ASSOCHAM Summit-cum-Award on Skilling India: From Skill to Prosperity

India’s potential to become the skill capital of the world is yet to be realised. As the country is fast evolving with tremendous of human capital, it is the right moment for aligning this growth with the need for industry ready workforce. However, the mainstream education systems have not been able to meet the demands of the growing economy and the dynamic industry. Hence, there is a great emphasis on promoting vocational training and skill development in collaboration with various stakeholders such as the academia, industry, training partners and the government organizations. The ASSOCHAM Summit-cum-Award on Skilling India held on 9th August 2017 at Hotel The Lalit, Delhi discussed various issues about catalyzing the skill development initiatives and recognized the efforts of various stakeholders through awards for their performance.

View the list of Awards Winners: Click here to view the list of ASSOCHAM Skills Award Winners

Hon’ble Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (IC) Shri Rajiv Pratap Rudy was the Chief Guest in this summit. Shri Sandeep Jajodia, President, ASSOCHAM during his welcome address said the skill ecosystem in India is undergoing major reforms and policy interventions as India embarks on its journey to become a Knowledge Economy. India is expected to be home to a skilled workforce of 500 million by 2022. About 12 million persons are expected to join the workforce every year. This talent pool needs to be adequately skilled. Considering the magnitude of the challenge in terms of skilling about 15 million persons every year and ensuring that the workforce of 500 million is adequately skilled by 2022, it is required that the way forward comprises of adequate initiatives to achieve these humungous targets in the right ‘scale’ and ‘speed’.

The Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Mr. Rajiv Pratap Rudy during his inaugural address that the Government is imparting skill-based training for entry-level jobs and employment opportunities for people in unorganised sector including those seeking to work abroad as drivers and domestic help.

“Ideally such basic skills should be imparted at the school level itself but since it did not happen, it is being taken up separately by the Government.” He also said there have been many instances where people went abroad to work as a driver or as domestic help but since they were not aware of the rules, law and order of that foreign country they got caught and were imprisoned for unknowingly doing something wrong. He however conceded that Government is finding it difficult to train as many people in accordance with the demand/requirement of the industry.

“We are glad to see the response of all stakeholders including the industrial houses in terms of skill development which had been missing for all these years, as such we are imparting industrial training, short-term training, services sector training to people,” the Union Minister said.

He also said that in the post-independent India, people at the helm put significant focus on developing education sector but somehow forgot the relevance of skill development.

“It is only the skill that portrays once success but we have not been able to realise this for years as only those people became successful who got educated, though skills should have been developed along with education but that did not happen,” said Mr Rudy.

He added that it took India 68 years to realise the importance of developing skills. “Though previously attempts were made to add skills and vocations to education but it did not actually take off and I very reluctantly say this that education had a bias against skills which was not given due importance.”

Others who shared their views include Dr. Jaswant Singh Yadav, Hon’ble Minister of Labour, Skill, Employment & Entrepreneurship, Government of Rajasthan Prof. S. Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Science, Padma Shri Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Chairman – Sun Foundation, Shri Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Prof. (Dr.) Balvir S. Tomar, Chairman, ASSOCHAM Skill Development Council & Chancellor, NIMS University

On the sideline of the summit, ASSOCHAM also gave away awards, recognizing the efforts of organizations working towards skilling. 17 Gold and 21 Silver Awards for various categories were granted.Shri D.S. Rawat, Secretary General gave the vote of thanks to the dignitaries, speakers, sponsors and all the participants of the summit