21 Jul 2020
Every year, India adds about 12 million young people to its workforce. Creating one million jobs every month is not easy, especially when it is exacerbated by a skill mismatch, resulting in the unemployability of many who enter the job market. The sudden global outbreak of COVID-19 and the extensive lockdown in India has further posed a new set of challenges and skills not only for the aspiring youth but also for the industry to survive.
One of the significant factors which hinder the growth of employability in the country is the efforts towards establishing aspiring youth. The existing employment exchanges in the country have consistently put in the efforts to bring value to the employment ecosystem in the country. However, there are many challenges resulting in poor performance of the centers.
CII has been the pioneer in supporting and upbringing the talent pool and industry to its maximum potential through its many skill development and livelihood initiatives. Driving ‘The People’s Agenda’, CII has been impacting millions of lives for over the past few decades through its skill development initiatives which helped establish some key milestones for the ‘Skill India’ mission.
Every year, CII through its many on-ground initiatives on skill development and livelihood has been impacting over one million youth per annum. Based on the analysis of India Skills Report, CII had recommended for revamping of employment exchanges to make them dynamic and provide professional career counselling and guidance support to the job seekers.
The CII Model Career Centres (CII MCCs), established with the support of the Industry, Central and State Governments are industry-led facilitation centres to link the aspiring youth and job seekers with the industry. The CII MCCs provide career assessment, career counselling, skills upgradation and placement/internship opportunities to the youth. They also act as a reservoir of skilled talent pool and helps in increasing employability.
To generate livelihood, CII has partnered with NITI Aayog on Entrepreneurship and Skill Development initiatives in the 27 Aspirational Districts and established CII MCCs to train and facilitate youth to set up their enterprise (small business units). Placement and mentorship opportunities are provide by the CII members at the centres and each CII MCC impacts over 3,000 candidates per annum and helps them to choose appropriate career options.
Through the 37 CII MCCs across India and 29 YES Kendras in Karnataka, CII is making a huge social impact while reducing the cost of hiring and meeting the industry’s manpower requirements. The CII MCCs have imparted career counselling to over 4.21 lakh youth and provided employment to 1.35 lakh job seekers.
CII MCCs through multi-pronged strategy has been constantly increasing awareness amongst the various stakeholders like skill training institutes, assessment bodies, schools and colleges district administration, local community leaders, Government departments and public in general about the services available.
Amid lockdown, CII acknowledges the fact that the current demographic mix with a significant youth bulge requires creation of sustainable livelihood opportunities and promotion of entrepreneurship with a sharp focus on emerging job roles. The endeavor is to ensure the skills ecosystem should not only cater to the existing industry requirements but should have a definite room for continuous reskilling and upskilling.
One of the main challenges faced by the industry today is sourcing talent, particularly at the base/frontline/entry level, which is why CII MCC has now scaled up with the addition of the Digital platform CII ApnaJob. This has increased the out-reach to job seekers and the hiring for the industry has been made even easier and smooth with access to job seekers from across India.
The focus now is to cater to e-Commerce, logistics, BPO and healthcare industries where the requirements are large in numbers and we are trying to reach out to the job seekers through the District Administration in enabling the people stranded in the shelter homes some earning opportunity.
CII MCCs have been catering to the current challenges through its many services both physically and through online support:
Coverage/Catchment area: The CII MCCs caters to a catchment area comprising around 3-4 adjacent Districts covering an area of approximately 100 sq. kms to map out the availability of institutions, industry, demographics etc. and post the details on the portal for general access.
Demand side/Industry interaction: All the CII MCCs undertake market sizing exercise to estimate the number of employment opportunities in their area, associated skill requirements, skill training capacity availability etc. This is done through close and constant interface with local industry and employers.
Supply side/Candidate engagement: On the supply side, CII MCCs provide counselling services to the job seekers and make them aware of opportunities based on their skills, area of interest and requirement. CII MCCs provide a range of employment related services like career counselling, job matching, employment market analytics and other value-added services.
Jobs and skill mapping: CII MCCs undertake the job skill mapping for identification of right fit job for candidate. The candidates are assessed through skill assessment and psychometric tests and guided to the right opportunity whether it is for employment, skill training, apprenticeship training, on-the-job training, finishing course (gap training) etc.
The article first appeared in June 2020 issue of CII Communique. Click here to read the full issue.