More vocational training courses needed to boost employment

Both the public and private sector in India should have more vocational training programmes to improve the skill sets of youth and solve the country’s unemployment problem, said educationists and global corporates at the India Economic Summit.

According to Reuben Abraham, executive director, Centre for Emerging Markets Solutions, Indian School of Business, India needs to train 700 million people by 2025, of which 500 million should be trained in vocational programmes and 200 in university programmes.

“But if you go by the trend, we are nowhere near the mark,” Abraham said.

“In Europe 95 per cent of jobs are created in the small and medium sector, in the US it is 85 per cent, but in India, less than 10 per cent of jobs are created in this sector. There is a huge challenge before us,” he said.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, executive director, Tesco Plc, one of the top three retailers in the world, felt that though Indian schools are good at academics, they need to impart softer skills which are required by many corporates.

“Given the challenges India faces, it needs a high level of commitment to impart training and education to the masses. Having said that, I congratulate the government for introducing technical education,” Rolfe said.

Rajendra Joshi, chief executive and director, Empower Pragati Vocational and Staffing India, felt that formal education in liberal arts and humanities is turning out to be a case of postponement of employment by three years.

“Educated and skilled manpower is equivalent to skilled talent. If you do not add skills and training, you are bringing out unproductive talent,” Joshi said.

Anand Sudarshan, managing director and chief executive officer, Manipal Education, said, “Unfortunately vocational training is not getting the kind of attention it deserves. We focus on formal education, and want our children to have white collar jobs.”n

Abraham said that for most people in the country learning English itself means mastering a new skill, given that the ability to speak the language is linked to an increase in their income levels.

On the topic of attrition in the services sector, Simon F Cooper, president and managing director, Asia Pacific, Mariott International, said: “If you are a good trainer and employer, your ability to retain people will be better than competition,” he said. Mariott plans to have 100 hotels in the country in the next couple of years.

“People want to be treated with respect and we do that at Tesco,” added Rolfe of Tesco, which employs 3.5 million across the world and 6,000 of them in Bangalore.

“Both small and big firms should be passionate about training. Life-long learning is they key to competitiveness and growth,” she said.