With less than a month to go for the 7th CII Global Summit on Skill Development, we caught up with CII Skill Development Team, to know more about the upcoming event. In this skill talk, we get to know more about the background for the theme “Networking for globally transferable skills” and obtain valuable insights on key takeaways from the summit for all the participants. Let’s read on to know why this summit should be of interest to all the stakeholders in skill space in India.
Skills for the global economy
Today, there is huge demand for skilled workers in many parts of the globe. People are exploring opportunities in many countries and we need to prepare the prospective workforce for to fit into a country and follow their standards. Just like being industry-ready, now the workforce has to be country-ready! Look at the way it works for highly skilled professionals, for example, doctors who go to UK need to take a test and have requisite prior experience before they get inducted as full-fledged physicians. But, for technical workers there’s no such luxury of time or opportunity. They may not have the time to take tests, leave alone the preparation part of it.
So, we need to prepare these people in every possible way and train them appropriately to fit into another job market. For instance, the construction workers who go to the Middle East countries, they need to be equipped with the right knowledge and skills to meet the employer’s expectations with high professional standards.
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International participation in skill development
There’s lot of scope for FDI in skill development as many industry sectors like retail, defence etc are opening up for investments. When companies come to India, they expect a certain standards, so need to prepare the candidates to reach that standard to avoid training and re-training. This is possible now because of transnational standards across nations and various initiatives from the sector skill councils
In this conference, we want to hear from all the international players as to what they expect when our youth go abroad or when their companies come here. We should be able to identify the gaps and take necessary steps to fill them and know where we stand in the international market. The global summit will showcase international standards and how we can adapt them.
Globally transferable skills
Transferable skills are generally identified as soft skills, but we need to extend this definition to include technical skills as well. These technical skills should prepare you to work in India or Singapore or any other country. So, you learn a skill, hone it and transfer as per the requirements of a country. Soft skills are definitely a part of the skill sets , now we need to focus on the transferability of technical skills. This will help people fit into any job market requirements. In addition to technical skills, we strive for cultural adaptability of the workforce through appropriate training. As a result, we create a pipeline of market-ready candidates from the supply side.
Key takeaways from the CII Global Summit on Skill Development
- Re-emphasis on employment solutions and how can people be best employed. We are trying to get that fit for our own country and as well as job-seekers who go out of the country
- Options to leverage technology for scaling and how we get people tuned to technology so that they can use it seamlessly
- Study and adapt international best practices in skill development and explore viable business models from different countries
- Sharing knowledge from the ground on the basis of various initiatives and accomplishments taken up in different parts of India
The global summit is also a platform to create awareness about World Skills Competitions for recognizing skills and talent. Besides, we will also have presentations about different models of skill development, for instance, about how apprenticeship works in different countries and how qualification frameworks are being adopted. This will give us insights into better way of doing things. In fact, this time, we have planned for a SAARC perspective that should tell us how countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have revamped their skill development models.
Our deliberations and discussions in the event should help us frame policy level recommendations to show what really works in skill development to form the voice of the industry. Through this, we will be able to tell the government what is really needed in our job markets and international markets. Other than these highlights, the summit provides a great opportunity for partnerships, networking and a lot business gets transacted during the two days!
