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Skill Development: The New Growth Strategy for Corporates
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Here is an informative article by Dilip Chenoy, CEO&MD of the National Skill Development Corporation
Prior to this, Director General of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) which is the apex Industry body representing 44 leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.
Dilip was earlier the Deputy Director General responsible for Industry Sectors and Associations Council - (ASCON) covering, Agriculture, Life sciences and ICT in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Dilip was the Oil spokesperson and coordinated CM's international work relating to the ASEAN.
Dilip was part of an India team working on the competitiveness of Indian Industry with Prof Michael Porter, Harvard Business School. Dilip has also served as Regional Director for the Southern Region of CII. He worked in industry prior to joining CII.
This feeling has percolated from the IT software and retail arenas, which, being largely people-dependent businesses had traditionally been focusing on skill development in a big way, to even sectors like automobiles and construction which, too, are increasingly getting conscious of the fact that ultimately it is the quality of the people employed that would determine the color of the balance sheet that they would present to their shareholders.
There is a growing receptivity to hiring skilled workers at every step of the ladder, even if the initial costs of doing so are higher, as progressive enterprises have started seeing the big picture and learnt to appreciate that a trained workforce is more productive, can get the same work or more done in less time, and, in many manufacturing-specific segments, also waste less. This, in turn, can lead to a greater improvement in the bottomlines of companies.
Currently, many firms are either launching sustainable training initiatives to cater to the needs of the entire industry of which they are a part, or contributing to the development of a skills culture in the country by participating actively in the formation of Sector Skill Councils (SSC) to define the occupation and quality standards for different skills categories in their respective domains.
Thus, while on the one hand, a Future Group, for example, is setting up a large skill development initiative in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train 7 million people for different vocations over a 10-year span, it is also contributing in a big measure to the Retail Sector Skill Council being piloted by the Retailers Association of India (which counts all organized retail sector players as its members).
Another of the NSDC’s Partners, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, for instance, is not just running an artisan training centre in Jaipur, but is also taking steps to establish a Sector Skill Council for the Gems & Jewellery sector by involving all stakeholders in this category in the SSC-formation process.
Even some educational institutions such as the Orissa-based Centurion Group of Institutions or the Mumbai-based NGO Pratham are, by aligning themselves with the NSDC, doing sterling work in the field of skill development through training ventures aimed at some of the most disadvantaged sections of our population.
All said and done, though, there is no getting away from the fact that the skills culture is still not yet as deeply embedded in the psyche of Indian organizations as we would like it to.
Complaining about the absence of skilled workers would serve no purpose.
Organizations across the spectrum have to understand that the skills deficit challenge cannot be wished away and needs to be met head-on through a collaborative process involving all stakeholders – government, industry, academia, civil society and the media – so that more people are enthused to skill themselves and get themselves in a position to contribute to the country’s growth.
Industry doyens would have to take the lead in this regard as without their active involvement India would never be able to leverage its favorable demographics to make the transition from a developing country to a developed one by the next decade.
The first article is by Mr. Baburaj V Nair, Vice President-HR, Harrison’s Malayalam Limited. He can be contacted at baburaj@ harrisionsmalayalam.com.
“Youth” indicates courage, conviction, and tremendous energy - for self, the community, and the country. It pre-supposes an element of creativity, risk taking and pro-activeness with high positive self belief. Therefore, “youth” signifies an achievement oriented, purposeful entity.
However, youngsters today do not possess many aspects of these characteristics which manifest “youth”. The major concern is our innate inability to accept the facts and figures. The decaying social fabric and the number of crimes being committed by this “youth” also indicates that all these characteristics are wrongly directed for short term quick gains and total destruction. This is one of the major challenges being faced by the “eldership” of the country.
The major reasons for such a “misadventure” are:
1. The single Unit family concept.
This erodes the value of family. Children listen and observe very keenly in their childhood days, and what they see during the first 10 years of life shape up their mental make-up. What signals they may be picking up from today’s worldly life?
· Money is the most important thing, relationship does not matter
· Self-esteem bordering on acute selfishness – even amongst parents and immediate relationship
· The acute need of social recognition than self-pride and humbleness. This brings pompousness in character of members of the family, and Children try to imitate the same.
· They get recognition for “wrong things’.
2. Education process
· “Merit” (not intellectual recognition, but getting high scores) is critical to succeed, how you score is immaterial.
· Comparison with others and exhorting young minds to always go up and up, without appreciating his/her limits/interest.
· More focus on “some-how” getting higher scores than creating a balanced mind – with a focus on learning beyond prescribed books.
· The approach to students by the “teachers”. In yesteryears, they used to shape the destiny of people. If we ask a question, who has influenced them, the “eldership” indicates the names of teachers who taught them the virtues of life. Today, it is embroiled into many “ifs” and “buts”.
This is the back-ground of the students, who graduates and gets into Corporate life. Corporate life –looks at Q/Q life and in each of the corporate decisions you can see many paradoxes: A struggle between Long-term and Short-term (future and present). Living “Here & Now” has become the philosophy of many corporates, which erodes their net worth, knowing well that all Best Organisations live the Present for the Future.
In a recent survey conducted, a large percentage of people indicated that they are looking for an opportunity elsewhere, clearly indicating their dissatisfaction with the current working environment.
Why such dissatisfaction?
Some of the major issues are:
The aspiration of Youth – “Quick Money, less work, more comfort”. They leave the company, before they learn. They live to earn, not earn to live. The frequent job-hops do not help them to master the art and become frustrated after certain period of time, when family responsibility increases.
Less focus on process and more focus on “getting the job done for the day”. Lack of processes brings future issues. Today’s solution becomes tomorrow’s problem. Since corporates focus on Q/Q results, as far as the individual gets the job done, the company pays accordingly. Ultimately neither the individual nor the company survives. A look at the number of companies failed and whose capital resources have eroded will clearly show the relationship – Process oriented action versus non-process oriented action.
No relationship. Facades and self-centredness do not help people to live for one another. Such unilateral relationship brings tremendous stress and health issues. A look at the number of heart-attacks and the number of youths committing suicides are clear indication of this malady.
No team work. The belief of “I can do all” undermines the basic philosophy of well-being and humanity. They are built around the concept of team work, and without team work nothing exists. However, somehow, this simple truth seldom gets forgotten by the “youth”.
What to do?
To be an employable, self-worthy employee, the youngsters need to imbibe only a few aspects of fundamental life.
1. Learn to seek help from a variety of sources
2. Learn to listen to guidance and feedback. This is possible only if he/she decides to keep the individual thoughts in abeyance.
3. Learn to be inquisitive and explorative. The major change required is the way we learn. The youngsters need to work beyond “today”. The habit of “I will learn, when required” has to change. An inquisitive mind will always be pro-active.
4. Build life on strong values. Core values, which are built by the youngsters, will help them stand in very good stead when crisis occurs.
Since education has become a great business opportunity, and many Institutes do not have the right quality of faculty/teachers, it is important that the family puts efforts in shaping the life of their children and not shaping their career. There is no need to push them to become engineers, doctors and advocates. Let them choose their life. Opportunities are many, and they will be more passionate on their chosen field. Once these 4 aspects are instilled in their children, they will do very well in today’s ambiguous and stressful life.
All the best.
Prior to this, Director General of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) which is the apex Industry body representing 44 leading vehicle and vehicular engine manufacturers in India.
Dilip was earlier the Deputy Director General responsible for Industry Sectors and Associations Council - (ASCON) covering, Agriculture, Life sciences and ICT in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Dilip was the Oil spokesperson and coordinated CM's international work relating to the ASEAN.
Dilip was part of an India team working on the competitiveness of Indian Industry with Prof Michael Porter, Harvard Business School. Dilip has also served as Regional Director for the Southern Region of CII. He worked in industry prior to joining CII.
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Article
For many Indian organizations, skills development has now moved from being something nice to do and talk about in Annual Reports under initiatives taken on the CSR front to a sort of a must-do in order to stay competitive and relevant.
These enterprises – big and small – have realized that a skilled workforce is their best insurance policy against greater competition and a generally tough economic climate where every penny saved can make the difference between profits and losses.
This feeling has percolated from the IT software and retail arenas, which, being largely people-dependent businesses had traditionally been focusing on skill development in a big way, to even sectors like automobiles and construction which, too, are increasingly getting conscious of the fact that ultimately it is the quality of the people employed that would determine the color of the balance sheet that they would present to their shareholders.
There is a growing receptivity to hiring skilled workers at every step of the ladder, even if the initial costs of doing so are higher, as progressive enterprises have started seeing the big picture and learnt to appreciate that a trained workforce is more productive, can get the same work or more done in less time, and, in many manufacturing-specific segments, also waste less. This, in turn, can lead to a greater improvement in the bottomlines of companies.
Currently, many firms are either launching sustainable training initiatives to cater to the needs of the entire industry of which they are a part, or contributing to the development of a skills culture in the country by participating actively in the formation of Sector Skill Councils (SSC) to define the occupation and quality standards for different skills categories in their respective domains.
Thus, while on the one hand, a Future Group, for example, is setting up a large skill development initiative in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train 7 million people for different vocations over a 10-year span, it is also contributing in a big measure to the Retail Sector Skill Council being piloted by the Retailers Association of India (which counts all organized retail sector players as its members).
Another of the NSDC’s Partners, the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, for instance, is not just running an artisan training centre in Jaipur, but is also taking steps to establish a Sector Skill Council for the Gems & Jewellery sector by involving all stakeholders in this category in the SSC-formation process.
Even some educational institutions such as the Orissa-based Centurion Group of Institutions or the Mumbai-based NGO Pratham are, by aligning themselves with the NSDC, doing sterling work in the field of skill development through training ventures aimed at some of the most disadvantaged sections of our population.
All said and done, though, there is no getting away from the fact that the skills culture is still not yet as deeply embedded in the psyche of Indian organizations as we would like it to.
Complaining about the absence of skilled workers would serve no purpose.
Organizations across the spectrum have to understand that the skills deficit challenge cannot be wished away and needs to be met head-on through a collaborative process involving all stakeholders – government, industry, academia, civil society and the media – so that more people are enthused to skill themselves and get themselves in a position to contribute to the country’s growth.
Industry doyens would have to take the lead in this regard as without their active involvement India would never be able to leverage its favorable demographics to make the transition from a developing country to a developed one by the next decade.
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GEN-Y: A peep into its complexity
“Youth” indicates courage, conviction, and tremendous energy - for self, the community, and the country. It pre-supposes an element of creativity, risk taking and pro-activeness with high positive self belief. Therefore, “youth” signifies an achievement oriented, purposeful entity.
However, youngsters today do not possess many aspects of these characteristics which manifest “youth”. The major concern is our innate inability to accept the facts and figures. The decaying social fabric and the number of crimes being committed by this “youth” also indicates that all these characteristics are wrongly directed for short term quick gains and total destruction. This is one of the major challenges being faced by the “eldership” of the country.
The major reasons for such a “misadventure” are:
1. The single Unit family concept.
This erodes the value of family. Children listen and observe very keenly in their childhood days, and what they see during the first 10 years of life shape up their mental make-up. What signals they may be picking up from today’s worldly life?
· Money is the most important thing, relationship does not matter
· Self-esteem bordering on acute selfishness – even amongst parents and immediate relationship
· The acute need of social recognition than self-pride and humbleness. This brings pompousness in character of members of the family, and Children try to imitate the same.
· They get recognition for “wrong things’.
2. Education process
· “Merit” (not intellectual recognition, but getting high scores) is critical to succeed, how you score is immaterial.
· Comparison with others and exhorting young minds to always go up and up, without appreciating his/her limits/interest.
· More focus on “some-how” getting higher scores than creating a balanced mind – with a focus on learning beyond prescribed books.
· The approach to students by the “teachers”. In yesteryears, they used to shape the destiny of people. If we ask a question, who has influenced them, the “eldership” indicates the names of teachers who taught them the virtues of life. Today, it is embroiled into many “ifs” and “buts”.
This is the back-ground of the students, who graduates and gets into Corporate life. Corporate life –looks at Q/Q life and in each of the corporate decisions you can see many paradoxes: A struggle between Long-term and Short-term (future and present). Living “Here & Now” has become the philosophy of many corporates, which erodes their net worth, knowing well that all Best Organisations live the Present for the Future.
In a recent survey conducted, a large percentage of people indicated that they are looking for an opportunity elsewhere, clearly indicating their dissatisfaction with the current working environment.
Why such dissatisfaction?
Some of the major issues are:
The aspiration of Youth – “Quick Money, less work, more comfort”. They leave the company, before they learn. They live to earn, not earn to live. The frequent job-hops do not help them to master the art and become frustrated after certain period of time, when family responsibility increases.
Less focus on process and more focus on “getting the job done for the day”. Lack of processes brings future issues. Today’s solution becomes tomorrow’s problem. Since corporates focus on Q/Q results, as far as the individual gets the job done, the company pays accordingly. Ultimately neither the individual nor the company survives. A look at the number of companies failed and whose capital resources have eroded will clearly show the relationship – Process oriented action versus non-process oriented action.
No relationship. Facades and self-centredness do not help people to live for one another. Such unilateral relationship brings tremendous stress and health issues. A look at the number of heart-attacks and the number of youths committing suicides are clear indication of this malady.
No team work. The belief of “I can do all” undermines the basic philosophy of well-being and humanity. They are built around the concept of team work, and without team work nothing exists. However, somehow, this simple truth seldom gets forgotten by the “youth”.
What to do?
To be an employable, self-worthy employee, the youngsters need to imbibe only a few aspects of fundamental life.
1. Learn to seek help from a variety of sources
2. Learn to listen to guidance and feedback. This is possible only if he/she decides to keep the individual thoughts in abeyance.
3. Learn to be inquisitive and explorative. The major change required is the way we learn. The youngsters need to work beyond “today”. The habit of “I will learn, when required” has to change. An inquisitive mind will always be pro-active.
4. Build life on strong values. Core values, which are built by the youngsters, will help them stand in very good stead when crisis occurs.
Since education has become a great business opportunity, and many Institutes do not have the right quality of faculty/teachers, it is important that the family puts efforts in shaping the life of their children and not shaping their career. There is no need to push them to become engineers, doctors and advocates. Let them choose their life. Opportunities are many, and they will be more passionate on their chosen field. Once these 4 aspects are instilled in their children, they will do very well in today’s ambiguous and stressful life.
All the best.
