Sarvesh Kaushal
Chandigarh April 28, 2017: “Skill Summit 2017 – a Roundtable on Consolidation and Networking with Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) for Skilling India” was jointly organised by National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) at Chandigarh on Friday.
The main purpose of organising the Skill Summit was to bring skill development stakeholders to a common platform to evolvea sustainable skill development approach for skilling vast population of Indian youth.
More than 300 persons representing Sector Skills Councils, State Skill Development Missions, Corporates involved in skill development through their multi-furious activities, skill development universities, Directors, Principals, Instructors and students undergoing skill programmes in universities, engineering colleges, polytechnics and ITIs, National Skill Development Agency, National Skill Development Corporation, State Urban Livelihood Mission participated in deliberations.
Delivering the inaugural address, Sarvesh Kaushal, Special Chief Secretary-cum-Director General, MGSIPA laid emphasis on first improving the quality of school education system and thereafter imparting geographical location specific skills to all cross-sections of the society. He emphasized that besides skilling the first time entrant to the job marketing, there is a need to reskill and upskill the existing manpower from time to time.
He suggested that efforts should also be made on promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship amongst the youth of the country. With a view to promoting self-employment and entrepreneurship, drawing of district/block level action plan based on consultative meetings, tying up with banks and hand-holding of candidates and creation of cooperation of marketing are extremely important.
Shri Rajesh Sharma, Managing Director, HP KaushalVikas Nigam laid emphasis on reaping the demographic dividends due to India being a young country. He was of the opinion that besides meeting its own manpower requirement, the country can provide manpower to the needy nations across the globe. Dr Raj Nehru, Vice-Chancellor, Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University spoke about the initiatives of his university in promoting skill development in state of Haryana. He mentioned that there is a need to change from custodial approach of skill development to a collaborative model of skill development.
Dr PK Tulsi, Director Incharge, NITTTR, Chandigarh is her address spoke about the initiatives of NITTTR, Chandigarh in skill development and technical teachers training. She also dwelled upon need for training vast Indian school dropouts in variety of appropriate skills.
Dr JS Saini, Convenor of the Roundtable highlighted the initiatives taken by central and state governments in developing skill development eco-system in the country. He also shared his concerns about slowing down in hiring by the corporates due to automaton, artificial intelligence and use of robots in different work situations. The challenges faced by skill development stakeholders were also elaborated upon.
Dr RakeshWats, Roundtable Co-convenor informed as to how the roundtable delegates would contribute to evolving a sustainable skill development in the country. Shri GB Singh, Regional Head of FICCI, Chandigarh summarised the proceedings of the inaugural session and proposed a vote of thanks.
In all, 22 Sector Skills Councils, National Skill Development Agency, National Skill Development Corporation,4 State Skill Development Missions, 8 Corporates and a large number of academicians from universities, engineering colleges, polytechnics and skill development institutes made presentations during the roundtable.