Set up ‘vocational university’ to tap demographic dividend, says CII

The need to train millions of workers, particularly at lower levels, and making them employable was the crux of the seminar – Employment Exchanges to Employability Centres – organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry recently.

A ‘vocational university’, improving the brand image of vocational skills, creating user-friendly digitised platform in employment exchanges, increasing employability and setting up counselling centres were among the key proposals that came up for discussion at the seminar.

Mr S. Mahalingam, Chairman, CII National Committee on Skills and Executive Director and CFO of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, said vocational education programmes were necessary to make the best use of the demographic dividend the country enjoys. There is a need for radical changes in the course curricula and the skill training infrastructure. There were a lot of skills required across sectors such as construction, manufacturing, service-related industry including hospitality and healthcare.

CII, with the support of the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Mission and the Government of Tamil Nadu, has carried out an in-depth analysis of the human resource potential of the State.

A copy of the report titled, ‘Human Resource Assessment for Tamil Nadu 2012’ was handed over to Mr Mohan Pyare, Principal Secretary, Department of Labour and Employment, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Mr Pyare said the Government had embarked on a programme to modernise the employment exchanges to make them ‘more citizen-friendly’. There was also a proposal to create private placement cells.

Mr R. Dinesh, Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu State Council and Joint Managing Director, TVS & Sons Ltd, said the focus must be on vocational stream of education and “we should try and create a ‘vocational university’ and also must intertwine vocational education in the formal education system”.

He also suggested public-private partnership in digitising the employment exchanges and skill development at lower levels would be beneficial for the eco-system.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/article3699838.ece