National Skill Development Corporation
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Manash Pratap Gohain & Surojit Gupta, August 2, 2024: The Times of India
From: Manash Pratap Gohain & Surojit Gupta, August 2, 2024: The Times of India
It’s early morning and a group of women are gathered inside a classroom in Greater Noida, furiously taking down notes as their instructor explains nuances of the German language. These women, who have trained and worked as nurses, are learning the language to get jobs in Germany, which has a shortage of caregivers and has turned to India to fill the gap.
One of those learning the right way to communicate in German is Akhila Sathessan, a 2018 nursing graduate. “I was looking for better opportunities and heard about this institute. We are now undergoing a two-month residential programme to learn the language and I’m looking forward to working in Germany,” she says. Rising Demand
The international arm of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is training young men and women for jobs available not just in Germany but countries such as Romania, Finland, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE and others as well. In the past year, NSDC has placed nearly 60,000 young men and women in Japan, Germany, Israel, UK, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Demand from overseas is rising rapidly. The attraction of better wages and working conditions and the promise of a new life is prompting many to opt for foreign language and skill development courses.
The centre in Greater Noida offers residential training in Japanese and German languages. While the Japanese batch has 11 boys and 8 girls, the two German batches consist of 22 and 26 girls. NSDC provides free accommodation and food. Students need to pay a fee of around Rs 75,000, but that is deducted from their pay in the second month of their job. Not just training, the institute handholds students through the process of landing a job and completing their visa and other paperwork.
Skills Gap
India itself faces a huge shortage of trained and skilled workers. Govt estimates show that only 2.3% of the workforce has undergone any formal training. This is way below global standards — the share stands at 68% in UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in US, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea.
Skilling and upskilling are key components of the strategy to tackle the huge problem of unemployment and underemployment in India. Studies have shown that a vast majority of youths joining the workforce are unemployable as they lack skills required by industry. Experts say India needs to urgently fill the skills gap to reap its demographic dividend and boost economic growth.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) says India needs to create between 143 and 324 million jobs by 2050. A small shift in jobs away from agriculture and into either construction and services or manufacturing can boost GDP growth by 0.2-0.5 percentage points, it adds. While several public and private entities are looking to address the challenge of job creation, they remain a drop in the owcean given the enormity of the task.
“Our current focus is to reach candidates wherever they are located, instead of making them come to us. Last year, we started 10,000 skill centres in schools across the country. One reason for unemployment is that we’re educated with unemployable skills,” says Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and MD-CEO of NSDC International (NSDCI).
“Next, our focus will be on apprenticeship and on-the-job learning, which have yielded good outcomes with an over-70% conversion rate for us,” said Tiwari.
Empowering Women
A short distance away from Greater Noida, National Skill Training Institute (W) for women is trying to bridge the skills gap. With a yearly intake of 750 students, this institute offers free courses for jobs in apparel, beauty and wellness, electronics, construction and architecture sectors. The institute also has an AI training centre. Soon, courses will be offered on handling drones.
Students come from underprivileged backgrounds and are a mix of school dropouts and those who have completed Class XII. They are provided accommodation and food on campus. “I want to be an ITI instructor. I have undergone training in computers, and office work,” says Ranju Jaiswal, who is training as a computer operator and processing assistant.
Apprenticeship The Answer
Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) are playing their part in filling the skills gap. One such centre is the ITI at Pusa in Delhi. It has well-equipped labs with several of them set up by reputed firms in areas such as refrigeration, servicing of electrical appliances and automobiles, etc. Authorities at the institute say the demand for trained students remains robust. Most students find placement in jobs that pay about Rs 16,000-Rs 20,000 per month, they say.
“I’ve already got a job in the electric meter testing department of a company,” says Abhishek Shukla, who wants to become an engineer and enrol in a polytechnic. His story highlights the struggle of millions of youths entering the workforce. Shukla, who speaks fluent English, lost his father in 2008 and his education was funded by the principal of the school where his mother works as office staff.
Professors and trainers at the institute said apprenticeship is the way forward to raise employability among youths enrolled at such centres. They also called for industry to play a larger role in absorbing skilled workers. Rising job prospects overseas for trained professionals is also encouraging more youths to opt for such courses.
“We need to focus on the contractual workforce, which is basically in the unorganised sector. It’s a myth that big corporations will create employment. It’s the MSMEs, for which we have 700-plus upskilling and reskilling courses,” says NSDC’s Tiwari.
“We’ve onboarded around 25,000 firms that are offering apprenticeships to around 1.75 lakh students from NSDC. The job conversion rate is around 70%-80%. Last year, we had 10 lakh apprenticeships with job conversion of around 8 lakh,” says Tiwari.
