Integrate skills development & education: TKA Nair, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister

Addressing a special plenary at the National Conference on Education - 2009 with the theme Linking Education to Employability here today, Mr Nair agreed with the industrys concerns that the current education system was not promoting employability as the necessary skills development was missing.

However, the government also has to bring in the large number of educationally excluded people into the system. To resolve this dilemma, it is important that the industry joined hands with the government and made skills development an essential part of the educational system.

At the conference, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), two reports were also released. While the first was the CII-NASSCOM-ICRIER white paper on an Independent Accreditation System, the second was a CII-Technopark study report on the Case for Setting Up Sector Councils in India.

However, the government also has to bring in the large number of educationally excluded people into the system. To resolve this dilemma, it is important that the industry joined hands with the government and made skills development an essential part of the educational system. In this context, he said it was important that we upscale the ongoing public-private partnerships, like those of the industry adopting 600 industrial training institutes, to ensure that social inclusion becomes a reality. Mr Nair said that it was essential that we use education and skills development as a means of empowering the youth.

Ms Sudha Pillai, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, pointed out that skills development had to be made an essential part of the educational framework. This was important as skills had a direct correlation with improved productivity and economic well-being. Also, increased emphasis on skills development and vocational training would help us empower the large number of school dropouts and unorganised sector workers.

A major policy initiative in this regard, Ms Pillai said, was the national policy on skills development that was approved by the Union Cabinet in February this year. The policy aims at empowering all individuals to enable them to get access to decent employment and to promote inclusive national growth. Further, the policy promotes public-private partnership to ensure that the needs of the industry are met.

Earlier outlining the measures initiated by the CII, Mr Vijay Thadani, Chairman, CII National Committee on Education and CEO, NIIT Ltd, said that the raw material for the development of any nation is its people. Therefore, building people was the key to building India. In this context, he pointed to the CIIs vision of achieving complete functional literacy in the country by the year 2022 and of having a globally employable workforce of over 700 million people, including 500 vocationally skilled people.
Emphasising the increased importance being given to affirmative action in the CII, Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director-General, CII, said that the steps initiated by the industry body in 2004 were now being upscaled and spread to newer areas. In this connection, he pointed to the increasing partnerships that the CII had entered into with a large number of universities.

He said that in todays globalised world and increasing integration of labour markets, it was important that our skills and training programmes have global accreditation and certification. Such skilled workers not only lead to enhanced output but even the employment opportunities open to them also increase sharply, he added.