Empowering Youth With Skills

Waqar Ahmed Aug 30, 2018

“To capitalize on the youngest workforce available in India, skilling is the need of the hour. India is going to have the world’s largest workforce by 2027. The young aspiring youth of India needs to be directed properly. They need to be educated in a different way and not just following the crowd blindly by continuing to study in the same manner using 50 years old academic pattern isn’t going to help at all” says Dr. (Brig.) Surjit Singh Pabla, President, Bhartiya Skill Development University, Jaipur. According to the World Bank report, in 2014, India’s labor force size was 495 million with only 3.55% of the workforce worked for government jobs. Only 2.3% of the total workforce in 2012 was working for a formal private sector, which means the high majority of our young workforce is struggling to find jobs. In 2016, only 2.15 Cr. people in India had government jobs (Both state and central govt. jobs) excluding defense personnel out of total population of 1.32 Billion.

The crime rate is also increased remarkably. The literacy rate in India shows a rather disagreeing picture with youth literacy rate for ages 15-24 is 95.2% in 2015 and adult literacy rate to 80.1% in 2018. This clearly shows that literate people are not finding adequate jobs. The career choice among youth is either to get professionally trained first and then start their career or to start their own venture without any training or experience.

India today requires a better interface between industry and academia to benefit from the available workforce by developing skills among youth. The need of the hour is to promote skill development. There are dedicated skill universities throughout the nation who are trying to develop a healthy ecosystem for skill growth to nourish the socio-economic growth of the nation.

Skill Universities are providing B.Voc, M.Voc and Ph.D. degree courses in which while completing Bachelor’s degree student is job ready with hands-on industry experience that too with being eligible to compete in any government competitive exams. This helps students in choosing their career stream with on ground exposure to industries with alternate 6-month semesters with university and industry.

Following are the streams where career options are available to students:

School of Automotive skills
School of Electrical Skills
School of Entrepreneurship Skills
School of Manufacturing Skills
School of Machine learning and AI Skills
School of HVAC & Refrigeration Skills

School of Automotive skills:

Spearheaded by Prof. Mohanjit Singh Walia, Principal School of Automotive Skills. He is B.E. Honors (M.Tech.) from TIET, Patiala, and MBA (Marketing) from PU, Chandigarh. He served Greaves Cotton Ltd. for 34 years and retired as Chief Operating Officer – Automotive Engine Business - Marketing and R&D in 2016, with a unique experience of handling diverse and niche markets across business and product segments.

Speaking about the career in automotive skills, Mr. Mohanjit Singh Walia says, “Indian auto industry is one of the largest in the world and it contributes highly in national GDP as well. With this huge market, there comes requirement of skilled people who can deploy to service & maintenance department in various industries or with proficiency, they can start their own entrepreneurial venture. A workshop in its first phase with an approximate outlay of 2 Crores is being set up at BSDU campus where students have access to world-class machines from brands like John Bean, Bosch etc. for wheel-balancing, tyre changing, 3D wheel alignment, AC recycling as well as machines like dent puller machine, MIG welding machine, two post lift machine with a fully equipped paint booth etc.

School of Electrical Skills:

Spearheaded by Prof. (Dr.) SK Jhajharia who is well qualified and holds BE (Hon) & M. E. (Power System), BITS Pilani, Ph.D. He has served as HOD (Electrical & Electronics Dept.) in Manipal University Jaipur and MIT Bikaner. He has published seven research papers in international journals and conferences. He has more than 42 years of Industrial and Academic rich experience and superannuated as Sr. Vice President from Hindalco Industries Ltd.

Speaking about career opportunities, he said, “With India’s power demand growing enormously to about three times in coming 25 years, unreliable electrical supplies with increased consumption are giving birth too many other related issues that India is suffering today. With Central Government’s initiative to provide power 24x7 to all by 2022, the impetus is on strengthening sub-transmission and distribution system including provisioning of solar panels, metering of distribution transformers/feeders/consumer in urban areas and IT enablement of distribution sector. This will need the substantial workforce to accomplish this cumbersome task. The students, who wish to pursue their career in Electrical Skills, after their degrees will have greater job opportunities as the electrical specialist for both private and public sectors in sectors like railways, civil aviation, electricity board and utility companies, electrical designing, and consultancy firms and of course all types of manufacturing industries.”

The Electrical Skill Labs are well-equipped with all required instruments and state-of-the art machines comparable to those in the industry. These include Wheatstone Bridges, single and three phase transformers, single and three phase induction machines, synchronous machines, various DC machines, AC-DC digital drives, PLCs, advance electrical machine trainer kits and digital IC trainer kits, etc. Additional hardware includes power supplies with variable and fixed ac/dc, resistive, inductive and capacitive loads, rheostats, changeover switches, measurement meters such as digital multi-meter, wattmeter, tachometer etc. There are also cut section models available for several machines.

School of Entrepreneurship Skills:

There is a common myth about skill courses that it is meant for those who want to join jobs in their chosen skill sets whereas they ignore the bigger picture of enterprise development which academia, universities and government is trying to address by introducing courses like B.Voc. Entrepreneurship. The government has now realized the value of startups and new entrepreneurial ventures as this is the only way to outperform on the global stage in years to come. India is a home to almost 3100 startups per year where it ranks just behind US, UK and Israel according to NASSCOM report of 2015.

School of Manufacturing Skills:

Mr. Mahendra Singh Shekhawat, Head - School of Manufacturing, is Associate Professor - Polymechanic M. Tech. (Manufacturing Systems Engineering), pursuing PhD. From MNIT, Jaipur in Hybrid Machining Processes. He has more than 32 years of experience, including 8 years in academics. Area of interest is Machine Design and Advance Manufacturing Processes. As project leader, he has designed, developed and tested various kinds of CNC and Conventional Grinding Machines at HMT Ltd. Ajmer.

The School of Manufacturing Skills is providing in depth training in the domain of manufacturing: machining, sheet metal and welding activities, assembly (fitting) and maintenance. The school program is organized in such a way that the student will get a high level of practical skills which includes a lot of practice with the focus on excellence and autonomy in manufacturing. The qualified student, B.Voc (Manufacturing) is an expert who is required to work as a supervisor in the domain of manufacturing or quality management, tooling, maintenance and production management. He is able to program and operate the most modern machines, manufacture precise tools, prepare the work process and define the manufacturing resources. Pass-outs from BSDU have joined RS India, Perto India, Johari Medtech, etc.

BSDU has most modern machines in the world for many processes that students learn during the course of their training, namely Alzmetall drilling machines, Fehlmann milling and drilling machines, Gedee Weiler lathe machine and cabstand lathe machine, universal milling machine, notching and polishing machine, Emco conventional milling machines and many-many more.

AI & Machine Learning Skills:

Spearheaded by Prof. (Dr.) Kumkum Garg BE, ME, PhD, Dean of Faculty/School

Dr. Garg is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and Imperial College, London, UK, having 45+ years of experience of teaching and research in Computing, mostly at IIT Roorkee. She has also had rich administrative experience with the Manipal Group of Institutions, both at Manipal and Jaipur. Her areas of interest are AI and Mobile Computing.

The B.Voc program in Machine Learning and AI skills deals with the intersection of computer science and statistics, machine learning and practical applications. The program focuses on machine learning as the most exciting technology for data and is of high value when it comes to employment within the field. The aim is to get students exposed to the latest developments in Data Science and communicating their results, providing valuable insights on data – a highly sought-after skill.

AI & Machine learning lab consists of CISCO Networking Lab, 3D printing Lab, R&D Labs, Water level Indicator, Cell phone controlled Home Appliance, Voice controlled robotic vehicle, Arduino based digital clock + RH indicator, Edge Follower robot, etc.

BSDU students have excellent job opportunities in software companies like Wipro, HCL, IBM, Forsk, Cisco, etc.

School of HVAC & Refrigeration Skills:

The Bureau of Labour Statistics projects 21% job growth in HVAC & R by 2022. The Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) predicted industry currently needs 27,000 new workers each year just to replace those who retire. HVAC & R techs will be busier than ever before and remain in high demand throughout the next two-three decade. HVAC & R jobs can never be outsourced and will always be on site, which affords technicians and other professional long-term job security.

HVAC & R industry, which is on a fast track growth trajectory provides very dynamic and exciting careers with many different job opportunities such as: HVAC & R Managers, HVAC & R Engineers, Project Managers, HVAC & R Mechanical Designers, HVAC & R Installers, HVAC & R Mechanics, Sales and Marketing representative, Service Technician, Field engineer etc. Leading players in the industry which offer careers in HVAC & R field are Daikin, Carrier, Godrej, Voltas, Lloyd, Hitachi, Samsung, LG, Blue Star, Zamil, Panasonic, Whirlpool etc.

A Centre of Excellence has been established at University Campus by Daikin Air-conditioning India Private Ltd. for HVAC & R Training with fully equipped air conditioning labs that has separate machines for students to learn different processes for air conditioning like vapor absorption, cooling towers, central air-conditioning machine, cold storage, multi-evaporator refrigeration, recirculation air conditioning, etc.