Trained Workers Likely To Get Paid More

National Skill Training Institute (NSTI), earlier called Foremen Training Institute, was setup in 1968 by the Government of India, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGE&T) to build and upgrade technical skills. With the wave of demand for skilled workers and skill-oriented courses, BN Sridhar, Regional Director of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Karnataka, based at the NSTI speaks about the new developments and trends in education. Excerpts:

What is the need of the hour in the market?

There is an increased demand in the IT sector, but we are also seeing a big requirement in the manufacturing and service sector. However, nowadays people prefer white-collar jobs; even with lesser salaries they are willing to be employed in the service and IT sector, as opposed to manufacturing. The manufacturing sector was hit hard during the Covid-19 pandemic, but now it is picking up again and there are a lot of job opportunities there.

While there is a genuine interest in building core technical skills in the manufacturing sector, even with these technical qualifications, most people seek out job opportunities in the IT sector. Hence, despite students enrolling in these courses and receiving qualifications, the manufacturing sector is still in need for qualified skilled workers.

How can you reconcile student aspiration with market demand?

We are taking many steps to create awareness among students about the various job and career opportunities available to them. The IT and service sector is really attractive right now among students with the start-up boom and initial salaries being higher compared to other sectors. But our main focus is on industrial training and students in the Industrial Training Institute (ITI), which can be pursued after Class X. Students undergo two years of training, during and after which we mentor and guide them through the industries. Our ministry supports these programmes. While the starting salary is not as high or attractive compared to other sectors, there is much more potential and opportunity for growth.

Those with proper skills and training are seeing a lot of demand in the industry and employers are even willing to pay high salaries, but not at the entry-level. That is the main challenge we are facing right now, especially when it comes to small to medium scale industries, where the initial salaries are quite low.

From the student's perspective, attitudes and priorities have changed over time. Families have more disposable income available, which means that students do not have the same urgency to find a job immediately or build core skills. What we are seeing is more and more students opting for higher salary jobs in the private sector without much long-term planning as opposed to careful investment in skilling and personal & professional growth.

Tell us about some of your programmes. How are they improving the career graph of skilled workers?

We have our own flagship progra-mme, the Craftsman Training Scheme (CTS) which is being conducted in the ITI. These are the new-age highly technical courses in the field of welding, machinist, etc. This institute is especially for training the people who will go on to train others in these programmes. We are conducting instructor training for ITI. 

Currently, we are focused on designing short-term programmes depending on what skills are in most demand from the industry. These are like refresher courses for ITI passouts, so that they build on their skills and experience and pursue higher paid jobs. 

At present, our main focus is to observe the industry, find the areas where there is a skill demand and design and offer short-term courses accordingly. Many of these skilling programmes are already designed by the Sector Skill Councils, autonomous industry-led bodies that are a part of the National Skill Development Corporation and we can pick and choose the courses we want to offer as per demand. We also work directly with industries and design courses to upskill their employees. 

For example, we have a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Space Research Organisation to upskill 4,000 of their workers. Similarly, we have conducted tailor-made programmes for managerial development for Submarine Overseeing Team supervisors as well as training programmes for IBM, among others.

Where do you find the faculty to conduct these programmes?

All our staff at NSTI comes from industry experience and engineering backgrounds. We make sure that the staff continuously upgrades its know-ledge and keeps up with new technology and innovations in the market. Apart from this, we also engage guest faculty and experts from the industry to help conduct our training programs.

How can we encourage people to pursue vocational training?

Skilled workers are in high demand right now and it is impor-tant that skills are imparted at an early age. Right now, the trend is to pursue academic courses; no one is coming towards skill-building programmes. The National Education Policy (NEP) also highlights the need for skilling at an early stage. Once we begin imparting these skills beginning at the school level, students will have the chance to choose skill-oriented courses. This will be an advantage for institutes like ours and it will also benefit students. Unfortunately, skills do not receive the respect they deserve but NEP will hopefully help in changing this mindset while also creating more options for students.

How do you balance academic pursuits with skilling?

Earlier the career graph use to move from ITI courses to diploma programmes with the potential to pursue an engineering degree afterwards. Through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), ITI students will also receive their Class XII qualification. Students also have the option to parallelly pursue degree courses with the Indira Gandhi National Open University. This way, skilling and education can be simultaneously pursued. Furthermore, many higher education institutes are offering bachelor's degree in vocational training. There are a lot of opportunities to pursue education and grow in technical careers.

What is your personal philosophy on education?

I think the education system is evolving now as per the needs of the young  generation. However, I would like to see more respect in our society for skills and skilled workers. It should be given the same importance as regular academic studies. I think once skills are imparted at a school level, there will be better awareness and more people will opt for skill-oriented careers.

Vasudha Mukherjee

BW Reporters The author works with BW Education