07 Sep 2021
The pandemic has highlighted the need for industry-aligned skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling of underprivileged youth. This was also stressed by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship during the session – ‘Job Creation & Entrepreneurship – Way Ahead for Livelihood Generation’ at the recently held CII Annual Meeting 2021.
In his address, the Minister said that a multi layered skill ecosystem needs to be built to ensure lifelong skilling and livelihood opportunities for youth. The minister remarked that as we celebrate ‘azaadi ka amrut mahotsav’, we must work together to make our youth future-ready who will lead India towards the goal of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat. More emphasis and Industry collaborations are needed to map skills of youth with Industry requirements and provide them with affordable & quality skill training, he added.
Since 1987, CII has been working on the Skills Agenda towards promoting, collaborating and building a robust and aspirational skill ecosystem in India, through policy advocacy as well as its various skilling initiatives. CII’s on ground initiatives impact more than 1 million youth every year.
CII Model Career Centres
CII Model Career Centres (MCCs) are industry-led facilitation centres connecting job seekers to Industry by providing them with career counselling, soft skill training, assisting in choosing appropriate career options and getting a decent placement opportunity. Through its activities, MCCs aim to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities, and act as a reservoir of the skilled talent pool from where the Industry can tap in for their employment related requirements, establishing a seamless employer-employee connect. The journey that began with 3 centres in Gurugram, Mumbai and Chennai in 2016, has grown to 40 MCCs including 17 in aspirational districts.
Recruit-Train-Deploy Initiative
CII is working with Industry and State Governments to provide outcome and demand-led training through the Recruit –Train–Deploy (RTD) model. The RTD is a unique, 100% placement-based model, where candidates are screened first and then offered a conditional job, subject to the successful completion of training.
CII signed an MoU with REC Foundation in November 2020 to provide industry-aligned, job-oriented, skill training and employment to 1500 youth from economically weaker section of the society under their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of Rural Electrification Corporation (REC). Under the project, youth from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, NCR, Bihar and Maharashtra will receive job-oriented skill training for seven sectors, namely, power; IT & ITes; healthcare; hospitality; BFSI; logistics and beauty & wellness. Post classroom training, candidates undergo an ‘on the job’ training before the final placement.
Creating Capacity in Healthcare
CII in partnership with the healthcare industry has initiated skilling and reskilling training to the youth and healthcare workers. During the pandemic, CII organized Basic Life Support online training for the Anganwadi community health workers in Goa. In partnership with GE Healthcare, CII conducted reskill training for healthcare and para-healthcare professional, along with their assessment and certification.
Under the ‘Customized Crash Course Program for COVID-19 Warriors’ programme announced recently by the Prime Minister, CII has partnered with 33 hospitals/healthcare institutions to train 5000 COVID-19 warriors. The programme will be run in 12 districts in Assam, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Bihar. The training program involves 21 days of Classroom training and 3 months on the job training (OJT), post which, successful candidates will be absorbed as apprentices/employees by the hospitals. The training will be provided under 6 customized healthcare job roles namely General Duty Assistant; Home Health Aide; Phlebotomist; Emergency Medical Technician-Basic; Medical Equipment Technology Assistant and General Duty Assistant-Advance (Critical Care).
CII Multi Skill Institutes
The CII Multi Skill Institutes are based on a unique multi-corporate, multi-skilling model. MSIs assess Industry requirements before training youth and providing them with employment/self-employment opportunities. They offer state-of-the-art labs to facilitate domain training and assessments; practical classroom training; soft-skills and placement linkages as well as hostel facilities. Currently, the 5 CII Multi Skill Centres are located in Chhindwara (Madhya Pradesh), Vuyyuru (Andhra Pradesh), Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindhudurg and Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra).
Initiatives like this will go a long towards the achievement of Prime Minister’s vision to make India the skill capital of the world.