Time for SMEs to scale up with skill development

17 Nov, 2022

The ‘Great Indian Talent Conundrum’ that can easily transport us from the stage of ‘Reaping Demographic Dividend’ to a stage of facing the ‘Demographic disaster’. With a manpower of 1.2437 billion, it is ironic that we suffer from dearth of talent. It is time for SMEs to scale up with Skill building solutions was the message that came out loud and clear during the SME chat at Money Control where we had Mr. Atul Bhatnagar, COO of National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). Excerpts of the live chat.

Are SMEs really ready to enter the digital world?

SMEs are the backbone of this country. Once we have digitally bound them then, we can see the max effect of sharing best practices. They should take advantage of getting digitally connected through the internet mobile, social networks etc.

How is NSDC making the SMEs ready to handle the digital world? Is there a basic digital orientation program for SMEs?

NSDC directly doesn`t work on digital India. However, there is a Sector Skill Council which has been set up for all IT-ITes related developments. Please look up their website.

Can NSDC or its partners create a customized training module for a specific company or a group of companies depending on its / their needs?

The training we are talking of is industry standards led and not of an organisaiton. It is for individuals who want to get trained in certain sectors to meet the demands of that sector. Please refer to our website to know more.

Does NSDC or its partners give out on-campus training?

Each training partner has its own model of training. Provided there is a batch to be trained against a certain job roles as per industry standards the training partner can bring their own resources and faculty to do such training.

Do you have an office in Mumbai where we can come and get all the necessary information?

We don`t have an office in Mumbai. Please look up our website nsdcindia.org for more details. You can also give a missed call to 08800055555 to know more about training opportunities in your area.

Apart from the economic Impact that many people seem to notice, everyone seems negligent of the social impact of having about 6 billion of young population unfit for work. Is this aspect in your radar while creating skilling solutions?

Our focus is on reaping the demographic dividend which this youthful population is providing to the nation. So while the world is ageing India is becoming younger. NSDC`s aim to provide these youth with skills which the industry wants against a set of standards which will become international too.

I am a small businessman from Pune. I have knowledge and experience of working in all towns of Maharashtra. Can I become your training partner and give out training to industries in Maharashtra?

Yes. We want private enterprise to come forward to do skill development. We want entrepreneurs in this area to become sustainable and scalable. Our requirement is to do 50,000 trainings in 10 years AND 70% placement.

Are your courses/training programs available online?

Courses are run by training providers and each has his/her own way to train against standards and price their courses accordingly. Please refer to our website for the list of training partners.

How can the SMEs in B and C towns get benefited from various skill building activities of NSDC?

Our training partners have more than 3500 centres across India. You may call up on 08800055555 to get to know more details of what exists in your area.

With the mushrooming of vocational training institutes across segment and geographies, skill development still remains undeserved in India. What according to you are the reasons for this and how can we mobilize the private skilling and vocational training centers?

People are still stuck with the mindset that getting a degree is a must for a job. What we are saying is that `Learn a Skill, Earn, Learn more and Earn more`. Btw, do your graduation on the side. Take 10 years. How does it matter. Learning never stops in life. What you should get skilled on is what the industry wants so that you can get the appropriate job.

Are there any statistical indicators to show the progress achieved by NSDC in national skills development? The general public is not aware of NSDC and their role in the nation\\`s development. Please enlighten us?

NSDC has a 10 year plan to achieve its target of skilling 150m people by 2022. Every year we have beaten our targets. We are confident of achieving our overall target too.

Do your courses include training for soft skills too?

Our training partners train people against job roles, having certain competencies which are decided by each sector. The competencies include soft skills required for that job role.

I wish to state that it will be good to know what are the skills actually required by the industry, especially the SME. Since we are catering to higher education segment, we focus on developing business function ability of the student in terms of his understanding about marketing / finance/operations or IT. My humble what do corporate actually want from the students when they come for recruitment. Your inputs will be of great value?

Corporates want students to be skilled to deliver from day 1. Gone are days when one get a general education degree and nothing in terms of employable skills. What good is IT degree if you can`t do Mobile App development. That is a skill while IT education is in general.

We are a small chartered Accountant Firm… what needs to be done for Skill development in the Field of Transfer Pricing and International Tax Consultancy?

Please define what job role will be for fulfilling these skills. Get it accepted by the financial services sector council. Once accepted by the sector as an important job role training can start.

The biggest problem for SME is man power. If we take freshers they do not stay more than 2 years. After gaining experience, they vanish without even informing us. Experienced people do not want to join us. Even if they want to join, we are not able to afford the salary they want. Any solution for this kind of problem.

Sooner than later, SMEs will be asked as to how much of skilled and certified manpower they have in order to get contracts from bigger corporates or govt or abroad. In the short term we may have job hoppping but over a period of time it will settle down as the more certified manpower SMEs will get the `cake`.

As per recent studies the severity of the situation can be estimated that only 10% of MBA graduates of the country are employable and same is true for the engineering graduates where this number is as low as 17%. How can this scarcity of skilled talent be voided?

We have done a paradigm shift in skill development as compared to education. We are now propagating outcome based skill development aligned to a job role, with certain competencies and an assessment criteria. Industry is deciding on the job role, competencies and assessment. So why should a person be not employable if he/she goes through this route of skill development.

The ‘Great Indian Talent Conundrum’ that can easily transport us from the stage of ‘Reaping Demographic Dividend’ to a stage of facing the ‘Demographic disaster’. How would you react to this statement and this possibility?

I don`t understand the conundrum. However, I am sure that we can reap the demographic dividend as we have a youthful population and a PM to support skill development. We just need to be convinced that we can do it and India will become the Skill Capital of the World.

How many different courses does NSDC offer?

NSDC doesn`t directly offer training courses. Training partners affiliated to us offer the courses based on the demand and supply situation in each district. I would encourage you all to look us the `Knowledge Bank` tab on our website and go through the skill gap study and find out for yourself what the skill gaps are. Also you can ring up 08800055555 and the call centre will call you back and answer your queries.

Which books and program you recommend for skill building?

Look up our website first. Skill development is more about practical than theory. Doing a course would require 60-70% practical component.

How do we work with students in improving their knowledge on automation?

Let`s look at automation in specific areas and get skilled in it. For instance, instead of maintaining financial records on paper, it would help a small retail store to utilise Tally software and automate its inventory system. Forecasting system, cash in cash out balancing and provide MI reports. That`s a fair bit of automation outside a manufacturing industry. Then look for a skill development course to get the automation skills – in this case how to learn `Tally`!

How does one become eligible for becoming a training partner for NSDC?

Please go to our website and send an email to proposals@nsdcindia.org and provide a context of what you have and how you want to scale up. Our team will contact you and help you out in terms of how to become a training partner.

Is there any place where I can view free videos etc that can help me improve my business and upgrade the skills of my workers?

It will be better if you could find the relevant training courses for your worked so that they get certified against industry set standards. While they will feel proud of their training and certification, your own productivity will go up. The stress is on on-the-job practical training and not on videos alone or text books. Skill is delivered through the hand and you want your workers to be the most productive. Best of luck!!

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