Ganesh's Unwavering Will

- by Malav Shah

Ganesh Gurmare is 20 years old and hails from a small village in the district of Gadchiroli. His father is a farmer who places tremendous importance on Ganesh's academics. Ganesh is a very bright student and always did well in academics. Despite this, his father was far from satisfied. He always said to Ganesh, "Become successful, then we'll see." Ganesh confessed that he studied hard just to see his father happy. By the time he reached college, his interest in academics had become negligible. Even though he attended no classes during his first year of B.A, he still managed to pass his exams.

Ganesh's family lives in moderate conditions, but his father is the sole earner which puts a lot of pressure on him. Ganesh wanted to do something substantial to support his family. This was when his friends, who were attending the PACE hospitality program in Aurangabad, told him about the same. When Ganesh told his parents that he wanted to drop out of his studies and join the hospitality program his parents blatantly refused. But, Ganesh was not one to give up so easily. He was determined and tried every trick in the book to change his parents' minds. Eventually, he even went on a hunger strike for 2 days before his parents gave in to his will. So, with 4 friends from his village he set out for Satara.

India 2022: High on Skills but Low on Jobs?

- by Janie Lee

In an article posted by Forbes India on July 10 2013, Dinesh Narayanan looks at the vocational skilling landscape in India. The article touches on a few of the issues that pose fundamental challenges to achieving the ambitious goal of training 500 million youth by 2022. Among these concerns are on-the-job training, certification, and a lack of meaningful interaction between stakeholders. Ultimately, Narayanan drives home the point that policy must be “democratically made and autocratically implemented.”

While both the private and public sectors are grappling with the right strategy to implement on an autocratic level, individual organizations are finding degrees of success in placing students and recovering fees. By sharing best practices and innovative models, all stakeholders can have more input in determining which strategies could and should be scaled up. Only then can policy be made democratically.

On a smaller scale, Pratham has had varying levels of success attempting to create training and placements for youth in India. The methods below highlight the successful practices that address some of the concerns that Narayanan has mentioned in his article. We hope to continue an honest conversation about what is and is not working within the vocational skilling landscape in India and invite others to do the same.

Strategic Partnerships

Former labor minister Mallikarjun Kharge stressed the need for active involvement between the public and private sectors in order to sure proper and high-quality implementation of programs. Within each of Pratham’s industry-specific programs, we have partnered with industry leaders and the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC). The partners serve as knowledge partners and support organizations for students from beginning to end. Partners such as L&T gives us financial support, whereas others like Taj provide industry exposure through on the job training for one week.  As knowledge partners, organizations provide oversight during the setup phase of each center, help develop course content, share assessment tools, provide joint certification, provide placement linkages, and help audit the center to ensure high-quality delivery of training.

Mass Production for Employment Generation in Labor-intensive Manufacturing Sector

- by Vaman Desai 

The National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) sounds reassuring to the perpetual skeptics of the growth of Indian manufacturing. And at a point in time when the Indian economy is ailing, the NMP feels like it is just what the doctor had ordered for its health.

NMP proposes setting up of National Investment and Manufacturing Zones (NIMZ) in its ambitious quest to increase the share of manufacturing sector from the current 17% to 25% by 2025.  It also speaks about creating 100 million much needed new jobs. 24.5 million Out of these 100 million will be only in manufacturing sector and naturally a major part of that 24.5 million will come from the labor-intensive manufacturing industries. Thus to realize the supply of the required skilled labor the NMP has set up the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) which in turn has set up skill councils in key manufacturing industry sectors where India has comparative advantage, examples being textile, leather, food processing etc.

However despite these provisions, the supply of labor still remains the primary issue in labor intensive industries. So much so that robust factories with exponential growth potential are shutting down due to this supply shortage. In my brief stint with Pratham till now, I have had firsthand experiences of understanding the causes responsible for the practical constraints in the supply of labor in the labor intensive industries. The low wages paid to the semi-skilled and the skilled labor being the most primary of concerns amongst others such as poor living conditions. This shortage in labor supply is not only coming as a cost to the labor-intensive manufacturing but it is also having a multiplying effect on the cost to the economy as a whole. The critical point to note here is that manufacturing jobs are the primary jobs for economic growth since jobs in other fields are created around the manufacturing sector. That a lion’s share of jobs in manufacturing will come from labor-intensive manufacturing, in India’s case, makes the importance labor-intensive manufacturing jobs especially paramount.  

The Domino Effect

- by Janie Lee

(Priya, on the right, takes a picture with Sandhya and Deepali, the center head of the training center)

Priya, a 19 year old, is a star employee at a local hospital in Nasik. Prior to being a bedside assistant, Priya was unable to find a passion and struggling to contribute to her family’s income. The only source of income that her family received was through her father’s salary as a laborer. However, Priya heard about an opportunity to become a bedside assistant and decided to pursue the course. Priya found out about the course through her sister, who was pursuing a diploma for computer applications at the PACE Center. In similar fashion, her sister was also referred to the PACE Center by a friend.

This chain reaction did not stop at Priya. After completing the course successfully and finding a job, Priya encouraged a close friend and classmate, Sandhya, to take the bedside assistance course. Because Sandhya was able to witness Priya’s steady transformation, she agreed to give it a try. After completing the course, Sandhya was also hired at the same hospital that Priya works at. Currently, Priya is training and onboarding Sandhya to the hospital. This domino effect captures the power of sharing opportunities and experiences.  

Discussing the landscape of vocational skilling

by Janie Lee 

The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) held its 5^th Partner’s Meet on 26^th-27^th June in New Delhi for its stakeholders. Government officials, vocational training organizations such as Pratham Institute, employers, and sector skill councils met to focus on the sustainability of skill development programs. Along with prioritizing sustainability, participants engaged in thoughtful dialogue about the success of having vocational skilling programs as well as the challenges that still remain.