Some of the steps which need to be taken to bring all of the different strands of internship programme together are as under
Institutional changes
The Industry and industry Associations to take center stage through the SSCs-Govt.playingrole of a facilitator only-the NSDC to anchor the overall design parameters including NSQF alignment, defining standards for Training Centres, Trainings, assessments etc., but only as anchornot a decision maker-the industry to have a decisive role in decision making; neither the NSDC, nor the Govt. Expert regulatory bodies need to be headed byexpert trainers from the industry and not headed by or comprising mostly present or former bureaucrats, who have little knowledge of the skilling needs of the industry.
The NSDC needs to be broken up into two distinct divisions or even entities one doing consultancy and the other programme implementation. The problem has been that at present the NSDC is mostly led by people in the consultancy mode who have very little understanding of programme implementation which needs a different mind set altogether. To continue to expect NSDC in its present avatar to be efficient with programme implementation is unrealistic; and yet to debunk the organisaiton completely ignoring some of its exceptional assets discussed above is also a big omission-the design flaws need to be corrected by creating two distinct entities one for consultancy and the other for programme implementation led by separate set of people with different mind sets.
Reform in the way the SectorSkill councils are managed -they need to be well and truly led by industry representatives not by army officers and in a manner where all the sub segments of a particular sector are well represented. They cannot continue to be a fiefdom of one or the other industry leader no matter howgood the person may be. Each SSC to have at least the top 10-20 industry in their sector in its governing body who will set targets for itself to undertake skill development and apprenticeship; Leading training institutes in the sector to be mapped and brought into the Governing Body of SSCs.
A sharp look needs to be given to the health and conditions of ITIs and Polytechnics to ensure they address the specific demand for skilled work force in their areas-the more that can be taken over and run by the industry the better.
The state govts to build capacity to skill more youth under the state component of PMKVY3 and other state govt programmes, supplementing and duplicating the effort of the centre-an integrated master plan of skill development must be maintained by each district to ensure this. To better integrate the centre and state vision, the NSDDC to act as the Programme Management Units (PMU) of each state mission, rather than other consultants. The District Skill commitees proposed to be strengthened under the PMKVY3 be headed by Industry representative in the district with the concerned Govt. functionaries as members
Demand mapping and programme implementation Skill committees of Industry Associations like CII/FICCI to decide which sectors are relevant to which region/state & then each of the concerned SSCs to undertake local/regional demand supply mapping alongwith industry clusters and their associations in the concerned regions and come up with a demand inventory; CII/FICCI etc to coopt the Chairman/CEO of the SSCs in their skill committees.
The SSCs to identify training partners, training centers/ITIs/colleges available within/near the clusters to service this demand under various govt and fee based skilling programmes.
Training Partners to restrict themselves to 3-4 sectors where they need to expertise in collaboration with industry association counter parts. One step down franchise to be allowed for industry associationswho wish to become programme implementing agencies instead of compelling them to open training verticals, which is not their core area of expertise-placement criteria for them to be 90%, instead of the usual 80%.
For sectors like construction, where supply state is different from demand state – the Construction sector skill council should be responsible for linking skilling being undertaken in Training Centres in supply states to the demand in other states in coordination with the federation of realtors like CREDAI/NAREDCO and contractors like BAI all of whom are members of the council. Similarly, special centres be run aimed only at the foreign job markets Job roles in the manufacturing sector should be moved from short term to medium term skilling as it is not possible to adequately skill a person in manufacturing oriented job roles in a short period of 3-4 months,as they are a bit more complex as compared to the service industry ones, -while the notified ones can be serviced by the ITIs asat present, the once not under ITI can be serviced by the NSDC & the skill missions in the state.
Mobilisation and Community Colleges
Colleges and institutes in local area to be mapped to link up supply; municipality/panchayat to be tapped to enable this-the ASEEM initiative announced recently by the ministry should be linked to this larger picture; Pass outs/drop outs from nearby colleges to be tapped for undergoing Short term training (STT)/Apprenticeships to meet the local demand concept of community colleges can be introduced to mobilise and skill unemployed youth to service local demand; the 800+PMKKs being set up in each district (800+ already set up), can be converted into community colleges
Integration with Apprenticeship
the output of the skill eco-system both short term and long term to be linked (through API) as input for apprenticeship and again the output from apprenticeship to job portals. In fact, it would make a lot of sense for the Govt., to subsume much of the skill trainings under PMKVY 3, into the apprenticeship programme (which too has a class room/lab training component built into it). This would save on the huge expenditure being incurred on STTs every year. All the courses being undertaken in the ITIs could also gradually be integrated with apprenticeship to ensure better employability for it’s pass outs.
Apprenticeship embedded degree courses to be introduced in colleges in a big way. The Govt. has in its current year’s annual plan included a proposal to introduce apprenticeship embedded degree course in 150 colleges but the course-design has to be right. UGC’s present design for this under the BVocprogramme won’t work and needs a fresh look; also, apprenticeship needs to be introduced in other than BVocprogrammes.
Demand led apprenticeship linked skilling apart, the Govt. must augment the RPL programme to bring under the formal skilled workforce umbrella, more or more of those who have been skilled informally on the job. Such trainees, who are mostly from economically weaker sections of society, and attain skill competency not in a classroom but through an apprenticeship mode, must be given an opportunity to get assessed- and recognized, through the RPL method.
Funding other than Govt sponsored
Leading Industry/industry associations associated with the sector to chip in with CSR/other funding;
Global /national philanthropic funds/CSR funds to be identified for skill development
Centres of Excellence and Skill Universities to be set up through crowd funding by industry/associations like CII/FICCI/CREDAI/NASSCOM etc.; land for such universities/COE could be tapped from govt-skill parks etc.
Convergence
Though most stakeholders of skilling system within the govt.,-the NSDC, DGT, NISBUD, MORD (administering the DDUGKY) & MOUD (administering the NULM)-have been largely brought under one skilling umbrella, they are still working in silos-they need to be brought together under a institutional arrangement.
Conclusion
The course corrections mentioned above, will ensure that the local demand aggregation/ job role identification is more realistic and hence more likely to lead to sustainable employment, while ensuring skilled workforce is available for the industry.Besides, awareness of centres skilling for local industry clusters will automatically attract their buy in–they will invariably contribute by way of trainers/equipment. Apprenticeship and education/skilling will get integrated to ensure employability to the unemployed youth. Attrition rates likely to go down due to largely local employment. Self-employment or entrepreneurship is more likely to sustain because it will be feeding locally available mapped demand. These changes will also ensure that all the stakeholders i.e., MSDE, NSDC, SSCs, Training Partners and the State Govt., play the role they were meant to play when the skill mission was announced-with the industry/industry associations being at the center.
