Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) organised a seminar on the theme ‘Fostering Skilling & Employability’ at CII Headquarters in Chandigarh on 18th April 2017. The seminar saw focused discussions on the role of the industry in skilling and job creation in the telecom sector, by addressing challenges of making skilling aspirational among the youth in India. The seminar was organized around two sessions:
Session-I: Promoting Skill Training in Telecom Sector by Interfacing Academia, Industry, Government and Training Partners.
Session-II: Enhancing Quality in Skill Training and Sharing Best Practices and Learnings.
In his special address, Mr M P Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Technical Education & Industrial Training, Government of Punjab, said, “The government has established a system of Multi Skill Development Centres at Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur to enhance employability of the youth today. Through these centres the effort is to establish connect with the industry as training partners, which have been given the freedom to establish infrastructure, get faculty and run these centres to provide live lab experience to train the students. The focus is to help students gain first-hand experience of live labs besides their academic studies to impart skills which can help them go a long way.”
He said, “To enhance employability of the students, I urge the industry to launch Multi Skill Development Centres to impart need-based skilling among the youth. The use of existing resources like the ITIs, polytechnics, engineering colleges, and by way of mobilizing students through industry engagement can go a long way in enhancing employability of the youth today. The government is ready to go all out to support the industry.”
In his address, Maj Gen P N Monga, (Veteran) Regional Head, North Telecom Sector Skill Council, said, “The youth of the country need special attention to enhance their employability. Lack of exposure is making youth not employable. The telecom sector has vast potential for jobs as it is the fastest growing sector for skilled and qualified aspirants. The Council has 601 training partners aiming to enhance employability of youth. The inputs from Industry indicate that a large number of youth of India, though academically qualified are found to be “Not-employable” since they lack practical exposure, handling of equipment and will to do the work with their own hand. Their unemployment poses threat to economic growth of the country. The Government of India in cognizance of this need has set up the National Skill Development Council and has set a target of training 500 million persons by 2022. The current skills training infrastructure in the country is presently supported by Government institutions like Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and private sector Institutes like Industrial Training Centers (ITCs).”
Mr Arvind Bali, CEO, Videocon Telecom & Handset, said, “Educated job seekers form 72% of the unemployed in the country. The unemployment rate stands at 16.6% in Punjab against national average of 10.2%. The telecom sector provides maximum employment opportunities today. Connect Broadband in collaboration with premier institute such as Chitkara University (Rajpura), Thapar University (Patiala), PEC (Chandigarh) & GNE (Ludhiana) has established advanced communication labs equipped with latest technologies within the campuses for the purpose. We are targeting at least 1,000 students to provide skills development training in coming year.”
“Industry has to focus more on skill training than education and respect skills to make youth employable,” he added.
CII Mohali Zonal Council Vice Chairman, Mr Khushjeev Singh, said, “Under the National Skill Development Council, 40 Sector Skill councils have come up which promote and coordinate skills training in their respective fields like healthcare, BFSI, beauty & wellness, tourism & hospitality, green jobs skills, life sciences, infrastructure, automobile, apparel and construction, etc. The telecom sector has been the epicenter for development, innovation, and growth for almost every industry in India.
The session on ‘Promoting Skill Training in Telecom Sector by Interfacing Academia, Industry, Government and Training Partners’ focused on the need on how to bridge the skill gaps and improve access to skill training in the Telecom Sector.
During the session on ‘Enhancing Quality in Skill Training and Sharing Best Practices and Learnings’, experts discussed how to enhance quality in skill training, sharing best practices and Learnings as well as the need to improve Quality of Skills Training.
