Madhya Pradesh Govt calls for industry support in skilling, up-skilling and re-skilling of labourers
New Delhi: Mr S Dhanaraju, Director, Skill Development, Govt of Madhya Pradesh, today called for industry support to take up the responsibility of training people and work together with the government as mutual entities. He added that the industry should come forward in supporting skilling, up-skilling and re-skilling of labourers for gainful employment.
Addressing the webinar ‘Skill Development & Entrepreneurship – Post COVID-19’, organised by FICCI Madhya Pradesh State Council to mark the UN’s World Youth Skills Day 2020, Mr Dhanaraju said, “Madhya Pradesh has always been a leading state in skill development and has one of the best infrastructures as far as the skilling ecosystem is concerned.”
Mr Dhanaraju said that officially, around 13 lakh people returned to Madhya Pradesh, their state of domicile, during the recent migrant exodus. “Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states that has very systematically done skill mapping of almost 7.3 lakh labourers, capturing 23 components that includes information on their educational background, RPL program and short-term skilling courses that they may have undergone, among others,” he said and added that this data is available for the industry to utilise.
While Madhya Pradesh has a target for 25,000 short term skilling and the same for RPL, the ground reports suggest that most of the people are not ready to undergo skilling. “We need to find ways to motivate labourers to come to training centres for short term skilling or RPL. We also need to figure out how industries located in the state can put this skill pool data to its optimum usage,” he said.
Mr Abhishek Pandit, Member – FICCI Skill Development Committee & Director, EduVantage Pvt Ltd. said, “Entrepreneurship and skilling strategies and solutions are going through changes due to the pandemic that has affected millions of people across the world. The need of the hour is to bring innovations and ideas to strengthen the future for this important section of the economy.”
According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), in mere five years, 35% of the skills deemed essential today will change. Hence, it goes without saying that to survive in the post COVID-19 world, there is only one way – evolving and adapting. There will be a permanent change in markets and job requirements in the post-pandemic world. Although it is ambiguous how the post-COVID-19 scenario will be, one thing is that we must learn to live with the virus and constantly adapt to survive, Mr Pandit added.
Mr Siddharth Chaturvedi, Executive Vice President, AISECT said, “It is noteworthy that skilling, up-skilling and re-skilling of India’s workforce will play a crucial role in the success of the government’s vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and the recently launched ‘Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan’.
Mr Chaturvedi also said that increased use of digital enablement and a blended approach in the delivery of skills and training is the way forward. “When we have the third version of the PMKVY and another skilling initiative, there will be a larger and more comprehensive role of technology and online delivery of content when we come to the skilling ecosystem,” he added.
Mr Anuj Sharma, Director & CEO, New Milestone Edutech LLP & Accelevis Venture LLPF; Mr Amitabh Adhikary, Head, Human Resources, Agile Airport Services; Mr Ajay Tiwari, Head of Technology, HealthKart; Mr Rajat Banerji, National Head – Corporate Affairs, Amway India; Mr Rajat Chaturvedi, Southern Zonal Manager, AISECT; Mr Suresh Chandra Verma, CEO, Highline Educare India Pvt. Ltd.; Mr Meloth Harikrishnan, Head, GMR Aviation Academy; Mr Abhishek Gupta, National Project Manager, AISECT; Dr Kanupriya Gupta, Senior Economist, Asian Development Bank, India Resident Mission; and Ms Barbora Stankovicova, Executive Director – India, Palladium Group, also shared their perspective.