CII inks pact with Marg Const

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Marg Constructions Ltd in Chennai on Saturday to launch a grassroots level skill development initiative (GLSDI) project in Tamil Nadu. The pilot project, which aims to train 5,000 people, is expected to be completed by the end of 2008.

An additional workforce of 13-15 million people will be required by various industries including textiles, construction, leather, and auto and allied sectors by 2015, according to a CII (Tamil Nadu) skills gap study, which was conducted a year ago.

The pilot project, which is the first step taken by CII based on the study conducted, will be launched at Sriperumbudur and Cheyyur in Tamil Nadu.

"The GLSDI project will focus on providing pre-employment training to the SC/ST categories at the two locations and we expect it to be completed successfully in around 18 months. Once this pilot project is successful, we would like the government to work on the scalability of this model. We have had a series of discussions with the Tamil Nadu government and are ready to partner them to address the lack of skill-based labour in various industries in the state," B Santhanam, chairman, task force on skills, employability and affirmative action, CII (southern region) and managing director, Saint Gobain Glass (India) Ltd, said.

Under the agreement, Marg Constructions has allocated Rs 1 crore for the GLSDI project. "This is part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative. Though financial and other market resources are readily available, there is a great human resource crunch. We need to replicate this project at other places and be able to convert it into a movement, which will attract participation from the government, industries and institutions," GRK Reddy, managing director, Marg Constructions, said.

The project is expected to commence in another 8-10 weeks and CII is in the process of finalising the agency which will handle the 21-day training programme.

The curriculum is also being worked upon, which will focus on the development of personal skills, group skills, workplace skills and workplace functional skills, he added.