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THE GAPBRIDGINGDriving Scale and Impact in Skill Development and Employability through Corporate Social ResponsibilityOctober 2015

Driving Scale and Impact in Skill Development and Employability through Corporate Social Responsibility

October 2015

THE GAPBRIDGING

Authorship:

Writing, Editing and Publishing: Sattva

Knowledge Content: Mr. Nikhil Pant and Ms. Mayuri Misra of IICA

Photographs courtesy : Don Bosco Tech

Design : Rae Zachariah

IICA and Sattva © 2015

Skill Building for India is critical from both the socio –economic and demographic points of view. It is an important tool for reducing poverty, enhancing competitiveness and employability. Skill Development enumerated in Schedule VII of the CSR Act can play an important catalytic role in the government’s efforts to promote ‘Skill India’ and to boost our Prime Minister’s larger ‘Make in India’ mission. On behalf of the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, we are pleased to present the following Report, which outlines our Institute’s collaborative efforts with our partner Sattva, to provide recommendations for key stakeholders in the Skill Development Sector.

This report is an outcome document of a focused deliberation done with Industry leaders, Government officers, Civil Society organisations and Vocational-training organisations through a round table discussion conducted with our partner ‘Sattva’, along with ‘Karve Institute of Social Sciences’ at Pune in June 2015.

This is the first amongst four Round Table series planned across the key development sectors of Education, Health and Environment, which are essential to raise our country’s Human Development Index.

This outcome report will be followed by a comprehensive compendium reaching out to Academic Institutions, Government agencies and Corporate India to inform and help articulate their CSR strategy, policy and implementation for visible and meaningful Impact.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation and thanks to our partner ‘Sattva’ along with our in-house Learning & Development Team at National Foundation for CSR (NFCSR), IICA, for their diligent efforts to document and author the outcomes of the discussion so eloquently.

FOREWORD

4

Dr. Bhaskar ChatterjeeDG & CEO, IICADated: 19th October 2015, New Delhi

India is graduating millions every year, but less than 3% of its workforce is equipped with the skills to do a job. With over half of its population being less than 25 years of age, the young workforce presents a tremendous opportunity to harness the country’s demographic dividend for the sustainable growth and social progress of the nation.

Currently, the supply of skilled manpower in India is approximately 3.4 million. According to the International Labour Organization, there will be a demand for 500 million skilled workers in India by 2022. The huge deficit of 496.6 million skilled workers needs to be addressed in just eight years, making skill an urgent national priority. With the industry being a primary demand creator and a key stakeholder in the skill ecosystem, the 2013 Companies Act mandate on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provides a fresh impetus for corporates to innovate and invest in skill development.

This report draws insights from a CSR Skill Roundtable organised by IICA, Sattva and Karve Institute of Social Sciences in Pune, which saw more than 100 corporations discussing challenges and opportunities in skill development. The document is also enriched with perspectives of skill experts and practitioners from corporations, skill development organisations, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), and institutions that are enabling jobs for the youth.

The brief aims to inform CSR leaders looking to identify opportunities in skill development that can be addressed through CSR initiatives. It also highlights areas in skilling that can create sustained long-term impact for the CSR investment and recommends various courses of action that can help build the CSR portfolios of corporates. The document is aligned to the National Policy of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 and emphasises interventions that align with the thrust areas of the policy.

Sattva would like to express its gratitude to the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, the Karve Institute of Social Sciences, and all other organisations that have provided inputs for the production of this brief.

PREFACE

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PART 1: SKILL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA

India’s Demographic Dividend: An Opportunity And A Challenge

The Demand-Supply Imbalance

Skilling India: A National Priority

Corporates And Skill Development

CONTENTS

PART 2: KEY OPPORTUNITIES FOR CSRs IN SKILL DEVELOPMENT

Working Closely With ITIs

Enabling On-the-job Training

Vocational Education

Assessment And Counselling

Fostering Entrepreneurship

Up-skilling The Existing Workforce

Skilling and Employment for the Differently Abled

Supporting Scaling Innovations

Beyond CSR: Integrating Skilling With Hiring

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India is one of the youngest nations in the world today with more than 62% of its population in the working age group of 15 to 59 years and over 54% of its population below 25 years of age. This manpower underpins India’s growth story and economic advances since liberalisation and is especially significant in the face of a decline in labour workforce in the industrial world.

With the statistics pointing to the fact that India’s workforce will increase by 32% in the next 20 years, whereas the developed labour force will fall by 4%, India has the potential to provide skilled manpower to fill the expected shortfall across industries in the ageing world.

While the surplus young workforce gives India a strategic advantage, the challenge the country faces is that a vast majority of the youth joining the workforce are unskilled and unemployable. The Economic Survey of 2014-151

brings to light this jarring concern: while India is adding about 12 million to the job market every year, only 3% of the workforce has undergone skill training of any form.

This gap underlines the pressing need for targeted skill training that can help ready the country’s workforce to enter into gainful livelihood and create a significant impact on the nation’s economic growth and social stability.

India’s demographic dividend : An opportunity and a challenge

INTRODUCTION

1 http://www.insightsonindia.com/2015/02/27/economic-survey-2014-2015-highlights-and-download-pdf/8

A skill gap analysis conducted by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) in 2014 reports an incremental requirement of 109.73 million skilled manpower by 2022 across 24 key sectors.

It is estimated that a mere 4.69% of the total workforce in India has undergone formal skill training of any sort compared to 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in the US, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea.

The demand-supply imbalance

INCREMENTAL REQUIREMENT ACROSS KEY SECTORS

Retail 55.9538.6

4.252.55

3.581.86

8.944.33

28.416.74

17.3113.02

11.837

7.393.59

21.5415.23

118.3

5.122.96

76.5545.42

11.294.11

13.446.96

4.162.08

8.234.64

10.886

6.813.09

17.7911.65

1.30.4

11.386.98

14.274.21

14.8810.98

BFSI

Pharma and Life Sciences

Transportation and Logistics

Electronics and IT Hardware

Education and Skill

Security

Healthcare

Apparel

Construction Material

Building, Construction and real

Furnishings

Tourism, Hospitality and Travel

Telecom

Gems and Jewellery

Domestic Sector

Leather and Leather Goods

Handlooms and Handicrafts

Media and Entertainment

Food Processing

Beauty and Wellness

Auto and auto components

IT/ITES

2 Data: http://www.skilldevelopment.gov.in/assets/images/Skill%20India/policy%20booklet-%20Final.pdf)

0 20 40 60 60

Projections by 2022 (millions)

Base in 2013 (millions)

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In 2014, the central government made a renewed effort at skill development, calling it a strategic priority for the country and a key enabler to the ‘Make in India’ anthem. The government set up the country’s first Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to create an enabling ecosystem to impart employable skills to its growing workforce over the next few decades and streamline investments in the sector. This year, the Government of India unveiled the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

The policy seeks to: • Create a demand for skilling across the country• Correct and align skilling with required competencies• Connect the supply of skilled human resources with sectoral demands• Certify and assess in alignment with global and national standards and• Catalyse an ecosystem wherein productive and innovative entrepreneurship germinates, sustains and grows.

The policy has 4 thrust areas:

1. Address key obstacles to skilling including low aspirational value, lack of integration with formal education, outcomes, training infrastructure and trainers etc.

2. Align supply and demand for skills by bridging existing skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalising a quality assurance framework, leveraging technology and promoting apprenticeship training.

3. Opportunities for socially/geographically marginalised and disadvantaged groups with a focus on programmes for women.

4. Educate and equip potential entrepreneurs, both within and outside the formal education system. It also seeks to connect entrepreneurs to mentors, incubators and credit markets, foster innovation and entrepreneurial culture, improve ease of doing business and promote a focus on social entrepreneurship.

Role of corporates

Corporations play a significant role in the context of skill development. Besides defining the demand

and setting the hiring benchmarks and policies, corporates provide the relevant technical expertise that is essential to build capacity in the ecosystem. Corporates can provide an enabling environment for hands-on skill training to the workforce. In addition, as a leading stakeholder in the skills ecosystem, corporates play a key role in supporting the scale-up of the skill development ecosystem in the country.

103mn 35mn

33mn 26.2mn

17.7mn 17.3mn

14mn 12.7mn

9.3mn 5.8mn

Infrastructure

Building & Construction Textile & Clothing

Transport & Logistics Organised Retail

Real Estate services Healthcare

Food Processing Education & skilldevelopment services

Auto and Auto components

Data source: IMaCS, Aon Hewitt & NSDC

GROWING SKILL GAPThe expected shortfall in industries in 2022

To bridge the dichotomy between a demographic surplus and the lack of employable youth, central and state governments have made skilling a national priority in the last few years.

The first National Policy on Skill Development was notified in 2009. As an offshoot of this policy, the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) was established in 2010 to promote public-private partnerships through innovative funding models. Aiding the NSDC in its objective to make India the skill capital of the world are its partners – the sector skill councils, training centres, the Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), and polytechnics.

In 2013, the National Skills Development Agency was set up to work with the State governments in synergising skilling efforts with the Centre’s policy. The agency came up with the National Skills Qualification Framework, which seeks to align skilling and education outcomes with competency levels.



Skilling India: A national priority






Role of corporates



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Role of corporates



1. As the driver of demand for talent, corporations set the talent standards through their business needs and hiring policies.

2. Beyond their own immediate business needs, corporations build the overall capacity of the ecosystem to effectively skill the youth for gainful employment.

With the Corporate Social Responsibility mandate on profit-making companies, it makes imminent sense for companies to engage in efforts that effectively skill the youth as they help build the overall capacity of the industry, which is currently facing a demand-supply crisis.

Corporations play 2 major roles:








Role of corporates


and setting the hiring benchmarks and policies, corporates provide the relevant technical expertise that is essential to build capacity in the ecosystem. Corporates can provide an enabling environment for hands-on skill training to the workforce. In addition, as a leading stakeholder in the skills ecosystem, corporates play a key role in supporting the scale-up of the skill development ecosystem in the country. In a landmark move, the 2013 Companies Act

mandated all companies with a minimum net worth of INR 500 crores, a turnover of INR 1,000 crores, and a net profit of at least INR 5 crores, to spend at least 2% of their profits on CSR. This has shifted the conversation from philanthropy to a deeper and value-based engagement with society.

Progressive companies are looking for ways to leverage their core strengths, such as technical expertise, process rigour, and widespread presence across the country to create sustainable social impact.

There has hence been a strong interest in skill development since it offers companies a chance to create sustainable impact while leveraging their core technical expertise.

Investing in skill development to enable access to skilled resources to the industry also provides long-term business value to the corporations and the entire industry ecosystem. Companies are increasingly creating structured skill development initiatives in their specific sectors while leveraging the ecosystem support that is enabled by NSDC.

The next section of the report highlights key opportunities for CSR in skill development, each with recommendations for company action, the policy implication and short examples of corporate involvement in the particular area. While not an exhaustive list of areas within skill development or possible corporate models, this section provides a context on specific issues and ideas to enable innovative and strategic thinking to those charged with formulating CSR policies.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Skill Development

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KEY OPPORTUNITIES FOR CSR INVESTMENT IN SKILL DEVELOPMENTThe brief recommends that corporates consider one or more of the following strategic areas for skill development:

Working closely with ITIs

• There is a stark disconnect between the ITI’s curriculum and infrastructure and market needs. • The government is looking to revamp the ITI infrastructure. • Corporations can support the government’s endeavour by adopting and mentoring select ITIs to upgrade curriculum and training methods in tune with market needs

On-the-job training

• The government, corporates and the industry bodies can work together to establish a scalable model for apprenticeship and on-the-job training.• This training must integrate assessment, certification and stipend to ensure stronger adoption among youth.

Vocational education

• Making vocational training a part of the school curriculum ensures that the students have a repertoire of vocational skills by the time they join the job market.

Assessment and counselling

• The gap between the aspiration of youth and the reality on ground is a big impediment to employability. • Hence, there is need for a robust counselling model that assesses the capabilities of the youth and recommends appropriate short- and mid-term career opportunities and a long-term career path.

Fostering Entrepreneurship

• There’s a lack of an effective ecosystem to identify, enable, fund, train and mentor entrepreneurs and provide them strong market linkages.• Entrepreneurship is a very strong focus for the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. • Corporations can support the Ministry’s effort by providing seed funding for entrepreneurs and facilitating mentorship programmes between their senior leaders and entrepreneurs.

Up-skilling the existing workforce

• The government acknowledges the skills that workers have already acquired through hands-on learning and the skill training institutes. • These efforts will be fortified with a formal certification that ensures that workers receive minimum wages and have a stronger chance for career development. • Corporations must look into their own workforce and identify skill gaps. They can then focus on up-skilling these workers towards better productivity, wages and career progression.

Skilling persons with disability

• The government recently released the National Action Plan focusing on the differently abled. • One of the challenges in finding gainful employment for such youth has been limited jobs in the market. • Corporates have a strong role to play in skilling such youth.

Supporting scaling innovation

• Identify and support innovations from across the ecosystem that are poised for scale.

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The Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) were conceived to impart vocational training to unskilled youth and address the need for trained manpower, which the country sorely lacks. However over time, these institutions have lost their edge due to a number of reasons such as a rigid training structure, inadequate trained vocational instructors, lack of modern equipment and machinery and weak linkages with Industry.

As of 2014, there are 11,964 ITIs in the country, with a seating capacity of 16.92 lakh 3 .The enrollment in these centres is only 9,56,1472 which is an alarming 58.9% of the total training capacity. As of 2010, number of students enrolling in high school (IX, X) is 24 million and those enrolling in higher secondary (XI, XII) is 13 million, while the enrollment in vocational training is less than 1 million (9,56,172).

In order to strengthen these institutions, the government aims to upgrade the ITIs through a tri-partite arrangement between State Governments, Central Government and industry. Corporations, as part of their CSR Mandate, can support this endeavour by adopting and mentoring select ITIs and working closely with them to build the hard and soft infrastructure and aligning the focus and quality to market needs.

Policy Perspective

Building the capacity of the existing training organisations is one of the key priorities of the Ministry of Skill

development and entrepreneurship. The focus areas of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015:

• Upgrade the courses and curriculum of ITIs and polytechnics to align with market demand• Set up new ITIs on PPP mode especially in underserved blocks of the country to expand outreach of skilling programmes. • Focus on employable skills up to National Skill Qualification Framework Level 4 (certificate level). • Leverage technology to designing curriculum and develop training pedagogy• Link ITI qualifications to formal educational qualification through language/bridge courses • Promote performance rating of ITIs based on outcome linked parameters and trainee/employer feedback.

Industry participation

Industry can help design curriculum and standards for skill training courses. Industry members can contribute as guest faculty at ITIs and skill training institutes. Industry houses can make shop floor available for practical hands-on training and institutionalise paid apprenticeship models.

Corporate partnership with ITIs

Leading corporations have taken an active role in working with ITIs to strengthen them and improve the quality of learning outcomes from the institutions. Following are some of the case studies of how corporations have engaged with ITIs:

Capacity building of ITIs

3 DGET site: http://dget.nic.in/content/institute/key-statistics.php

4 http://www.samsung.com/in/aboutsamsung /samsungelectronics/india/corporate-citizenship/employability.html 5 http://www.ntpc.co.in/en/corporate-citizenship/iti-adoption

Recommendations

The ITIs offer a nationwide network of training infrastructure to reach out to the youth who are interested in pursuing a vocational training-led career. There is a strong willingness from the government today to enable such collaborations between the industry and the ITI ecosystem both within and outside the CSR model of engagement (For instance, DGET has introduced the Flexi MoU model of engagement where a corporation can work with the ITIs to address their own specific skilling needs)Corporations can engage with the ITIs to build their capacity in specific focus areas such as curriculum

Samsung India

Engagement Organisation

National Thermal PowerCorporation (NTPC)

TV Sundaram Iyengar & Sons (TVS)

Dauto

Samsung India has signed up with DTTE to set up Samsung technical schools through ITIs through the specially designed curriculum - Advanced Repair and Industrial Skills Enhancement (A.R.I.S.E.) programme. As on date, there are 15 Technical Schools operational with three others in the process of being set up. Over 3,000 youth have graduated from Samsung Technical Schools since July 2014, which have been set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Departments of Technical Education4.

NTPC has adopted 17 ITIs and is constructing 9 new ones at various locations. New trades relevant to the local industry are being added in most of the adopted ITIs. The instructors have been provided with superior training to ensure quality teaching. A detailed action plan for the revival of the ITIs chalked out by the Nodal Officers of these projects/ plants has been in place for some time. Its salient features include a makeover for the classrooms and the institute buildings, upgrading the libraries and new machinery for the workshops & laboratories5.v

TVS group company, TVS Training and Services offers practical training in automotive and engineering industrial automation, industrial manufacturing, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and welding training, finance and accounts, and communication and personal development. It also has an initiative to train rural youth for a range of jobs. TVS Training and Services is in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation.

Dauto has partnered with the model ITI in Bhopal to train students in Computerised Industrial Design. The Collaborative Learning and Innovation Center (CLIC) helps ITI students in get six months training in Computerised Automobile Design on CATIA.

development, training the trainers, infrastructure upgrades, on-the-job training, industry orientation and enablement of placement opportunities for the youth. Such an association will enable access to trained youth with relevant skills for the industry ecosystem at large.

Corporations are recommended to start with 1-2 ITIs around the areas where they have presence to build a replicable model of engagement that could be scaled to other institutions.

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One of the key differences between vocational training models in western countries and in India is the strong focus on apprenticeship. Vocational training frameworks across the world have acknowledged that training imparted in institutions alone is not enough for acquisition of skills and needs to be supplemented by training in the actual world of work.

When we analyse the percentage of workforce in India receiving vocational education and training (VET) in secondary schools, it is far lower than other countries (percentage share of VET in secondary education is just 3% in India). Russia (60%), China (55%), Chile (40%) and Korea (31%) have a far greater number of secondary students taking VET subjects and these countries have a robust and qualified workforce6.

Considering the size of the Indian economy, the number of enterprises that take on apprentices is extremely low – around 24,000 establishments. In India, while the total apprenticeship seats across 559 trades is 5.31 lakhs, only 2.84 lakhs i.e. 59% is utilised, according to the MHRD (December 2011). One of the key challenges has been the high requirements placed upon employers. However, with the recent changes to the apprenticeship Act, there is a growing recognition and effort towards the streamlining the process of Apprenticeship for employers and youth. Government, Corporations and the skill ecosystem can work together to establish a scalable model for apprenticeship and on-the-job training that integrate assessment, certification and stipend to ensure stronger adoption among youth.

Policy Perspective

One of the key focus areas of the Policy is to “Recognise the value of on the-job training, by making apprenticeships in actual work environments an integral part of all skill development efforts.” Government is targeting a tenfold increase in

apprenticeship opportunities in the next five years. The new ‘Apprentice Protsahan Yojana’ Scheme, started on 16.10.2014, promises to share 50% of prescribed stipend to the apprentices by Government of India for the first two years of training for one lakh apprentices. The Apprentices (Amendment) Bill, 2014, provides for apprenticeship to non-engineering graduates and diploma holders besides others to expand the base of skilled workers in the country.

Due to the increased concentration on trade apprentice-ship, enhancement of 20-30% of existing seats have been located and utilised for trade apprentices. The rates of stipend have also been enhanced under the new scheme to encourage long-term apprenticeships. The sectors in which the on the job training is provided has been expanded through the revamping of “Craftsman Training Scheme”. Under this scheme corporates/employers are allowed to take up on the job training in the ratio of their workforce with no limitations on sector.

Government aims to work together with industry including MSME sector, to create a positive environment for increased apprenticeship opportunities in the country. The Government aims to bring the services sector under the ambit of apprenticeship. In addition, the policy recommends that each training centre will have a placement cum apprenticeship cell that will counsel trainees on successful completion of their training and create apprenticeship opportunities. The policy also recommends exclusive apprenticeship opportunities for women to encourage their participation.

Enablement of on-the-job training

Aditya Birla Group - Retail


The SRF Foundation

Tata Motors

3M

As part of its CSR initiative, Aditya Birla Group Retail works with a network of skill training partners across the country to complement their classroom training programme with structured on-the job training in their stores across the country.

As part of its employability initiatives, SRF Foundation engages SC/ST trade apprentices in plant operations to provide them on-the-job training to complement their technical training.

Tata Motors runs the Apprenticeship Training Program in Pune. More than 3000 youth undergo apprenticeship training in their in-house training department every year. There is a special focus towards students from SC/ST backgrounds. Over 29 tribal ITIs are approached for Job Trainee Apprentice (JTA) scheme.

As part of its CSR initiative, 3M India engages youth from poor economic backgrounds through an apprenticeship programme using a learning-by-doing approach, offering real world work experience to young men and women graduates.

Recommendations

The recent Apprenticeship Act offers a unique opportunity for corporations to engage youth interested in gainful employment to improve their employability through on-the-job training. The recent changes have made apprenticeship model relevant beyond the traditional manufacturing space to also include the service sector.

Corporations can reach out to vocational training providers including ITIs and reputed skilling organisations and complement their classroom training programme through a structured on-the-job training model.

It is important for corporations to build a win-win model where the on-the-job training engagements are rewarding and educational for the students. Hence, special efforts have to be placed to ensure that such engagements are clearly defined in terms of specific learning outcomes and structure and communicated down the line to the place of work. It is also important for corporations to enable job opportunities for the youth beyond the corporation to ensure the trained youth have options for jobs and there’s benefits to the larger ecosystem.

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Corporate case studies

While the following initiatives are done on the supply side to enable apprenticeship opportunities, it is critical for companies to tie up with suitable training centre(s) for supply of skilled workforce and apprentices.

The current focus of skill training starts when the students are out of school and are looking for short-term programmes to gain employment. About 227 million students are enrolled in the school education sector, while the enrollment in vocational training and higher education is about 15.3 million. If only the graduating students from high school are considered, 5.5 million students pass out of Class X. The gap lies between the students who have enrolled in high school but do not continue to higher education or vocational training. The number of dropouts from school education gives rise to the problem of students not being skilled for either employment or vocational training. Integration of vocational education as part of the school system provides vertical as well as horizontal mobility in the education system. Skilling will be integrated into formal education by introducing vocational training from class nine onwards over a period of next four years. Vocational education integrated with the school curriculum ensures that the students have a repertoire of vocational skills on which they have received long-term training when they join the job market.

Policy Perspective

There is a strong concurrence in the skill development policy on integrating skilling with mainstream education. In line with this focus, the policy emphasises that skilling will be integrated with formal education by introducing vocational training classes linked to the local economy from class nine onwards in at least 25% of the schools, over the next five years. The school boards will be supported by the NSQF compliant assessment and certification bodies for assessment and certification of the skilling component of vocational education and training.

Corporate Case studies

Although policy level intervention for vocationalising education in schools is a recent phenomenon, there has been evidence of social organisations introducing vocational training in schools.

Vocationalisation of Education

Vigyan Ashram


Shakti Amma

Vigyan Ashram pioneered the IBT Program to impart training of basic skills to students in class VIII, IX and X. The programme aimed to give the students exposure to the ‘World of work’. The training program aims to develop vocational interests and aptitudes among students and facilitates them to make choice of vocational courses at the higher secondary level.

IBT programme which is recognised as pre-vocational program by Government of Maharashtra is implemented in school from class VIII-X. Vigyan Ashram has been supported by Corporate Foundations such as the Suzlon Foundation, which is supporting the IBT programme in 19 schools in Nandurbar, Dhule, Sangli and Satara.

Project Shakti by Hindustan Unilever (HUL) aims to enhance the livelihood of rural women. HUL trains rural women as entrepreneurs. Called Shakti Amma, the entrepreneurs are trained about the company’s products and their utility in maintaining health and hygiene. The Shakti Amma receives stocks from the rural distributor at a discount. She sells the goods both directly to consumers and through retailers. Around 70% of the Shakti Ammas work in low Human Development Index districts. A typical Shakti Amma earns around Rs 1000 a month, besides gaining social stature in the village due to her association with a reputed company and her own financial empowerment.

Recommendations

Education is one of the key focus areas for corporations and corporate foundations today. CSRs can further strengthen their engagement with schools by introducing pilots and scalable implementation of vocational education through skill training partners. Initial pilots with the schools will help the corporations (and the partners) identify the impact of vocational education in schools and enable them to scale the implementation accordingly.

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Although policy level intervention for vocationalising education in schools is a recent phenomenon, there has been evidence of social organisations introducing vocational training in schools.

Aspiration gaps and information gaps are two of the biggest challenges today that impede employability.

The youth do not have realistic expectations of the job and its demands as there aren’t reliable sources of information on the merits and demerits of a particular job, the skills required, the work hours it entails, and what it takes to grow. The reality check they need can be provided through effective counselling. This will help youth translate dreams and aspirations into achievable goals.

Counselling is useful to create aspiration and reduce the attrition rates during training and employment by helping candidates make informed choices. With the growth in the number of vocational training options and proliferation of new job roles in the market, guidance becomes essential for youth making career decisions.

Hence, there needs to be a strong focus on behavioural assessments and counselling to objectively assess the capabilities of the youth and recommend appropriate career paths. A robust counselling framework can also broaden the perspective of the youth towards the wide range of career options and provide a short-term and mid-term view on the career path and opportunities. Employment Exchanges that operate from regional post offices render vocational guidance and career counselling services. The main activities of the Employment Exchanges are registration, placement of job seekers, career counselling and vocational guidance and collection of employment market information. However, there is a growing recognition that these employment exchanges need to be revamped to make them more market-centric and move beyond registration of job seekers.

Policy perspective

The skill development policy rightfully identifies that the presence of the infrastructure is not the challenge today. The policy recommends that the vast network of existing Post Offices and Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) be leveraged with industry support to create such a support system for the youth. Further, the network of 2.85 lakh Youth Clubs/Mahila Mandals of Nehru Yuva Kendras with presence in 623 districts would also facilitate providing counselling and guidance to the youth of the country about various skilling programmes and opportunities. These agencies are provided with necessary brochures and other material for dissemination of required information through volunteers amongst the target audience.

However, to make these centres effective, it is important to have strong industry connect and a clear mapping of the aspirations of the youth and the availability of opportunities.

Assessment and Counselling

CII


AISECT

CII, together with Wheelbox, People Strong and LinkedIn, has launched a Model Career centre initiative to establish the right infrastructure and linkages available to perform counselling functions. The initiative aims to bridge the gap between Government and private jobs, job seeker and Skill development ecosystem. It also aims to provide access to tools to analyse skill-wise demand of industry and supply of job seekers, as well as access to a rich knowledge repository of career counselling content in multiple languages.

AISECT, an education, skill development, services and e-governance network, organised the AISECT-NSDC Kaushal Vikas Yatra across AISECT-NSDC project states to spread awareness on skill development and vocational education. The van activation programme was implemented in 8 states in various rural and semi-urban areas. Pamphlets were distributed along the route. Daylong interactive sessions were organised at various venues to counsel and mobilise students and the community at large. The sessions were done across small focussed groups for greater involvement and engagement. To increase the involvement, simple games and quizzes were conducted. The response from the public was tremendous; AISECT registered 40,600 candidates from the rural and semi- urban belt through its van activation programme.

Recommendations

There is an opportunity for corporations to orchestrate innovative pilots through their network of trusted partners on the ground. For instance, corporations can leverage their existing investments in education and skill development to develop a career counselling model for engaging students within their learning environments. This can enable students to make more informed career choices.

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The role of Corporations is nascent in the sphere of career counselling. However, following are some of the initiatives that have been taken up by other corporations to enable career counselling in a structured manner.

Given the realities of rapidly changing economic landscape in the country, entrepreneurship opportunities have emerged as an important source of meeting aspirations of the youth. However, the number of local entrepreneurs emerging every year in India is very low. The Global Innovation Index 2014 ranks India 76 out of 143 countries. Accelerating entrepreneurship especially that based on innovation is crucial for large scale employment generation in India. According to a World Bank study on Entrepreneurship in 20107 which compares the new business registration density of South Asian countries with the rest of the world, it was found that contrary to popular belief, India has too few entrepreneurs for its stage of development, even when compared to other countries such as Thailand, Brazil and Malaysia. Accelerating entrepreneurship and self-employment is crucial for large-scale employment generation in India.

The current approach to entrepreneurship is fragmented and disconnected. An all - inclusive approach to strengthen the entrepreneurship development scenario in the country which is competent, quality conscious, market savvy, innovative and has globally competitive entrepreneurs, needs to be carefully mentored and encouraged.

Policy perspective

Unlike the policy in 2009 (titled “National Skill development Policy”), the current policy lays particular emphasis on entrepreneurship (as reflected in the title, “National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship”).

The Policy acknowledges that vibrant entrepreneurship requires support from an enabling ecosystem of culture, finance, expertise, infrastructure, skills and business friendly regulation.

This policy framework proposes a nine part entrepreneurship strategy:

1. Educate and equip potential and early stage entrepreneurs across India2. Connect entrepreneurs to peers, mentors and incubators3. Support entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurship Hubs (e-Hubs)4. Catalyse a culture shift to encourage entrepreneurship5. Encourage entrepreneurship among underrepresented groups6. Promote entrepreneurship amongst women7. Improve ease of doing business8. Improve access to finance9. Foster social entrepreneurship and grassroots innovations

Fostering entrepreneurship

7 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2010/01/13120780/doing-business-2011 -south-asia-sa-making-difference-entrepreneurs-comparing-business-regulation-183-economies

Canara Bank & Syndicate Bank - RUDSETI


Intel Foundation

Rural Development & Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI) was initiated in 1982 jointly by Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Educational Trust, Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank. The objective of the initiative was to promote self-employment entrepreneurial ventures among unemployed youth. The program has trained 3,69,858 youth in 2015. Any unemployed youth in the age group of 18-45 years, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, gender and economic status, having aptitude to take up self-employment or wage employment and having some basic knowledge in the related field, can undergo training that is totally free.

Udyogini, which facilitates management training for women’s groups, along with INTEL Foundation came up with the INTEL – Udyogini School of Entrepreneurship, a school where all the basic nitty-gritties of business is taught to rural women in Hindi for three months. Small entrepreneurs are roped in as resource persons. The course includes training in business skills, life skills, math and language, examinations, internship, field programmes and placement. Business ideas of entrepreneurs are chosen for incubation. The course was started in 2010 in the Niwas cluster of villages in Mandla district in MP and Ranchi district of Jharkhand.

Schneider Foundation Schneider Foundation’s mission is “To help people change their life through Access to Energy”. As part of this focus, they facilitate trained electricians with a “start up kit” and an entrepreneur training to run their own business. Schneider Foundation has so far supported 291 trained entrepreneurs to start their own business in the remote villages of India

Recommendations

Corporations have been working towards supporting entrepreneurs in the rural environment now as part oftheir CSR efforts. Rural livelihood efforts have focused on creating entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs, who address local community needs. While that is very important and critical, there’s also a significant opportunity to create an effective ecosystem to identify, mentor and support entrepreneurs holistically.

There is an increasing focus among corporations to both setup and support incubators that will identify and enable entrepreneurs. There’s a lack of an effective ecosystem for

identifying, enabling and mentoring entrepreneurs. This includes support in the form of training, funding, mentoring and facilitating market linkages. Corporations can channel these efforts with a focus on ideas that will create tangible social impact in the form of access to essential services and large-scale livelihood creation.

Corporations can also look at extending their focus across the value chains to identify opportunities to create entrepreneurs and enabling them with training, hand-holding, technical expertise and access to resources.

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One of the biggest challenges of skill development in our country is that 93% of the workforce is in the informal/unorganised sector. It is a challenge to map existing skills in the unorganised sector and gauge the skilling requirement. On the other hand, the rate of job growth in informal sector is estimated to be twice than that in formal sector.

At all India level, 49.5% persons are estimated to be self-employed under the Usual Principal Status Approach followed by 30.9% as casual labour. Only 16.5% are wage/salary earners and the rest 3.0% are covered contract workers. Hence strengthening and certifying the skill base of the unorganised sector will contribute to overall economic development.

Policy perspective

The policy recognises Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as the key instrument which can help map the existing skills in the unorganised sector and integrate the informal sector to the formal skilling landscape. The RPL framework is an outcome-based qualification framework linked to NSQF against which prior learning through formal/informal

channels would be assessed and certified. The RPL process would include pre-assessment, skill gap training and final assessment leading to certification of existing skills in an individual. The government will provide detailed guidelines for RPL initiatives which will ensure quality and consistent outcomes.

RPL will be encouraged in the unorganised sector for certification of existing skills and integration with formal labour market. This will also open up options for upskilling and further vertical mobility.

Up-skilling the existing workforce

Asian Paints


Godrej

Asian Paints has set up paint academies in different parts of the country to formally train existing painters to ensure that their existing skills are recognised and are improved on.

As a part of Good & Green vision, Godrej Industries partnered with LabourNet to design and facilitate training solutions for construction workers to enhance their employability at its various sites. Godrej focused on four key trades - Bar bending, masonry, shuttering carpentry and tiling in five locations across India. The construction workers were diversified, semi-skilled and did not have any formal training. A structured training programme comprising Content Design and Pedagogy, Pre Training Skill Assessment, onsite and classroom training and assessment and Certification is being delivered. The programme has been successful in imparting training to almost 4000 workers across India within a short span of 9 months. Apart from increased productivity and formalised skill level, the trainings are expected to lead to higher wages.

Recommendations

Corporations can look at their own value chain and talent supply to identify segments of the existing workforce and focus on up-skilling the workers towards better productivity, wages and career progression. Corporations can also identify and support skill training organisations focused on up-skilling and support them.

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According to census 2011, the country's differently abled population is 2.68 crores which constitutes 2.2% of the total population in the country. Studies show that while 49% of the differently abled population is literate, only 34% is employed.8 Despite the economic growth of the country, the employment levels of persons with disabilities have continued to fall. DGE&T through its employment exchanges has been catering to special needs of disabled job seekers. The registration in the employment exchanges has increased from 2004 (52,400) to 2011 (63,200). However the placements provided by the employment exchanges have always been under the target, from 3400 in 2004 to 3300 in 2011.

The Government has recently released the National Action Plan focused on the differently abled. One of the challenges in creating gainful employment for such youth has been limited employability linkages. Hence, NSDC is focused both on funding organisations skilling the persons with disability and also focusing on enterprises having an open and sensitive approach towards hiring and retention of persons with disability.

Policy Perspective

For differently abled persons, a horizontal Sector Skill Council (SSC) comprising of stakeholders and representatives of relevant SSCs would be created to identify specific trades for each category of differently abled candidates where they can improve their competencies through skill training and get rehabilitated/employed for a sustainable livelihood.

Special focus will be given to the inclusion of scheduled castes & scheduled tribes, minorities, differently abled, etc., and regionally underrepresented areas including large part of Eastern and North Eastern India in entrepreneurship programs.

Skilling and Employment of persons with disability

8 http://wadhwani-foundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/2008-Planning-commission-report-on-PwD-Employment.pdf

Recommendations

Today, a wide range of skill development organisations are focused on implementing skill development programmes for persons with disability. These organisations are focused on building the confidence of the youth, facilitating technical training, placing youth in corporations and supporting them through the post-placement integration. These organisations also conduct sensitisation programmes in corporations to provide a healthy environment for persons with disability to work in the companies. Corporations can

Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery (IIGJ)


Mphasis

Thomson Reuters Indian

Lemon Tree Hotels

The Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery in Jaipur has been running a special job-oriented program customised to the needs of visually impaired and hearing impaired students. A 2 months training program is conducted on filing and pre-polishing for students with disability. The training program includes classroom training and paid industry internships. Select students who completethe program are hired by the industry.

Mphasis runs ‘Nanagu Shaale’, which means ‘school for me too’ in Kannada. It is a programme for inclusion of children with disabilities into mainstream government schools. The efforts are focussed towards rural areas through sensitisation of teachers, parents, other children and the community at large. In its first phase, Nanagu Shale has impacted 35,000 children with special needs in 1426 villages in four districts of Karnataka. This programme is in its Phase 2 now and aims to extend its reach to five more districts of North Karnataka. This programme tackles the issue of skilling people who are differently abled at the grassroots itself - i.e. at the school education system, so that they overcome challenges at an early age and so that they are self-reliant citizens when they join the workforce.

Thomson Reuters’ efforts to create an inclusive workplace include motorised wheelchairs, improved access to floor, meeting rooms with names in Braille, and lower counters in the canteen. It was recognised for its efforts to promote employment for people with disabilities at the 4th annual Global CSR Excellence and Leadership Awards recently.

Lemon Tree Hotels has been working actively in the space of skill development and employment of people with disability in both supporting organisations providing training to youth with disability and also employing employees with disability. Lemon Tree has been hiring persons with disabilities (mostly speech and hearing Impaired (SHIs)) since 2007. Currently, they have over 400 employees with disability. The company has also been ranked as the top 2 ‘Best Companies in India for its Unique Initiative/ Programme in hiring Persons with Disabilities (PWDs)’ by GPTW Institute in 2015.

initiate a wide range of activities to both absorb persons with disability at the workplace, make their workplace environment disabled-friendly as well as support the efforts of skill training organisations that are engaged in the same.

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Context

Over the last few years, there has been a substantial investment and growth in the skill development ecosystem. However, there is a growing recognition of the limitations of the current models of training delivery. There are challenges in terms of the quality of infrastructure, availability of trained trainers and the effectiveness of the learning materials. At the same time, there have been growing advancements in the way content development, delivery and engagement is delivered. Hence, there is a need to embrace innovations that can help scale the reach of training and deepen the impact of the training.

NSDC has been playing an anchor role in identifying and supporting innovations from across the ecosystem. Corporations can accelerate and support the adoption of these innovations in the skill training innovations that they support. NSDC released the Innovation for Skills compendium, in the July ’13 NSDC Partners Meet highlighting over 20 innovations across 4 key focus areas - Sourcing and Financing, Training to Certification, Placement and Linkages, Post Placement Engagement.

Select Innovations

Finance for vocational training and micro-entrepreneurs

Milaap is a crowd sourcing platform for loans related to enterprise development, education, and infrastructure development etc with field partners at community level. Milaap aims to develop financial solutions for skill-development since financing for vocational development is still underdeveloped. Milaap will create new loan products and processes which will make vocational education affordable to students across various sectors and in doing so, create a new asset class of education loans.

Machine based models

Microspin, a Chennai-based spinning and yarn company, aims to integrate multiple skills in the cotton textile value chain in a market-oriented framework through introduction of innovative technology and associated skills of Microspinning. In addition to the technology, the model is also focused on imparting entrepreneurial soft-skills to farmers and weavers, promotion and re-positioning of lesser-known skills like vegetable dyeing and specialised weaving techniques, integration of new skills related to operation and maintenance of machinery and renewable energy systems and modular up-skilling that enables practitioners to move up the value-chain.

Improved assessments of candidates

Aspiring Minds aims to create assessment, benchmarking and certification of candidates enrolled under various NSDC training programs and development of a national skill pool for all NSDC partners/ potential employers on a pan-India basis. The scientific assessment will test multi-dimensional aspects (communication skills, aptitude, motor skills, personality etc.) of the candidate. The assessment, when undertaken at the entry and exit gates of a training programme, can provide improvement employability feedback objectively to the candidate.

E-learning solutions Liqvid e-learning aims to enhance the employability potential by improving their English cCommunications skills. Liqvid works with students enrolled in various skill programmes of Vocational Training Provider (VTP) partners. Liqvid embed English learning modules (blended technology form) in the VTPs courses. Liqvid models are sector- specific targeted English learning modules for 15 sectors with mother tongue support in 7 Indian languages. They support both Computer based (LAN) as well as innovative tablets based deployment models.

Support scaling innovations

While there are many options for the CSRs to engage with skill development to enable and strengthen the ecosystem, one of the key challenges for the sector today is the recognition of skilling by the industry. Today, while corporations are investing in skill development from a CSR perspective, the integration of skilling requirements in hiring is absent, providing no leverage for the skilling ecosystem to engage youth on skill development.

The Skill development and Entrepreneurship policy is establishing NSQF as the universal standard across training, assessment and placement for objectively measuring skill of the aspirants. The policy encourages the industry to increasingly move towards employing only certified skilled people. In

addition, employers are encouraged to rationalise the compensation paid across different levels of skills to award a skill premium for increased productivity as a result of higher skills.

Once the industry puts its weight behind hiring based on skill levels of aspirants, the rest of the ecosystem will align itself to ensure that the needs of the industry in terms of quality and scale is addressed. This could be the industry’s biggest contribution towards skill development.

Beyond CSR: Integrating skilling with hiring

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Sri Sunil Arora (IAS), Secretary, Dept. of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship

Dr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, DG&CEO, IICA

Advocate Shriniwas Inamati, Vice Chairperson of Karve Institute of Social Service

Mr. Pratyush Panda, ACC Cements

Dr. Hiren Desai, Mazagon Dock

Mr. Shrikar Dole, IL&FS Academy

Mr. Arun Wakhlu, Pragati Foundation

Ms. Neeti Sharma, Team Lease

Mr. Jagadish Acharya, Asian Paints

Mr. Mahesh Venkateswaran, NSDC

Dr. Divya Nambiar, Ministry of Skill Dev & Entrepreneurship

Mr. Deepak Walokar, Karve Institute of Social Service

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our sincere thanks to

for participating in the CSR Round Table on Skill Development, conducted on June 12th in partnership with the Karve Institute of Social Science (www.karve-institute.org)

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W: www.sattva.co.inE: [email protected]

W: www.iica.inE: [email protected]

Documents

Bridging the Gap Web Brochure - IICAiica.in/images/Sattva_IICA_SkillsCompendium_WebShare_Oct2015 (1).pdf · skill development organisations, the National Skill Development Corporation