adequate emphasis in 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), through : Planning to set up 50,000 Skill Development Centers over the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2007-12) Development of 500 ITIs into the COE (Centre of Excellence) Upgradation of ITIs (1396) through PPP. Training of industrial workers for skill-upgration and introducing concept of multi skills. Align and start courses as per industry needs (through skill mapping) including IT based courses.
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 Industry institute linkages/interfacing in terms of syllabi creation/revision, projecting exact skill requirement/placements, etc. Setting up a National Development Mission for skill development to train one million workers initially in next five years. Appointment of the National Skill Development Council by the PM, has schemes to establish not less than a lakh skill development centres, by making use of existing stock of public educational institutions above the high school levels as physical infrastructure; support from private enterprise, provide bank credit provisioning, budgetary outlays and tax-breaks; besides philanthropy by the volunteer organizations.

However, all these measure would not be enough to beef-up the present training capacity of 2.5(million), for 12.8m workers entering the market each year. The gap of 10.3m untrained workforce is too yanning to bridge and meet essential skills requirement. They need decent remunerative employment, which is a real challenge. Moreover , while the organized sector employs merely less than 10% of the total

workforce, there are millions of workers who earn BPL incomes and therefore, could be called working poor. They will need to be provided decent jobs and remunerations.

Surprisingly, a critical analysis of statistical data for over past 25 years would reveal that while Agriculture-sector had below average growth both in employment and productivity; the Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport and Services sectors had below average growth in productivity but above average growth in employment; thereby rendering a jobless growth. There is, therefore, immediate need to pay attention for enhanced employment and productivity, for the real inclusive growth. The key

challenge is to redesign education through integration with the suitable vocational skills, so that employment-growth can entail high skills, corresponding higher wages and high value adding jobs in decent working conditions and environment.

In India approximately 175 m join school every year out of which 55% drop out after class VIII and 70% by class 10. Out of these approximately merely 7% dropouts return to education. Therefore, majority have no access to the formal education. This huge group either remains unemployed or takes up menial jobs (with on the job training). It is for this group that emphasis has to be laid on skill development. It would be apparent that, those who work with their hands and produce wealth are denied access to formal education, while those who have access to formal education not only denigrate productive manual work but also lack necessary skills for the same. This results into educated rendered jobless, adding to the number of the unemployed.

As per an ILO report India lacks not the employment but the employability, due to non-availability of productive or ground delivery skilled workers. Also, while countries like Korea has 96% vocationally trained population, India has only 5% or so. This needs immediate attention and skillful tackling. Since over 40% of Indians are still illiterate and the country does not have credible social security arrangements for the unemployed, the incidence of working poor remains higher. The incidence of unemployment and poverty is higher among the educated than among the uneducated because really poor cannt wait for decent works. For them some job, even if it is at the subsistence level, is better than no job. Education duly integrated with employable/deliverable skills acquisition is, therefore, critical to higher employability, increase wage levels and boost productivity.

Vocational Training Scene in India

Vocational training is a concurrent subject under the constitution and the Central & State Governments share responsibility for the same. Within central government, several ministries (seven or so) are responsible for vocational education and training with total 2.9m estimated Annual Training Capacity (DGET, 2003). Through ITIs/ITCs (5465, 1913 run by the Government, with a seating capacity of 0.4m); vocational training period varying 12 to 36 months, is provided in 110 trades with a capacity to cover 0.74 m
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persons at any given point of time at present. The eligibility for admission into these courses varies from class VIII pass to class XII pass. On completion of the training, the trainees appear in the All India Trade Test to obtain the National Trade Certificate awarded by the NCVT (National Council for Vocational Training), accredited and accepted for corresponding decent employment within the nation and other countries, worldwide.

It may be appreciated that informal sector accounts for approximately over 90% of the total work-force in the country. Most of them are school dropouts and usually inherit skills, pursuing hereditary parental occupations or learn the skills on the job. Rural Artisan Training Programme enunciated by the GoI, initially to rehabilitate rural artisans was replaced by Training of Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM) in 1979, but could not also serve much purpose, as training programmes conducted were not sensitive to market needs. Trainees were not able to comprehend skills and put them to actual use. Moreover, these programmes lack administrative flexibility as same were not well integrated and co-ordinated, with resources spread too thinly. It is a

dichotomy that a larger proportion of the persons with formal vocational skills training remain largely unemployed than those who are not or little

educated/trained, but are employed though minially. This is a glaring reflection of the poor quality of education & training and highlights the grave irrelevance of the type and quality of vocational skills being imparted currently, in most institutes/ vocational training centres in India.

The paradox is that these millions, who work and live perpetually on the edge of poverty, are the very people who produce 40% of the industrial products. They manufacture more than 7500 different products ranging from decorative metalwares and precision industrial fasteners to exotic carpets, ethinic garments and exquisite shawls; accounting for more than 35% of countrys total exports. They exist even at the cost of exploitation and abject poverty.
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It is estimated that during the 11th Five Year Plan period (2007-12), the average demand for jobs will be 12.8m fresh entrants into labour market and with the supply of trained skilled manpower (Trg capacity, all together) at 2.5 m a year, this is a grossly inadequate figure. The NCVT has, therefore, recently decided to introduce scheme to impart skills in vocational training programme, even for school dropouts and others through the Skill Development Initiative / Modular Employable Skill (SDI/MES) scheme. And, to quote India today (06 October, 08), this would result into 25% of the worlds total skilled work-force to be Indian by 2020 and with India planning to huge sum of invests Rs 2,75,000 crores to create 50 crore trained skilled workers by 2020,the same seems achievable. This indeed is encouraging, though still much lower than countries like S Korea, Japan, Germany, etc. It is a known fact that ITIs , in India, are considered to be the engines of Vocational training but are these cared enough to function so. The fact remains that India has so far invested too much on few institutes/establishments (IITs and IIMs, etc) and too little on too many (ITIs, Primary and Secondary education, etc), as a result of which India had, until recently, highly qualified people for whom suitable job opportunities did not exist (and so resulting in the obvious the brain-drain). This would need complete shift in the present context. We need to take cue from Korea, China, Japan etc, where proportion of vocationally trained person varies from 60 to 96% as against 4 to 5% in India at present. It is hoped that the recently enunciated scheme would be able to salvage the problem in a gradual but effective manner.

Skill Development Initiative Scheme (SDIS)

The GoI has announced SDI Scheme which seeks to provide MES (Modular Employable Skills) to early school leavers and existing workers, especially in the unorganized sector, in close consultation with multiple stake holders the Industry, micro-enterprises, State Govts, experts and academia. The scheme is open to all age personnel (14 years onwards) and varied education standards-uneducated/Vth to XIIth class pass. Over 300 trades have been identified by the GoI and training period varying upto 90 days or so. Trade skill
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assessment is conducted on completion of the training and successful candidates awarded NCVT Certificates, which are recognized for employment within the Country and overseas. Training fee are nominal and assessment fee reimbursable to the successful candidates belonging to reserved categories and women. The training cenetres are suitably compensated financially. The two unique features associated with the scheme are: Training and Assessment bodies would be different and one pays to fail, because fees are reimbursable only to the successful candidates. The details are available on Min of L & E, DGET, website: www.dget.nic.in Under the scheme, the Government plans to train one million persons in the next 5 years in MES (Modular Employable Skills) and thereafter one million every year. The objective is to create a vast pool of multi-skilled workforce, in conjunction of industry.

Uttarakhand: Need for Employable Skills and Decent Employment

We need to do things differently and necessarily, not do different things. There are 3 basic requisites for the demand-driven training for workers in the informal sector: Basic/Functional literacy is the first step. The second being, building organizational capability of trainers/training providers and the third, skills provision for suitable employment as per the skill mapping and customized upgradation. The focus of the training should be building up skills with which the trainees can take-up (self) employment and livelihood activity without much of investment, either fixed or marketing capital. In case of employed workers e.g. Plumbers, Electricians, Welding, Mechanics or Weavers etc; they are required to be skilled enough to perform the quality job on ground to the satisfaction of the customer. Therefore, the primary emphasis need to be laid in developing the quality employable skills through skillmapping to meet the industry/market demand and upscaling of the required skills through customized rigorous & results- oriented training.

As per records available; a total of 77 ITIs, both Government and Private, exist in Uttarakhand. Most of these are in pitiable condition because of non-availability of adequate infrastructure in terms of latest machinery, training tools and trained instructional staff; etc. Huge campuses raised are in depleted conditions because of periodic non-maintenance and totally demotivated and unskilled instructional staff. This needs immediate remedial action at the Government level or through PPP initiatives to revamp the existent facilities for optimum utilization of the land and building infrastructure available on ground.

It is suggested that most of the existent ITIs and suchlike institutes must adopt to the VTP (Vocational Training Provider) model, as envisaged by the MoLE (Ministry of Labour and Employment), providing them necessary funds in terms of one time advance of Rs3.00 lacs for creation of basic facilities required in terms of training-tools, machines and staff etc and reimbursement of training fee/training cost for MES courses conducted; as also be accountable/ answerable for the expected results to be achieved. Moreover, there is need to prepare and launch the holistic Awareness Campaign in respect of the noble scheme and implement same at the remotest corners of the State, with the active participation and assistance of the local administration and Employment exchanges. There is need to identify and make full use of the existent infrastructure and the recent Governmental initiatives, as per the outlined short and long-term action plans. Let Uttarakhand be the leading State in providing decent employment to its natives through generating employable-skills, for meeting domestic and overseas

requirement. This would also solve the burning problem of exodus of youth from the hill regions and minimize the money order-economy. Effective implementation of the scheme would also result into reverse migration of Non-Resident-Uttarakhans, in the long run.

There is also urgent need for attracting more and more industrial manufacturing units in Uttarakhand in addition to few already in existence and work is close liaison with them to find the exact skills-requirement. The training must, accordingly, be
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provided in the demand-driven mode. This could even be implemented in the PPPmode for better and affordable execution and provisioning of assured employment to quality skilled workers. Also at the university and college levels, there is need for Institution-Industry-Interface (III) in the Management and Technical education. Promotion of Tourism with the provisioning of adequate facilities and attractive incentives to tourists would provide abundant job opportunities and

entrepreneurship activities for the natives. The Government may consider developing suitable bicycle/ light vehicles tracks along perimeter of the huge lake created on the Tehri dam. ..Facilities like: tourist resorts, recreation centres, wedding points and other facilities could also be developed around the lake as also along the roads to Badrinath and Kedarnath,etc. This could be implemented in PPP-mode, suitably utilizing the entrepreneurship skills of the locals. Such an initiative would also open enormous opportunities for decent employment. Moreover, there is enormous scope for development of skills related to the cottage industry, crafts and even E-services, at village and Panchayat levels, utilizing the women-folk and men available there. The products can suitably be marketed and earning funneled to the specially created Gramin Banks. Also hold skills and employment fairs periodically and seminars / conferences on regular basis.

Comprehensively, it is strongly recommended that an exclusive Council of Skill Development and Employment of Uttarakhand, be instituted, with the Appex body headed by the Chairman and experts & experienced in the field, as members. The Council should be given a stipulated time bound mandated programme to accomplish and provided with essential facilities and authority to execute the mammoth tasks. This would be a step in the right direction with futuristic dividends. There is urgent need to seize the initiative, grab the opportunities available through, national and global resources to make a firm beginning.

The GOI has expressed its seriousness regarding the nation-wide Skill Development Campaign by writing to all Chief Ministers to join in, through: making available the
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buildings of higher educational institutions of the State for skill development programmes after regular class hours and form State-level missions headed by the CMs themselves to co-ordinate the efforts of different government departments and agencies, as well as involve local experts and representatives of different skill sectors. Out of the Rs 2,75,000 crores allocation for education in the current plan, Rs 31,000 crores has already been allocated to the skills development. The State of Uttarakhand can hope to tap some of these funds to convert unemployable youth into productive workers.

Suggestion to bridge the mismatch of Skills needs and Market Demands for higher Decent Employment and enhanced Productivity There is need to regularly examine de novo, the kind and range of skills needed for a modernizing economy; keeping in view the potential it has in the next 20 to 30 years. We need to adopt the mix of short and long-term philosophy of teaching the potential workforce to catch fish, rather than providing the fish. Some of the vetted and time-tested suggestions are:

1. Employment exchanges to work as Resource Centers and Facilitators for skills mapping, channelising training needs and providing counseling/guidance for decent employment by facilitating delivery of demand-responsive vocational training. These should act as active information & guidance centres and not mere post offices to register the unemployed, with utterly obsolete data and demotivation. In addition, they should conduct regular labour market surveys at District and Block levels to conduct Training Need Analysis (TNA) and coordinate delivery of training at local levels, testing of competencies & certification and suitable placement/employments. 2. Adoption of Central Govt sponsored MES scheme for vocational training and assessment. Maximum ITIs/ Polytechniques should become VTPs/ITCs, deriving full advantage of one time financial grant admissible to upgrade the infrastructure
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in terms of training equipment, staff, buildings etc and other recurring financial gains to make centres sustainable and activity profitable. 3. Interlink Vocational education, Vocational training and academic education, in order to facilitate inter-stream (academic-vocational and professional) movement of students and vocational trainees, their progression route within the same occupation and globally accredited professionals. 4. Last 6 to 12 months of high school, Intermediate or Degree academic curriculum should have befitting industry capsule integrated. 5. Working in PPP mode, wherein more and more of existing training establishment. (ITIs/ITCs/Poltechniques) be taken over by the industry to provide customized training as per need, with near surety for their absorption as employees. 6. The private training establishment be directed to upgrade their vocational training infrastructure, technically and teachers training to meet the need of the industry quality standards for employment of the skilled workers trained by them. 7. Additionally, training for immediate and intermediate skills needs to be initiated on war footing and in a missionary mode through mapping for the required and aquired skills; identifying skill gaps, discovering and putting in place mechanism for their innovative delivery and incentives; for ground results in terms of the productive employment in decent conditions of work. 8. Emphasis on cultivating self-employment entrepreneurship traits and facilitating start off small and medium size industry/business ventures by the natives, youth and women-folk, in particular. 9. Appreciate need to move into value adding services e.g. from Project to products etc. 10. Adopt latest agro techniques and seeds to yield enhanced production, as suited to the climate and earth conditions. Productivity improvement through technology and other approaches to enhance competitiveness to ensure that even within the short term, more jobs are created than are displaced.
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11. Elimination of wastes and reduction of non-labour costs by making labour force partners in progress rather than making them redundant or mere distant workers. 12. Making training/upgradation of skills mandatory for the industries operational in the State. This needs to be monitored strictly. Such industry should raise own infrastructure for training. 13. Govt has to place mechanism enforce to ensure equity and access to the resources and opportunities to all sections of the Society through massive promotional campaign and incentives. 14. Lay special emphasis on IT-education, leading E-agro, medicine, eco; etc. 15. Hold Skills and employment Fairs at centrally located regions within the States. Each District to have Skill and Employment Centre to provide updated information on skills training, employment, incentive schemes and various programmes/plans enunciated by the Central and State Govts. The District Magistrate should closely monitor the activities of the centres and their performance evaluated as per the progress-index. 16. There is continuous shift from Agriculture (Primary) and Secondary Sectors to tertiary sector (Service Economy Sector). While this will occur due to fuelling by the technology; occupations, where number of job openings will be greatest, are: (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) (f) (g) (h) (i) (j) Personal and home care aides. Office and plant cleaning and maintenance occupations Primary and Secondary teachers Chief executives and support services managers Medical assistants Motor vehicle operators Skilled blue collars in process industries Computer SW engineers/IT services Nurses (shortage of million Nurses) Sales Representatives
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(k)

Innovative crafts Weaving, Candle making, Condiments, Potmaking & Painting, Glasswares, Juices. There would be need to hold trade fairs to market and sell these quality products. Moreover, there is need to inculcate commercial attitude in villagers through gradual training and market exposures.

17. Adopt to multi skills concept for occupational skilled workers e.g. Drivers-cumElectricians-cum-mechanics etc. Says the World Bank The objective should be to improve the employment outcomes of graduates from the vocational training systems by making the design and delivery of training more DemandResponsive. 18. Comprehensive timely revision of various training curriculum in conjunction with the Industry/prospective Employers 19. Create a Skills Development Fund, on the lines of Singapore, Malasiya, Korea etc. Employers, who contribute to this fund or invest in skills training (to up-scale the skills-base of the work force) could be afforded tax rebates and other incentives. 20. For fresh entrants into the labour market, there should be two prong strategies one for meeting the immediate needs during XIth Five Year plan period and the other, a long term strategy for building basic education and related vocational skills. 21. Soft skills be suitably added to routine skill development programmes to gradually prepare even the basic skilled workers to fit into future jobs, within the country and abroad. Without much mixing and confusions, there is need for proper assessment of the actual need to upgrade the existing institutional infrastructure and create new infrastructures, which is suited to the needs of education and skills in a globalizing economy and for preparing people to careers in emerging sectors of economy as well.

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In fact several other workable models would stem out of the implementations of suggestions made, with experience gained and adopting to the dynamicity of the market. However, there is essential and urgent need to forge-ahead with total commitment and accountability to the meet the challenge. Let us make a sincere and honest beginning and the rest would follow. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), in Co-ordination with UNDP has taken an initiative to impart skills in the new and innovative vocations, leading to generation of employment. SKILLS (Skills and knowledge for improved livelihoods and living standards) scheme is being implemented for promoting new training curriculum and facilities in emerging technology skills for the benefit of the unemployed youth. It also uses a website, through a portal to provide repository of information, accessible by all stakeholders/users. 10 PPP Centres (Skills Academies) have been established under this project.

CONCLUSION

It is believed that holistic education, knowledge or skill, which cant contribute to the betterment of Individual and Society, as a whole is an utter waste of investments in terms of resources, efforts and time. They should improve quality of life and promote holistic and sustainable development of the individual and Society. The need of the hour is not the mere bookish knowledge, but vocational training/skills, which can be and should be provided regardless of whether existing jobseekers have elementary or secondary education. They should be able to perform and deliver the required results on ground to the satisfaction of the employer/client, thereby adding to the productivity and employability. There is need for innovative approaches to remedy the situation through continuous training and retraining and giving say/stake to employees is critical to develop-cablable, willing, flexible and adoptive work force.

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One of the present grave concerns also includes, the jobless growth i.e. increase in employability without proportionate enhancement in the productivity. This in turn means non-availability of quality skill, which actually makes a person employable and gainfully productive. The concern is more about Unemploybility than

uemployment. No plan or scheme could be rated as successful without ensuring trained skilled workers being able to deliver results on ground or having secured a decent job/employment to add to own financial betterment and contribution to the production and national growth.

And, to this extent we do hope that India would be able to meet its future aspirations, as expressed by the Prime Minister: As a Country endowed with huge human resources, we cant let the imminent shortage of skilled employees, be a constraint. We are planning to launch a Mission on Vocational education, so that the skill deficit in our economy is addressed. We will make India; a nation of educated people, of skilled people, of creative people.

The GOIs ambitious scheme targets to create the worlds largest pool of skilled man-power 50 crore skilled Indians by 2020, a number larger than the population of either Europe or US that year. However, the commitment of the political class, when combined with private initiatives and administrative skills of bureaucracy, can make skill development actually happen on the scale envisaged.

The task at hand is mammoth and challenging but not unsurmountable. Afterall, there is always a way ,where there is committed Will. In view of the giagantic magnitude of the challenge PPP (Public Private Partnership) on realistic need based lines, would possibly, provide the way out. To gainfully tackle Indias large army of unemployed and unemployables, we need to determinantly pursue, jobs/

employments creation through required quality skill development and opportunities for entrepreneurship and decent jobs. This will have cumulative effect in the longer
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perspective, resulting in Individual prosperity, National productivity enhancement and Global well-being, a dream ever aspired world over. The noble scheme can succeed only if the political class understands the urgent imperative of upgrading skills of Indias large and growing young population, the largest for any country in the world . If they are empowered with knowledge and skills, they will power not just the Indian economy but the entire world. If they remain un schooled and unskilled, social violence and morbidity would entice the entire system.

(Reference Websites: www.dget.nic.in, www.ilo.org/india, www.cii_skilldevelopment.in, www.accesslivelihood.org )

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(The author has conducted ILO ( U N ) sponsored Study Project on Skill Development and Enhanced Productivity: Indian Perspective and been member of the Ministry of Labour & Employment DGET & ILO Committee on formulating National Employment Policy, during the year 2007-08. He is an active facilitator in the fields of higher Academics and Training and passionate on research work in Management and Science)

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