ASDC organized the Annual Conclave 2019 on 24th July 2019 at New Delhi. On this occasion, a special keynote address was delivered by the Chief Guest, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India. Mr Nikunj Sanghi, Chairman, ASDC and Dr. Manish Kumar, MD and CEO, NSDC also addressed the participants. During this session, Skill Gap Study Report and the ASDC TCS iON portal was launched by the honourable Minister, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey.
Addressing the participants, Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey said, “skilled technicians are of utmost importance. Our Government is giving importance to the skilling in industry-related areas, outreach programs, and the automotive sector. ASDC has the ability to contribute a lot to the country’s GDP. The initiatives taken by ASDC in skill training and development are praiseworthy. Skill techniques have a lot of importance in the country’s development. Keeping in mind the future skills in all the skilling institutes, training programs have been designed accordingly. ASDC’s training to the drivers and the technicians of the automobile sector is making sure to provide a pleasant experience to our guests coming from different countries. We are trying to certify the old fashioned skilled persons from automobile sector through RPL. We will focus on the skill development plans for industry-related areas, outreach programs, and the automatic sector.”
Appreciating the achievements of ASDC in terms of skill development, Dr. Manish Kumar said,” when we formed Sector Skill Councils (SSCs), the first application came from ASDC and today they have successfully crossed many milestones. The Skill Gap Study takes ASDC few notches up in the categorization of SSCs.
While talking about the skill gap study, I would like to say that the fear of eradication of jobs due to the new age technologies is unnecessary as we have seen that for every new technology new job roles have been created. When I visited one of our training partners in Bhubaneswar, I saw students of class 12th in rural areas are proving data for automated cars. This is just an example and like this, with all these new technologies, more jobs will be created in the future. I appreciate that ASDC has provided skilling to 3.8 lakhs peoples under STT. They have made 196 Qualification Packs (QPs) and going forward they will definitely make more. We will work together and make it possible.”
Introducing the four focus areas of the Digital Portal, Mr Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head- TCS iON said, “the first part deals with assessments consisting of part A (theory) and part B (practical exercises). The second area of focus is where all the records of the ecosystem will be listed and which will be available for the entire skilling ecosystem. The third part is to make sure the mobilization happens through the training partners effectively. This is a governing platform to make sure the training partners are on board. The last one is the Skill Hub, which will make sure the scaling of this skilling activity itself, bringing all the ecosystem partners into one single platform. Integrating the physical component along with digital technology, making sure there is a standardized content and the industry is involved in the platform.”
Mr Nikunj Sanghi, Chairman, ASDC stated,” the government is giving utmost importance to the skilling ecosystem. I would like to bring to the notice of the honourable minister and the gathering that ASDC is one of the first SSC to take off in Skill India mission and is one of the biggest organized SSC. We are engaged in skilling and giving jobs. It is important to know the skill gaps as well as the future skills which are required to. Two major initiatives that ASDC has taken in the past few months was to engage in both these initiatives. We engaged with Ernst and Young which is the most credible industry today to identify the skill gaps and preparing the entire ecosystem for the jobs in the present and future.
The second initiative was to partner with TCS iON, the most credible system today for conducting assessments. TCS has become a global agency in conducting and managing assessments. They are providing us with a platform without human intervention. This will ensure the credibility of our certification for the industries. With the platform, we will have an ecosystem where accreditation and certification both will be present. To make the accreditation possible it was important to provide a digital hub where the content required for training was available in every nook and corner of the country.”
On this occasion, a presentation on Apprenticeships was made by Mr. Surajit Roy, Senior Head, Apprenticeships, NSDC. While reiterating the need for engaging apprentices, he said, “there is a need for skilled manpower in the industry and we need to see the ability of the entire ecosystem to fulfil that need. Apprenticeship is the answer to many of such questions if not for all. By keeping in mind the need of the industries, government has allowed industries to choose trades which will be called as optional trades. There is a total of 260 government approved trades that are available. So the trades which are not listed by the government will be called as optional trades and industry has the full control over these courses. The industry can decide the minimum qualification for the apprenticeship program as per their requirement. As this is demand-driven, the program, the industries can choose any of the trades as per the requirement and the market demand. The students are going to get incentives for this. There is a provision where the industries can reimburse a part of the amount they have spent on the apprenticeship program. They can apply for it online. It was 2% to 10% before but now it has increased to 15%. This apprenticeship program is a win-win for the entire skill ecosystem.”
