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Day 2 of the 6th FICCI
Global Skills Summit, saw a number of important session, but given the lack of
a number of so called ‘important people’ the audiences had dwindled down of
course. In the concluding part of this series we will look at some of the
capacity issues and specific integral challenges in the area of TVET and Skills
development. Part I, Part II and Part III of this series focused on the macro
end and at industry perspectives, this concluding part focuses from the
perspective of providers and audiences.
Capacity and Delivery challenges
The first session on Day 2 was on
the strategy to tap the best human resource as assessors, trainers and content
writers, those who enable the ecosystem for skills development to deliver. Paul
Comyn, Senior Vocational Training and Skills Development Specialist, ILO was of
the view that we are announcing schemes and mechanisms for skills development
which rely on large scale human resource expertise already in place for
implementation of the schemes, thereby undermining the schemes and their
implementation. This clearly implies that we are not acknowledging the true
environmental local conditions that are critical to factor for any hope for
success, instead relying on models and rhetoric that is either inspired by
those swaying to pseudo-intellectuals, foreign agendas and opportunism, International
and local private sector profiteers, or political opportunists and those driven
by and practicing populist politics. Jo (Jyotsna) Aggarwal, Senior Advisor
Employability to Silatech an initiative in the middle-eastern countries spoke
of how technology interventions are making it possible to reach learners and
training providers on a large scale and across far reaches. Silatech is providing them learning and
teaching resources in self-access mode through the use of technology post the
Arab-spring revolutions that made traditional models of reaching them through
the government system non-viable. It did not convince me as to the power of
technology as much as it made me even more convinced that we operate in an
unstable and fast changing environment where people and communities need to
find methods that allow for self-sustained and localised ways to keep the
wheels of social and economic progress rolling.
Ninad Vengurlekar, Vice President
IL&FS Ltd. made very pertinent comments on the challenges for practitioners
on ground, as they have to face with not only the regional diversity but also
with lack of basic key skills, values and attitudes. The examples of intended
beneficiaries not interested in learning, undisciplined to the extent that they
are rude, temperamental and not punctual, necessitating providers to focus on things such as anger management as a component of vocational education. For me this was one of
the highlights of the Skills Summit, the realisation this should bring is that
education, whether vocational, general or informal, has to first acknowledge
the holistic dimensions of development. While a number of people pin their
hopes on vocational education, raising minimum wages, primary education,
teacher training and other developmental interventions, are the pivots on which
the developmental progress hinges, the reality is that for any chance of
success there has to be a recognition of the fact that unless we address human
development from a perspective of wholeness we will only be going around in
circles and falling hopelessly short of any meaningful achievement.
The session on 'Skills in
Schools–Making skills development aspirational', highlighted the work extending
into schools, especially the open school. The NIOS has taken up the agenda to
vocationally train 5000 open school students as a pilot project. People have always questioned how do we develop practical skills that require practical training through the open school system? Well Dr. S.S. Jena, Chairman, National Institute of Open Schooling has decided to take that challenge. I keen await to see that model work, which I assume will use technology and industrial touch points for practical sessions. Ofcourse what was also highlighted
again was the Industry- academia cooperation required to make it a success.
Beneficiary segments requiring special focus
The last session before the close
of the two days of presentations was focused on audiences, especially those
that required special focus. This comprised three back to back sessions on
Women, Persons with Disability and those that represent workers of the Unorganised
Sector. Rashmi Singh, Executive Director, National Mission for Empowerment of
Women almost tripped herself as she rhetorically questioned and attempted to
answer the question as to why the category of ‘women’ was clubbed with persons
of disability and those in the unorganised sector. While she arrived at the
common underlying of vulnerability especially in the prevailing context as the
reason, Prakash Tewari, VP CSR & Education, Jindal Steel spoke of the
various initiatives Jindal Group has taken to involve women in training and
employment programmes.
Shane Anderson, Director TR7
Training Services, Perth, Australia elucidated upon the international
opportunities available within the Global Skilled workers job market,
especially nursing which traditionally has been dominated by women. The facts
have been highlighted time and again, of the surplus manpower that India will
have in the future (estimated to the tune of 56 mn workers) in the face of an
aging developed world with deficient skilled manpower (estimated to the tune of
47 mn) – Figures from BCG study for PHD Chambers of Commerce. Shane spoke of a
nursing project in India that will focus on training nurses who earn upto
400000 AUD and supplying them to Australia and other parts of the world.
While talking of skills, training
and employment needs of those with disability there was a collective request
going out to industry to make work places accommodating for those with special
needs. Ms. Shanti Raghavan, Founder
Enable India placing the blame squarely at society not having enough
expectations from those with special abilities, right from their homes, schools
to their place of work. Having expectations allows us to provide opportunities
for work and encourages them to deliver in line with those expectations. This
helps them in finding ways that circumvent their limitations and as a result
develops skills and confidence amongst them.
The final group was discussing
models for skills development in the unorganised sector. While there was
consensus on two things across the group, firstly the vast size of the sector
and its contribution to the GDP and employment that made it really important to
address the skills needs there in. Secondly, the real practical difficulties in
delivering skills to this sector including engagement of targeted
beneficiaries, aspiration levels and time off from daily wage based work. The
three things that offered a way forward were,
a) to address skills needs
through up-skilling existing workforce in the sector
b) to find innovative
models of funding that allowed people to take time off work and afford training
interventions and finally
c) to ensure that training infrastructure is
available locally and close to the their actual place of work or residence that
overcomes the logistical challenges involved.
Conclusion
The final day of the Summit was
reserved for one on one B2B meetings between New Zealand and Australian
Vocational Training providers and interested Indian counterparts and other
related institutions. There was quite a good response to the same which was
encouraging for both sides.
As I reflect over the whole event and its content, I think while such opportunities aim at bringing interested parties together and
serve as networking points, for someone who has seen such events for the last
10 years, each time reflecting on the content, endeavours, progress and
milestones, I am quite disheartened by the lack of results in the face of
expectations, given the focus and time spent on this critical agenda. I am even
more disheartened by the lack of understanding, substance and insight that is as
evident as the profusion of apathy and desperate need for earnest and well
thought out interventions.
We continue to grow in size and complexity, yet we
are as far away from real solutions as we ever were. But the hope lies in the
small but hardy endeavours of people who are earnest in the care for those who
surround them, committing to create opportunities, pathways of learning and
improved performance, instilling the values that will serve individuals and
society to achieve progress. Unfortunately when you see the head table they
seem the least visible and outnumbered by the large companies who often pay to
get these positions and those in power. I, over the last decade, am still
waiting to see those out there who truly care and are committed to finding the
right solutions for the right reasons, with the willingness to learn and roll
up their sleeves putting their shoulder to the wheel for an earnest try.
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