A National Workshop on employability through education was organized by Shri Vishwakarma Skill University on 1st October 2018 in collaboration with National Working Group and IILM University. The event, “Bharat Marching towards Optimum Employability through Education” was inaugurated by Hon’ble Union Minister of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Shri Prakash Javadekar. In his inaugural address, Shri. Javadekar conveyed the importance of industry cooperation for curriculum revision, research and cooperation for vocational training. He also suggested degree programs like B.A or B.Sc Professional by 2020 to make it work-integrated and improve employability of youth.
Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Haryana – India’s first government skill university
Shri Vishwakarma Skill University is India’s first Government Skill University established by the Government of Haryana to promote Skill Education & Training and Entrepreneurship across all the sectors of economy. The university has taken a de nouveau look at the delivery of skill training in the Country and infused a new spirit into it by way of introducing Industry Integrated Dual Education Model. These off campus programmes are offered by combining vocational class room education with “On the Job Training,” which is carried out on the shop floor of respective industries in a structured and systematic manner.
Shri Raj Nehru, Vice Chancellor Shri Vishwakarma Skill University said that the technical disruptions and innovations have impacted economies significantly resulting in a compression on employment generation as well as availability of the resources. The effect is already showing on the employment elasticity in all sectors. Employment elasticity issues coupled with skill instability are worrying the policy makers. In a bid to address this issue, most of the economies, as industrialisation grew, gradually drifted towards service and manufacturing at the cost of agriculture sector. This transformation has been truly disruptive weaning many away from their traditional source of earning and employment. Survey conducted among youth by the University threw out 3 findings that 1. There was a charm for completing graduation among youth 2.They were looking for on the job training and 3.employability along with education. Sectors of interest for work were Sports, Banking and Finance, Healthcare, Manufacturing and IT in that order. Sector which seemed to have the lowest interest among youth was agriculture.
Close to 350 academicians, industry representatives and experts participated in the workshop and discussed the various dimensions how employability can be regenerated through MSMEs, MSVEs and startups and how education can play a significant role in bridging the gap between demand and supply of expertise and skills.
Some eminent speakers at the workshop were Shri Sanjeev Bikhchandani , MD Naukri.com , Dr Anirudh Deshpande , Educator & Social Worker .Shri Nishant Arya of JBM Group, Ashish Gupta CEO Docprime and CTO Policybazar , Ms.Padmaja Ruparel Co-Founder India Angel Network among others.
The following are the areas of discussion in different sessions:
- MSVE creating Employment and accelerating Employability
- Sustainable Start-ups through enabling ecosystem
- Employability centric interventions through agriculture
- Skilling for Employability
Shri Nishant Arya, Executive Director, JBM Group spoke about Industry 4.0 , Green Mobility across manufacturing industry and significant role of education in preparing skilled human resources.He said future had many opportunities but was important to develop the skills to avail them.
Speaking on the growth of service sector Ashish Gupta, CEO, Docprime and CTO, Policybazar said primary education in India though was well rounded gap clearly exists in higher education. He said would like to see a day when all Universities become skill university in some sense.
Dr.Anirudh Deshpande and Shri Kashimiri Lal , two prominent Educationists and Social Workers also addressed the audience with their perspective in the two respective sessions.
Shri Dharmender Pradhan, Union Minister of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) who was the Chief Guest for Valedictory Session delivering the valedictory speech urged Shri Vishwakarma Skill University to research future job trends and hoped a trend for working along with education emerges which was mantra behind success of countries like Germany. He also said Shri Vishwakarma Skill University as being top of all skill Universities present in the Country.He also urged the industry to take responsibility of skilling of workers sighting example of VLCC academy on pro bono basis.
Vote of Thanks for the first session before lunch was given by Dr.Rajkumar Mittal, Vice Chancellor Chaudhary Bansi Lal University and for the second session was given by Dr Sujata Sahi , Vice Chancellor IILM University who also talked about how skilled based curriculum is stressed upon and inculcated in IILM university.
