Skill-based training is going to be the backbone of the Make-in-India initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it will be an important ingredient to push production to higher levels and to increase the overall growth of the rubber sector, according to Vinod Simon, Chairman, Rubber Skill Development Council (RSDC). In an email interview to Rubber Asia, he reveals that about 2.4 million youth will be given market-driven skill training and certification in a span of one year from the date of implementation of the scheme. Excerpts:
How will the ‘Skill India’ initiative of the Narendra Modi Government help the rubber sector?
There is a renewed focus on skills development from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasizing on “speed, scale and skill” which is all set for a whole new era of a transformed Indian economy. The Make-in-India initiative provides a huge opportunity for the private and public sectors to be part of nation building at the grass-roots level.
Skill-based training is going to be the backbone of the Make-in-India initiative and the best way to ensure that vocational training serves its intended purpose is through the PPP model, i.e. the Sector Skill Councils (SSC) formed for high-growth sectors. There is a new Ministry in place dedicated to Skills and Entrepreneurship, all reaffirming the focus of the new Government and the need for greater industry engagement through SSC.
As rubber sector progresses and contributes significantly to the economic growth of India, it becomes increasingly important that we focus on advancement of skills and these skills have to be relevant to the emerging economic environment. Skill development can be viewed as an instrument to improve the effectiveness and contribution of labour to the overall production. It is an important ingredient to push production to higher levels and to increase the overall growth of the rubber sector.
The Central Government has allocated Rs15.43 billion under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) for skill development. What is the share of the rubber sector and how do you plan to utilize it?
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is the flagship outcome-based skill training scheme of the new Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE). The average monetary reward is around
Rs 8,000 per trainee. Of the total outlay of Rs 15 billion, as much as Rs 11.20 billion will be spent on the skill training of 1.4 million youth and another Rs 2.20 billion has been earmarked for a special emphasis to recognition of prior learning.
The objective of this skill certification and reward scheme is to enable and mobilize a large number of the Indian youth to take up outcome-based skill training and become employable and earn their livelihood. Under the scheme, monetary reward is provided to trainees who are successfully trained,
assessed and certified in skill courses run by affiliated training providers. The scheme provides monetary incentives for successful completion of market-driven skill training and certification to approximately 2.4 million youth in a span of one year from the date of implementation of the scheme.
These skill training will be done against standards (National Occupational Standards – NOS – and Qualification Packs – Qps – for specific job roles) formulated by industry-driven bodies, namely, the Sector Skills Councils (SSCs). Third party assessments for skill training will be done based on national and global standards. This will boost productivity of the country’s workforce by enabling them to acquire high-quality skill training across a range of sectors.
It will also bring about a paradigm shift from input-based to outcome-based skill training in the country. It also seeks to significantly scale up skill training activities in the country and enable skill training to happen at a fast pace without compromising quality. So far, RSDC has enrolled 7,543 trainees in various job roles across the country under PMKVY scheme.
All the training programmes under the PMKVY scheme have been aligned to the NOS and only the training institutes approved by NSDC and SSCs are participating in the PMKVY scheme. The training includes soft skills, personal grooming, behavioral aspects, and good work ethics also as a part of their curricula and with a clear focus on better pedagogy.
What is the manpower requirement of the Indian rubber industry? Is the supply adequate to meet the demand?
As per the Skill Gap Analysis conducted by RSDC in nine States, the rubber product manufacturing accounts for more that 60 % of total rubber consumption in the country. Currently, around 300,000 employees are directly employed in the rubber industry in these States. It is estimated that this figure will increase by around 30% in the next 5 years. It has been observed during the survey that supply for operators, lab chemist and supervisor are less as compared to the demand of the industry.
Conservatively estimating that those who pass out from the respective institutes and courses go into the rubber sector, there is still a shortfall in supervisors and operators. Currently, the industry recruits helpers who can move to the operator role, for which sufficient re-skilling and upskilling needs to be done to improve the production quality. Therefore, to overcome this issue, RSDC’s vocational training programmes focus on building hands-on skills for the trainees, through theoretical and practical sessions, complimented with on-the-job trainings so that the trainees are readily deployable in the industry.
What do you think of the state of rubber technology institutes in India? Do they cater to the needs of the rubber industry?
Unlike many other sectors, the rubber sector in India faces another difficult situation of non-availability of training infrastructure, particularly in vocational training space. Currently though there are institutes offering rubber technology courses in India for the graduate and undergraduate segments, the students trained lack understanding of real manufacturing processes primarily due to lack of infrastructure and apt pedagogical practices. The industry clearly faces challenge, as there is a huge gap between the skills of job applicants and those required for critical positions on the shop floor.
What are the initiatives taken by RSDC to train the manpower entering the rubber industry?
The rubber industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Indian economy but still lack skilled manpower that should be trained and equipped with the talent as per the industry requirement.
In the current scenario, the industry is having acute shortage of technically trained workforce. The employers recruit freshers for the entry level jobs on the shop floor and train them as per their requirement. These are unstructured and informal trainings that do not provide the appropriate skills. The roles performed on shop floor are very important which can increase or decrease production which in turn results in productivity and growth of the company. The rubber sector has tremendous growth opportunities that can create employment for the youth and contribute to the economic and social stability of India.
To overcome these issues, RSDC is trying to develop a strong eco system for the sector at various levels, such as developing National Occupational Standards (NOS), affiliating training providers, revamping curriculum aligned to NOS, certification of trainees and trainers, and setting up labour market information systems (LMIS) to assist in the planning and delivery of training, besides identifying skill development needs of the sector.
In our endeavor to bring quality in training and to bridge the prevailing skill gap in the sector, RSDC has launched different training models to motivate the industry for actively participating in skilling programmes across the country. RSDC has also devised innovative training models for enhancing vocational education system in the sector. These models give various benefits to the industry such as access to trained workforce that is equipped with technical skills, lower or negligible budget for training, re-training and re-skilling, greater productivity with improved alignment of workforce with job requirements etc.
What are your programmes to reskill existing workforce?
We have devised innovative training models for enhancing vocational education system in the rubber sector especially to the MSME. Considering the need of the industry, where on one hand they would like to train their workforce but on the other hand they also can’t let go of their people for a long time from the shop floor for classes. So, currently RSDC’s affiliated partners have introduced a model where trainings happen on the company shop floor.
In this model, trainings are being implemented for up-skilling of existing employees and for fresh hiring as well. In this model, RSDC’s affiliated Training Partners (TP) sign a MoU with the company, and conducts recognition of prior learning (RPL). Post RPL, the TP starts the theoretical & practical training in the factory premises of the organization. Trainers and supervisors mentor the trainees on the shop floor. Once the training is completed, RSDC conducts the assessment and certifies the successful trainees.
Could you please explain the features of Training the Trainer programme?
In order to create a uniformity in the training delivery, we form a team of Master Trainers who will impart training to trainers in accordance with NOS developed for various trades in the industry. Trainers of affiliated institutes are also getting trained and certified on best pedagogical practices to ensure standardization of the training processes, quality and consistency.
We organize two-day Train the Trainer programme every quarter which offers participants a distinct advantage in terms of becoming RSDC certified Trainer to deliver NOS based trainings along with long-term commitment values, professionalism in designing and delivering training modules.
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