CII Karnataka Skills Conclave: Skills for Resilience and Agile Future – A Report

CII Karnataka has organized a Skills Conclave themed on Skills for Resilience and Agile Future on 3^rd March 2022. The conclave aimed to deliberate on new opportunities, global benchmarking, the role of industry in bringing future technology to the learners and the way forward.

The conclave is the first of its kind launched in CII Karnataka discussion on industry-academia partnerships, assessment for employability, vocational skills for all, government schemes for skilling, employment opportunities for Youth post-COVID and skill set required, use of IT for employment matchmaking among others.

The conclave was well-received and witnessed the virtual participation of many stakeholders from the skilling industry. The event was divided into three sessions where many eminent speakers expressed their thoughts on the topics.

Eminent speakers and moderators

1. Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N. Minister of Higher Education, IT and BT, Science and Technology and Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka.
2. Dr. N. Reguraj, Managing Director of NTTF
3. Mr Ashwin Gowda, IRS, Managing Director, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation (KSDC).
4. Mr. Prakash G, Chairman Manufacturing Expert Committee, BCIC and Vice President – TKAP
5. Mr. Sudhakar Gudipati, Business head – Vocational Education, TCS.
6. Mr. Venugopal Shankar, Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra
7. Dr. Srinivas Rao Pulijala, CEO, Apollo MedSkills Limited
8. Mr. Sandeep Maini, Past Chairman, CII Karnataka and Chairman, Maini Group of Companies
9. Prof. Niharika Vohra, VC, Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU)
10. Mr Sai Krishna Rao, Sr. General Manager- Education and Training Field Services, Schneider Electric
11. Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan, Executive Chairperson, LabourNet
12. Mr Graham Hasting-Evans, CEO, NOCN Group
13. Dr. Ashwani Aggarwal, Global Work Area Lead for Work-based Learning, Apprenticeships and RPL, International Labour Organization
14. Stefan Dietl, Global Head of Vocational Education, Festo
15. Mr B. V. Sudharshan, Deputy Managing Director, Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF)
16. Mr. Vijay Kumar, General Manager at TATA Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited
17. Dr. Madhuri Dubey, Founder- National Skills Network-NSN
18. Ms. Leena Thomas, Founder, Global Business Inroads

Inaugural session: Creating future-ready Skill Ecosystem

The event started with the inaugural session on Creating a future-ready Skill Ecosystem. In this session, the speakers conveyed the message of making the youth ready for the future by training them in industry required skills and education.

It was moderated by Mr B. V. Sudharshan, Deputy Managing Director, Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF).

The panellists in this session included,

1. Mr. Sandeep Maini, Past Chairman, CII Karnataka and Chairman, Maini Group of Companies
2. Dr. N. Reguraj, Managing Director, NTTF
3. Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N. Minister of Higher Education, IT and BT, Science and Technology and Skill Development, Entrepreneurship and Livelihood, Government of Karnataka.
4. Mr. Ashwin Gowda, IRS, Managing Director, Karnataka Skill Development Corporation (KSDC).

Below are the highlights of this session:

• Today, business leaders are counting on the skilled and energized workforce.
• It becomes important that the country should focus on progressing towards the knowledge economy and advancement of skills. These skills need to be relevant to the emerging economy.
• Skill and knowledge are the driving force for economic development as well as social development.
• Ensuring our people are empowered with the right skill sets and right education should be considered an important task.

“We need to make sure to make ourselves competitive or self-reliant to cater to the needs of our own country.” – Dr. Ashwathnarayan C. N.

“You should be there for tomorrow. Become multi-skilled, multi-entry, multi-exit and succeed in the execution of our plans.” – Dr. N. Reguraj.

After the inaugural session, the event continued with further sessions with the eminent panellists.

First session – Role of the industry to bring in future technology to learners

In this session, the speakers highlighted the need for technology in the healthcare sector and how technology is not affecting manual labour in the automotive industry.

The first session was moderated by Mr. Vijay Kumar, General Manager at TATA Hitachi Construction Machinery Company Limited.

The panellists in this session included,

1. Mr. Prakash G, Chairman Manufacturing Expert Committee, BCIC and Vice President – TKAP
2. Mr. Sudhakar Gudipati, Business head – Vocational Education, TCS.
3. Dr. Srinivas Rao Pulijala, CEO, Apollo MedSkills Limited
4. Mr. Venugopal Shankar, Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra

Below are the highlights of this session:

• Industry 4.0 has brought the need for technology, the prior requirement for employment. Technology has taken over every industry including healthcare.
• Healthcare has adopted new-age technologies slowly but now it is imperative and accelerated with 3Bs:

1. Biology – precision treatments; RT-PCR
2. Bytes – cost of computing is reducing
3. Bandwidth – teledensity costs are reducing

• The healthcare sector is planning to expand healthcare access across rural India by bringing tech-based skills like Data Science, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning among others.
• Along with the healthcare sector, the manufacturing industry is also adapting to the technologies and digital skills.
• They have taken a huge pace post-COVID and have led to the transformation of various sector-specific skill sets.
• Though technology is taking over everything, employment is not going to be such a challenge when it comes to the manufacturing sector.
• As the Automobile industry is standardized, manual intensive labour is high and hence, it is not affected.
• OEMs are adopting technology and the concept of Aatmanirbhar Bharat localizing technology creates manufacturers in building a robust domestic supply chain.

Mr Venugopal Shankar spoke about the disruptions in the automotive industry which are being resolved by providing courses like Automotive; Farm-related and Innovation and design thinking.

Mr. Sudhakar Gudipati emphasized on the need to deliver the required skills.

Second session – Industry-institute partnerships for agility in skill development

In this session, the speakers stressed on the importance of industry-academia partnership which leads to the increase of demand in the technology workforce.

The second session was moderated by Dr. Madhuri Dubey, Founder of National Skills Network-NSN.

The panellists in this session included

1. Mr Sai Krishna Rao, Sr. General Manager- Education and Training Field Services, Schneider Electric
2. Prof. Niharika Vohra, VC, Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU)
3. Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan, Executive Chairperson, LabourNet

Below are the highlights of this session:

• Due to the increase in the technology-based workforce, there is an increase in demand for IT skilled workforce.
• Industries need to spend resources and time to train youth in core technologies.
• The trainees should be equipped with the right skills to use the technology as the digital skills are emerging through megatrends like urbanization, digitization and industrialization.
• 40 MoUs were signed with industry across various lines of industry.
• The panellist focused on the need to find the job roles that industries advertise for. Training them in popular roles, hiring them and making them part of the design process is one of the important needs.
• Industries need to understand what is there to develop as now, we have a Blended learning model which is on par with technology.

“In 2000, we saw a change when people started realizing there is a need for standardization, then in 2020, skills started coming into mainstream topics”, Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan, Executive Chairperson, LabourNet

“We are preparing the curriculum according to the industry requirements so that our students can get internship opportunities”, Prof. Niharika Vohra, VC, Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU)

Third session – Global benchmarking with the best in skilling

In this session, the speakers conveyed the importance of technology being offered to all the parts of the world through skilling and vocational training and how global benchmarking is building international bridges.

The third session was moderated by Ms. Leena Thomas, Founder of Global Business Inroads.

The panellists in this session included

1. Mr Graham Hasting-Evans, CEO, NOCN Group
2. Dr. Ashwani Aggarwal, Global Work Area Lead for Work-based Learning, Apprenticeships and RPL, International Labour Organization
3. Stefan Dietl, Global Head of Vocational Education, Festo

Below are the highlights of this session:

• If they require employees from India, then NTTF could step in and they can train them accordingly.
• During the pandemic, GBI has started international bridges for India like the EU – India platform for technology and running programmes for the Lithuanian government in India.
• NOCN operates in major sectors like construction, retail and marketing, hospitality, health and care and so on.

The CEO of NOCN, Graham Hasting Evans also said that they support employees to achieve soft skills and help in contributing to skilling in India.

“There is an opportunity to increase digitalization within India in all sectors of the economy.”

“Specific innovations are disruptive which could change things in India but as there are no skilled people, Global Business Inroads (GBI) joined hands with NTTF to set up a global-tech experience centre where they bring in technology from abroad”, Leena Thomas.

Dr. Ashwani Aggarwal highlighted the issue of implementing or organizing apprenticeships that is seen differently in different countries.

Stefan Dietl stressed the importance of vocational education and how Festo is establishing training centres in Germany and Hungary.

CII Karnataka Skills Conclave has focused on making technology reachable to the future generation and keeping them upskilled for industry required skills by concentrating on industry-academia partnerships. The global benchmarking creates the need for digitalization across India in all sectors.