Sunil's newfound ability to support his mother

- by Janie Lee

Sunil Jathar is 19 years old and hails from a small village called Rajur Gahpanti in the district of Jalha. When he reached the 10^th pass, he ranked 2^nd and thoroughly enjoyed school. Although Sunil was fully capable and determined to complete his education, he could not afford the exam fees of 50 rupees and subsequently had to drop out of school. He mentions that he had never held 500 rupees in his hand during his youth.

Sunil’s entire family faced financial hardships as they lived in a small shed in the village. His father and mother were laborers earning less than 2000 rupees a month to support a family of six. His older brother maintained a job as a construction worker and his younger brother and sister were both farmers. In order to contribute to his family’s wellbeing, Sunil took a job cleaning dishes for 10 rupees a day. Although Sunil got a better job as a laborer breaking stones, he still was unable to help support his family.

PACE student receives accolades for his excellent service

Romesh Surendra Kulmethe, 24 year old boy from Gadchiroli, completed his training in Housekeeping from PACE Aurangabad centre in September 2013 and was selected by Lemon Tree Hotel in Bangalore for a job. In only a month of starting work, he received excellent client service feedback and became a role model for his colleagues.

Below is the “Delight story of Romesh, Housekeeping Department, Lemon Tree Hotel Bangalore, Room no 716 Guest Ms. Gayatri” shared by his supervising housekeeper:

Ms. Gayatri Prasad (check in 02^nd Dec 13 check out 06^th Dec 13) was staying with us in room no 716 from the company Wipro (MD). While servicing her room, Romesh noticed that the guest had a soft toy on her bed side table. Romesh thought to use his towel art skill  to delight her and made different towel art each day throughout her stay. On her last day of stay, Ms. Gayatri called up Romesh and asked him to teach her one towel art. Romesh immediately took a towel and gave her a demo. Ms. Gayatri appreciated him for his art and mentioned that she has stayed in many hotels but this experience was exceptional.

A mother's success story

At the age of 22, Kaveri has overcome a wide array of obstacles to become a strong mother. Due to familial pressures, Kaveri was unable to finish her education. Rather than completing her schooling, Kaveri married at an early age and has since had two children. Because of her added responsibilities as a mother, Kaveri rarely left home. Although Kaveri wanted to contribute to her family’s wellbeing, she did not see a realistic opportunity that was available for someone who did not complete her education.

Shridevi's second chance

Shridevi is a 19 year old from Latur, who is now employed as a bedside assistant at a local hospital. Prior to taking the bedside assistant course, Shridevi stayed at home after failing to complete the 10^th standard. At home, she was extremely unhappy and felt like she was not doing anything meaningful with her life. Not only was she staying idle, but she was also craving to support her family’s only means of income, which came from her father’s occupation as a laborer. Less than a year after staying at home, Shridevi now finds herself satisfied helping others and earning a salary equivalent to that of a nurse.

From grieving widow to determined employee

As a 22 year old, Bhalebar has had to endure many challenges that females her age have not had to go through. Despite the age, she is a widow as she lost her husband to a tragic accident. As a result, she currently lives at home with her parents. Her brother recently moved to Mumbai to work as a policeman. In contrast to her brother’s active live as a policeman, Bhalebar has stayed at home following her husband’s death. Due to the depression and sorrow brought on by the tragedy, Bhalebar had little reason to leave her home.

Nikhil's Newfound Ambition

- by Malav Shah

Nikhil Kumar Tirupathi Uppula is a 20 year old boy from a small village in the southern part of Maharashtra in the district of Gadchiroli. Nikhil lost his father just 6 months after his birth. He now lives with his mother and grandmother. His mother, being the sole bread winner in the family, works as a labourer in a construction company near her village earning Rs. 2000 a month for the family. Nikhil was always very enthusiastic about his studies but he failed his 10th examinations due to the burden of family responsibilities. Thus, he took a year off to work at a Border Road Organization(BRO). Post this, he went back to study and passed his 10th examination with flying colours. Though he wanted to study further, he knew that his mother could no longer support him. He simultaneously worked as a carpenter to finance his education.

Sandhya's Self Determination

- by Janie Lee

18-year old Sandhya did not let anything get in the way of continuing her education and pursuing her career. Coming from a family whose beliefs are strongly traditional and conservative, Sandhya faced much opposition when she told her parents that she wanted to take a vocational skilling course and become a bedside assistant. Her father serves in the military and her mother is a housewife. Both of them had never heard about the occupation and were deeply concerned about the foreign concept of her working on her own.

Reflections of a Pratham Institute Intern

This summer, I interned at Pratham Institute’s Mumbai office. I spent last summer in Washington, D.C. learning about education policy and wanted to gain an operations perspective to providing quality education. Working at Pratham was exciting because it not only gave me an opportunity to work at one of the largest high-impact organizations in India, but it also gave me a chance to do it within the context of an unfamiliar culture. As someone who wants to work in education policy upon graduation, I knew that the interactions and experiences in India would hugely shape the ways I think about and treat communities that are not necessarily my own.

My main focus was to create and pilot a system to evaluate the quality and understand the specific strengths and challenges of Pratham Institute’s vocational skilling programs. Although quantitative data about the programs was readily available, I had trouble finding answers about the quality and needs of the program. Did students find their curriculum to be relevant and applicable to their jobs? Were employers happy with the students’ preparation? What kind of additional support did the individual centers need from the administrative office? In order to answer questions like these, I created individual surveys for different stakeholders within Pratham Institute.

Upon creating a survey to evaluate the centers, I decided to pilot them on the bedside assistance program. I visited the bedside assistance centers and administered my surveys with a group of students, instructors, center-heads, and employers. With a translator by my side, I learned much more than just the quality of the programs. I learned about how mobilizers made more than five points of contact with families in order to convince them to allow their daughters to get educated and employers’ thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses of hiring students who had taken the bedside assistance course. Most astonishing was the adversity students fought in order to get their education and the transformations they went through as a result. Women who were no older than me moved hours away from home to get their education, despite it being a social stigma. Other women were given a second chance at life through the training programs. A woman who had lost her husband and never left her home was able to become financially independent after taking the bedside assistance course and getting employed.

Ultimately, I was able to provide recommendations to strengthen approaches to retention, curriculum development, and mobilization. Further, I was able to start turning some of my recommendations into reality. Upon talking to one of the center heads, I realized how crucial a male mobilizer was. One of the biggest challenges in getting female students to enroll was convincing fathers to give their permission for their daughters to enroll. Young females leaving home to work are hugely stigmatized, and it is often difficult for young female mobilizers to relate to and convince middle-aged fathers to allow their daughters to receive an extended education and work. We worked with one of the center heads to recruit a male mobilizer who could alleviate some of these challenges. The opportunity to pursue an idea exemplified how Pratham Institute is a quickly evolving organization, continuously changing to best meet the needs of its students and stakeholders. I am certain the Pratham Institute I know in a few years will be even more successful and far-reaching than the Pratham Institute I know today.

From taking 17-hour rides on a sleeper train to discussing the quality of courses with an instructor at the Ellora Caves, I’ve had experiences in India that will forever be engraved in my heart. I am grateful for the students who trusted me with their stories, the co-workers who invested time to teach me about both work and Indian culture, and the new friends who have made my experiences in Mumbai an unforgettable one.

Janie Lee is a rising junior at Princeton University and is pursuing a degree at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to interning at Pratham Institute’s Mumbai office, she worked at the U.S. Department of Education. She hopes to continue pursuing her interest in education upon graduation.

The Power of Persistent Mobilization

- by Janie Lee

 

Manisha is an 18-year-old female from Akola, a city near Nashik. When Manisha was taking the exam for standard 12, she was not successful and discontinued her education. Because she did not pass, her parents were embarrassed and did not allow her out of the house. This meant that she was no longer able to see friends or pursue any type of career.  

Hearing about Manisha’s situation from townspeople, a Pratham mobilizer decided to visit her home. The mobilizer visited Manisha and her family to explain the bedside assistance vocational skilling program. The mobilizer discussed the opportunity for Manisha to take theoretical classes on basic healthcare and gain practical experience through hands-on work in a local hospital. By the end of these six months, Manisha would be ready to work in a hospital alongside nurses and doctors.

Ganesh's Unwavering Will

- by Malav Shah

Ganesh Gurmare is 20 years old and hails from a small village in the district of Gadchiroli. His father is a farmer who places tremendous importance on Ganesh's academics. Ganesh is a very bright student and always did well in academics. Despite this, his father was far from satisfied. He always said to Ganesh, "Become successful, then we'll see." Ganesh confessed that he studied hard just to see his father happy. By the time he reached college, his interest in academics had become negligible. Even though he attended no classes during his first year of B.A, he still managed to pass his exams.

Ganesh's family lives in moderate conditions, but his father is the sole earner which puts a lot of pressure on him. Ganesh wanted to do something substantial to support his family. This was when his friends, who were attending the PACE hospitality program in Aurangabad, told him about the same. When Ganesh told his parents that he wanted to drop out of his studies and join the hospitality program his parents blatantly refused. But, Ganesh was not one to give up so easily. He was determined and tried every trick in the book to change his parents' minds. Eventually, he even went on a hunger strike for 2 days before his parents gave in to his will. So, with 4 friends from his village he set out for Satara.

India 2022: High on Skills but Low on Jobs?

- by Janie Lee

In an article posted by Forbes India on July 10 2013, Dinesh Narayanan looks at the vocational skilling landscape in India. The article touches on a few of the issues that pose fundamental challenges to achieving the ambitious goal of training 500 million youth by 2022. Among these concerns are on-the-job training, certification, and a lack of meaningful interaction between stakeholders. Ultimately, Narayanan drives home the point that policy must be “democratically made and autocratically implemented.”

While both the private and public sectors are grappling with the right strategy to implement on an autocratic level, individual organizations are finding degrees of success in placing students and recovering fees. By sharing best practices and innovative models, all stakeholders can have more input in determining which strategies could and should be scaled up. Only then can policy be made democratically.

On a smaller scale, Pratham has had varying levels of success attempting to create training and placements for youth in India. The methods below highlight the successful practices that address some of the concerns that Narayanan has mentioned in his article. We hope to continue an honest conversation about what is and is not working within the vocational skilling landscape in India and invite others to do the same.

Strategic Partnerships

Former labor minister Mallikarjun Kharge stressed the need for active involvement between the public and private sectors in order to sure proper and high-quality implementation of programs. Within each of Pratham’s industry-specific programs, we have partnered with industry leaders and the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC). The partners serve as knowledge partners and support organizations for students from beginning to end. Partners such as L&T gives us financial support, whereas others like Taj provide industry exposure through on the job training for one week.  As knowledge partners, organizations provide oversight during the setup phase of each center, help develop course content, share assessment tools, provide joint certification, provide placement linkages, and help audit the center to ensure high-quality delivery of training.

Mass Production for Employment Generation in Labor-intensive Manufacturing Sector

- by Vaman Desai 

The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) sounds reassuring to the perpetual skeptics of the growth of Indian manufacturing. And at a point in time when the Indian economy is ailing, the NMP feels like it is just what the doctor had ordered for its health.

NMP proposes setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) in its ambitious quest to increase the share of manufacturing sector from the current 17% to 25% by 2025.  It also speaks about creating 100 million much needed new jobs. 24.5 million Out of these 100 million will be only in manufacturing sector and naturally a major part of that 24.5 million will come from the labor-intensive manufacturing industries. Thus to realize the supply of the required skilled labor the NMP has set up the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) which in turn has set up skill councils in key manufacturing industry sectors where India has comparative advantage, examples being textile, leather, food processing etc.

However despite these provisions, the supply of labor still remains the primary issue in labor intensive industries. So much so that robust factories with exponential growth potential are shutting down due to this supply shortage. In my brief stint with Pratham till now, I have had firsthand experiences of understanding the causes responsible for the practical constraints in the supply of labor in the labor intensive industries. The low wages paid to the semi-skilled and the skilled labor being the most primary of concerns amongst others such as poor living conditions. This shortage in labor supply is not only coming as a cost to the labor-intensive manufacturing but it is also having a multiplying effect on the cost to the economy as a whole. The critical point to note here is that manufacturing jobs are the primary jobs for economic growth since jobs in other fields are created around the manufacturing sector. That a lion’s share of jobs in manufacturing will come from labor-intensive manufacturing, in India’s case, makes the importance labor-intensive manufacturing jobs especially paramount.  

The Domino Effect

- by Janie Lee

(Priya, on the right, takes a picture with Sandhya and Deepali, the center head of the training center)

Priya, a 19 year old, is a star employee at a local hospital in Nasik. Prior to being a bedside assistant, Priya was unable to find a passion and struggling to contribute to her family’s income. The only source of income that her family received was through her father’s salary as a laborer. However, Priya heard about an opportunity to become a bedside assistant and decided to pursue the course. Priya found out about the course through her sister, who was pursuing a diploma for computer applications at the PACE Center. In similar fashion, her sister was also referred to the PACE Center by a friend.

This chain reaction did not stop at Priya. After completing the course successfully and finding a job, Priya encouraged a close friend and classmate, Sandhya, to take the bedside assistance course. Because Sandhya was able to witness Priya’s steady transformation, she agreed to give it a try. After completing the course, Sandhya was also hired at the same hospital that Priya works at. Currently, Priya is training and onboarding Sandhya to the hospital. This domino effect captures the power of sharing opportunities and experiences.  

Discussing the landscape of vocational skilling

by Janie Lee 

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) held its 5^th Partner’s Meet on 26^th-27^th June in New Delhi for its stakeholders. Government officials, vocational training organizations such as Pratham Institute, employers, and sector skill councils met to focus on the sustainability of skill development programs. Along with prioritizing sustainability, participants engaged in thoughtful dialogue about the success of having vocational skilling programs as well as the challenges that still remain.

India’s Corporate Social Responsibility Bill 2012

- by Sara Khan

Corporate Social Responsibility & Your Brand

University of Cape Town Professor, Ralph Hamann argues that complex social and environmental problems can be addressed if businesses start taking into consideration the impact and sociological context of their various decisions and strategies (African Business Review). Sometimes, a deed performed in the name of Corporate Sustainable Responsibility can directly be related to the nature and brand of the company. There are a lot of environmental and social threats to businesses, today. These threats will continue to grow if steps in the right direction are not taken. At the end of the day, practicing Corporate Social Responsibility will benefit the company itself, if aligned to its goals and mission. Moreover, consumers today understand and value the importance of sustainability and the merits of good governance. 

A study carried out by CSRHub (an organization that provides corporate social responsibility and sustainability ratings for companies), shows that correlation more than doubled in strength between CSR and Brand Strength from 2011. 1000 companies were analyzed for 2012, and the correlation data suggests that 28% percent of Brand Strength is related to CSR Performance (Triplepundit). This is because consumers many times value a company based on the activities it carries out, outside its business’ realm. 

According to the 2013 Cone Communications/Echo Global CSR Study shows that 67% consumers in India are “very likely” to switch brands in favour of those that support a cause. Also, 94% Indian consumers say they would tell their friends and family about a company’s CSR efforts, thus increasing their presence and recognition as a brand. Citizens in emerging markets, such as India embrace CSR enthusiastically and are associating themselves with companies that address social and environmental issues (Holmes Report).

How Student Became Teacher

- by Janie Lee

Pankaj Verma is a 25 year old from a village in northern India, near Nepal. He comes from a family of six – in addition to his parents, he has two older sisters and an older brother. His father is a mechanic, his mother is a housewife, his older brother owns a small jewelry shop, and his sisters are also housewives.  

Since growing up, Pankaj loved teaching. He volunteered to help little children locally, but decided to pause his passion for teaching in order to better sustain himself. He did not have enough income to maintain a good standard of living. As a result, he enrolled in the food and beverages course at the PACE Center in Aurangabad, which is about three days of travel from home.

(Pankaj Verma exhibiting plates and cutlery he uses to teach students in his food and beverages course)

A three month transformation

- by Janie Lee

Bhashkar Bogar is 21 years old and grew up in a small village called Munjalgondi. He comes from a family of five. His father is a farmer, his mother is a housewife, and his two younger siblings are not old enough to work. Bhashkar helped contribute to his family’s support by taking on jobs that barely paid enough to buy clothing for his younger siblings.

After a local forest officer told Bhashkar about the opportunities at the PACE Hospitality Training Centre in Aurangabad, he decided to make the 1200 kilometer journey in March of 2012 and enroll in the housekeeping course. His parents gave him permission to go, hoping that he would have the opportunity to break out of the family tradition of being farmers. Upon arrival to the campus, Bhashkar was intimidated and uncertain about fitting in. Many people were speaking in Hindi or English, and he was not well versed in either language. He spoke Gondi at home and Marathi otherwise. For ten days, Bhashkar did not speak to anybody at the center and was extremely lonely. He decided to return home after the first ten days, but a fellow classmate told him to complete the course, as it was three months long. Listening to the advice of his classmate, Bhashkar completed the housekeeping course. Despite having difficulty in the beginning, he adjusted quickly and excelled in his course. 

Tata Motors & Pratham Institute launch Driving Centre in Singrauli

- by Sara Khan

In a public-private partnership initiative, Tata Motors in partnership with Pratham Institute and Urjanchal Driving School launched a commercial vehicle driving centre in Singrauli. The centre was inaugurated by Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, along with senior officials from Tata Motors.

This training centre is well equipped with classrooms and a testing track. This centre embraces innovation by conducting classes through the audio-video methodology and extensive practical sessions.

Pratham Institute has been roped in as an implementation partner, while Tata Motors has designed the course content, and provided technical assistance and knowledge. Pratham Institute runs Automotive courses in three other centers- Bina, Kolhapur & Sagar. This Program was launched in 2010 and so far c.340 students have been trained. Students can choose between Motor Mechanic and Commercial Vehicle Driving courses. On completion of the respective courses, students are provided with joint certification from Pratham, Tata Motors (our Knowledge Partner) & NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation).

India has shortage of trained drivers. This is also why India ranks highest in the world with about 1.43 lakh road fatalities annually (According to a report published by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways - June 2012). In 2010, NSDC estimated that there will be  demand of over 50 lakh drivers, over a period of the next 12 years. Such courses in vocational skilling and training are essential to meet the demand for skilled workers while addressing the lack of sustainable livelihood and employment opportunities. 

Source: Article published in Business Line on 28th May, 2013

Ambition Personified

- by Sara Khan

On my first visit to a center, I expected to be overwhelmed. I was expecting stories of heroes emerging out of despair. I think that is what creates most sensation in the mind. What I did not expect was to see such intense passion, will and positivity. These qualities emit from Rangaya Talandi, a student at the automotive center in Kolhapur. He hails from a small village in the tribal area of Central India, but his eyes gleam with ambition and fire.

(Rangaya Talanda, on the right)

AGAINST ALL ODDS

- By Vartika Bhatewara

This is the story of Indrala Devi. She comes from a small village where she used to live with her family of seven. Their main source of income was farming. Indrala used to love going to school and was a reasonably bright student. Although they lived in poverty, she was happy to be with her family and to be able to study. However, Indrala’s life took a turn for the worse when her father passed away suddenly. Her brother took control of their land and decided to leave the family to fend for themselves. When their only source of income was taken away from them, Indrala’s mother had to find work to feed her family. She asked Indrala to stay at home in order to take care of her siblings so that she could earn a salary of Rs.1500 a month. But Indrala was very keen on studying and she managed to convince her mother to let her continue her education. Indrala had to cycle for 25 kms everyday in order to reach her school but she didn’t let that deter her. However, her luck ran out after her 10^th standard exams. She was forced to find work in order to sustain her family.

It was at this time that a mobiliser from Pratham reached her village to generate awareness about various vocational training options available to youth. Indrala got interested in the hospitality program. However, the odds were against Indrala once again as the hospitality centre was 500 kms away from her village and no girl had ever left the village without getting married. In addition to this, the course was not free. But life had taught Indrala a lesson that we all learn only in schools; where there is a will, there is a way. She learnt about Pratham’s education loans and convinced her mother to let her go and give her a decent shot at earning a sustainable livelihood.

The story of her courage doesn’t end here. Indrala had decided to work in the field of hospitality but she had never even heard of shampoos or the other basics of grooming. In spite of all the disadvantages that she brought with herself, she amazed her teachers by her sheer hard work. At the end of three months she got placed at a five star hotel for which she had to travel even farther away from her village, but unsurprisingly this did not deter her either. Beating all odds, Indrala Devi has today paid off all her loan installments and can proudly say that her family income has increased to Rs.6000 a month. Although this number doesn’t amount to a lot, Indrala Devi lives with the knowledge and belief that her life will only get better from here. 

The push and pull of skilling

- Dr Madhav Chavan

Vocational training has been centre-stage in policy discussions in India over the past decade. This column discusses the perspectives of and dissatisfaction among the four groups of stakeholders in skill training – government, industry, trainers and potential trainees. It highlights the need for a strong “pull” or demand for training and suggests innovative ways to achieve this.

The issue of vocational training has gained importance over the last eight odd years after the UPA government took charge in 2004. There are four corners of vocational training - government, industry-business, trainers or institutions of training, and the prospective trainees. You could divide this further with government and the trainers on the supply side and the industry-business and the trainee on the demand side. Just a decade ago, this was a triangle with the supply side making up one corner. All vocational training was funded and delivered by government institutions. While the government institutions are still running, the private trainers have entered the scene. 

The supply side 
Although much has been said about how to make this quadrilateral work, it appears that there is a lot of dissatisfaction in all four corners. A simple web search is enough to know who is saying what. The fact is that while there is talk about a need to train 500 million or some such number of young people and to place them in jobs by 2022, the governmental plan is lagging behind. The loudest noise is probably coming from the trainers’ corner which is finding out that while skilling is considered desirable, neither the industry nor the potential employee is really willing to spend money or time on investing in such skills. Government financing seems to have its usual problems; some obvious and others rumoured. The government corner is not yet saying that things are not working. At such times people usually say that things may take time and there is optimism. 

The demand side 
Strangely, there seems to be no noise from either the business corner, or the potential trainee – the jobseeker corner. Industries whose business depends upon highly skilled people are setting up their own training programs and institutions for selected employees who have already spent 16 odd years in schooling. But the unorganised and informal sector and the industries that rely on contracted labour for relatively low skill jobs are hiring people informally or through contract systems and training them on the job. Although they murmur that they don’t get skilled people, there does not seem to be a real worry that their businesses will hurt for lack of skilled workers. On the contrary, it appears that their businesses will stall if they wait for the youth to be trained and skilled. There is no existing model of skilling that inspires confidence that skilled workers will be available on a very large scale in a short time span except if a sophisticated labour contractor with a pipeline of contracts takes in unskilled people, trains them and provides jobs. It is not enough to be a trainer - you need to have the ability to place people in jobs, which is not easy to do. 

The fourth corner - the unskilled youth, whether more schooled or less, has its own issues, aspirations, and conditions, as more and more trainers are finding out. Urban youth it seems may have poor skills but they also have high aspirations after having spent more than 10 years in the schooling process. They are not willing to attend a skilling course unless a job with the salary and working conditions they aspire for is guaranteed. Those whose lives depend upon finding a job are going out and getting one, unless they have problems with migration. Young women are the biggest losers. Typically a labour contractor gathers young men, perhaps even readies them for work, and employs them. Others who have connections in the city through an uncle or a group of their biradari¹ migrate to the city, find work, and enter the unorganised labour market. They learn on the job, acquire skills as apprentices either at their village or at an urban workplace, and struggle to survive. These folk have no time to go for skilling courses. 

Informal skilling on the job works, at least for now until we figure out what kind of institutions and processes will work in our country. 

Creating a strong “pull” 
How are these different corners going to work together? The government and the eager trainers represent the push factor which is trying to create processes and institutions for training, without a strong pull factor. 

It is my considered opinion that the game-plan has to change completely based on creating a strong pull. I would put in place three strategic objectives. First, create an environment that places all skills high up there with knowledge or even higher; not in a patronising manner but in a real way. Media campaigns and programmes highlighting skilled work is one way of doing it. The other day, I met a fashion designer who spoke extremely warmly and highly of her 7th Standard passed “cutter” as an integral and crucial part of her creative team. He is not just an employee. We must find such genuine people and promote them. 

Second, start a registry of skilled people that is available online and make certification of existing skills free, simple, and easy to start with. Let us call it SAdhaar² - the skills identity in the labour market. The standards can be raised in a stepwise manner over a period of time. The process can go from self-declaration to references to assessment of skills. Schools can become skills registration centres over weekends. Simultaneously, employers should be persuaded, or even arm-twisted to put online the ratios of certified skilled people they have in their workforce versus the uncertified. 

Third, promote skills upgradation programs for all working people – permanently employed, contract workers, or self-employed regardless of whether they are in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs, and provide them part subsidies and simple no-interest loans that they can repay over a period of time. No free training. Again, have employers of all sizes declare numbers of their employees who have gone through skill up-gradation courses. 

I believe these, and such other initiatives, will form the pull for a larger skilling program not only for those already working, but also those who will enter the workforce. 

Simultaneously, and perhaps most importantly, it is essential to include in the school syllabus elements that familiarise children with work life and ready them for it without giving a full vocational course. For example, we need to stress communication, of which language is a part. While mastery over English may be needed for higher academic studies, it is more important to be able to handle ‘technical’ workplace vocabulary in “Hinglish” for most workers. They could, of course, join higher level English learning programs in due course. I believe teaching Chemistry is important but so is teaching safety with chemicals. Teaching electricity is important but so is the understanding of electrical equipment around the house and in the community. Learning math is important, but so is financial literacy. It is important to know parts of the body, but learning how to check pulse and tie bandages can be both useful and fun exercises. In practically every subject it is possible to create introduction to vocational and workplace skills. And the good part is that there are enough ‘resource persons’ in every community who can help children learn these aspects. In fact, it should be possible for children to take low-stake tests to get certified in each individual skill or knowledge domain. Professional bodies will willingly do this if they are funded. 

Building new sustainable institutions and processes 
It is now well understood that a product of even 10 years of schooling on an average is not only un-employable but also un-trainable. Those businesses that are serious about a skilled labour force say that they do not need a person specifically trained in their trade. All they need is a person who is “trainable”. They can train the person on the job if he or she is willing. Lack of soft skills, poor reading and comprehension skills, no understanding of measurement and basic quantitative work are major weaknesses of most children reaching Standard 8 or 10, as well as of dropouts – a major proportion of the Indian population. These skills are not difficult to teach if the students are eager and trainers accountable. We need a massive “bridging” program for the push-outs of school systems to make them “trainable”. 

If we raise the standards of outcomes of our schooling process while also creating a larger environment favouring skilling, certification of skilling, and job incentives for skills, we will have created a wide base for skilling our population with a strong pull. It is on this base that we can build new sustainable institutions and processes for technical and vocational training. 

Notes : 

1. Hindi word for community
2. 12 digit individual identification number issued by the UIDAI on behalf of the Government of India which serves as a proof of identity and residence through India

The article has been published : http://www.ideasforindia.in/article.aspx?article_id=123