Linking vocational skills and competencies with sustainable value chains

The relationship between skills and competencies is getting a new direction with the philosophical approach of Empretec Program. Empretec Framework enables the alignment of individuals, enterprises, value chains through behavior-matching, in addition to the financial and statutory documents. In this article, Manish Kothari, Managing Director, Rhino Machines Pvt Ltd : Director, ACE Foundation, shares his experience of facilitating Empretec program across India to empower entrepreneurs.

Research says skills and competencies are inversely related unless understood well and harnessed. In the past few months, ever since I understood the competencies through the behavioural philosophy under the Empretec Program, I started looking for ways to link and leverage my vocational skills. This article takes you through my personal journey, and probably relate to the relevance of the same in each one’s personal life.

During the course of my vocational career starting from the tender age of 16, when I learnt my first vocational skill of typing, then to telex, and then moving to computer operation by the age of 18 in the year 1986, the behaviors kept getting linked under parenting and peer learning. I used to see and understand how people behaved in my dad’s office or when my mom used to do business from home. This continued as I kept adding skills, and kept linking my behaviors. Seeking opportunity and taking innovative way of learning was deeply embedded in the grooming years.

Relate this to the present education system where the marks and grades are of more importance, but the actual practical exposure is missing. We get so focused on knowledge and skills, we forget to convert them to actions and only talk about the possibilities. The missing competencies may inhibit the possibility to leverage and link the skills.

Acquiring the right behaviours through Empretec Program

In 2018, when I graduated from Empretec, I started understanding what made my learning different. A gradual increase in my skills never bogged me down as my information-seeking behavior, growing out of a personal goal of continuous learning, kept my mind open to learn and accept all changes. I kept adapting my skills as per business need.

Though I was a Mechanical Engineer, I learnt about Electrical, Electronics, Instrumentation, Metallurgy, Robotics, Accounting, Programming and so on. In retrospect, I can see that this learning was aligned to my behaviors to learn and be self-sufficient.

In the past 4 years, as an entrepreneur, I have diversified my business into garment, education, innovation, business modelling, social engineering, biogas and related domains.

After taking the 2 day sensitization primer from Empretec, and facilitating 5 primers in 45 days, I am now able to understand why I could do this. My parents and peers were my first teachers of behaviors, I got inspired from their ability to distinguish between skills and behaviors. They practised and I learnt by observing them. The need to acquire knowledge and skills continued since there was a need to interact with the partners, colleagues or experts of specific domain.

What took me 28 years to understand, Empretec has been doing for the past 30 years. Empretec has developed a framework and tool kit which enables you to understand clearly how to link the skills or vocational expertise with behaviors to build sustainable businesses.

The same framework which works for an individual, works for an enterprise, as I took all my ventures under the umbrella of Empretec philosophy. The tangible outcome can be seen in 3 months.

My daughter Nandita is learning business through the framework, where her skill in language and culinary arts are not limiting her vision. She is learning the garment manufacturing business, social engineering, financial management through the behavior philosophy as a prodigy. At the same time, I have moved into the global business linkages and stitching value chain of intrapreneurs within all my ventures. My vendors and my customers are getting stitched together as well as we partner to grow together, get ready to absorb investment, technology and global markets.

The relationship between skills and competencies is getting a new direction with the philosophical approach of Empretec. India has a huge pool of talent and skills, my mission today is to inspire them as a practitioner, leverage the skills with competencies which otherwise have a very low success ratio.

Personal Entrepreneurship Competencies (PEC) that are critical to entrepreneurship

Empretec Program works on behaviors, allows an individual to understand and identify clearly the Personal Entrepreneurship Competencies (PEC) (30 specific behaviors with over 10 PECs across 3 clusters). Once the behaviors are understood, they become a habit and a character over a period of practice. Empretec allows those who take this program to continuously practice with peers and their value chains to learn the PEC language well enough to become a character.

The PECs allow the possibility of a person high on vocational skills, or theoretical skills or knowledge to be ready to be a sponge and absorb something new. By aligning Information-seeking behavior and opportunity-seeking and goal-setting behaviours, the individual can look beyond theory. The possibility itself allows growth in terms of access to market, access to finance and access to technology. In other words, the PECs open up the mind, allowing out-of-the-box thinking. All the modern tools of 5S, Why-Why Analysis, TPM….are built around the linkage of skills with competencies. While the training is more of force fitting, Empretec works on creating the demand from within to make a subconscious habit, and a character. The ability to question our own knowledge comes from the fact that we are ready to learn and accept feedback.

Business linkages have a deep connect with the behaviours. The business relationships, partnerships or contracts even in banking are scrutinized on the history of behaviors, references. Empretec Framework enables the alignment of this individuals, enterprises, value chains through the behavior matching in addition to the financial and statutory documents. The possibilities of doing business through such linkages create sustainable value chains, with a strong bonding and alignment of goals.