The madness of the last 2 years is settling down a little - jumping from vocational training to higher education; enough to allow me to reflect on the amazing experience of vocational skills training at the grassroots levels in India.
Industrial Training Institutes
On one hand, we have the ITIs (Industrial Training Institutions, for the uninitiated); reasonably good hard infrastructure (buildings, machines, facilities) and extremely poor soft infrastructure (people, quality of training and even basic discipline). It has been a great experience for me to be acting as Chairman for 7 ITIs in Haryana for the past 30 months.
Taking a closer look, the students coming into these institutions from the villages in the state have great potential and most of them, contrary to popular belief, come in with a lot of expectation. However, they soon become part of the web of “free” education with no accountability on the quality of training. New buildings are made, but housekeeping staff (‘sweeper’ in government parlance) is not available. In fact, those that are available are physically/mentally disabled or alcoholic or, simply, close to the local politician and hence will not be physically available at the institution. New buildings are made, without provision of power and electricity (imagine industrial training without these!). New buildings are made, hence intake is increased – however, faculty is not hired. New machinery, tools and equipments are being bought – the ‘million dollar’ question is who will use them in absence of qualified instructors and power. Among all this gloom, there are a number of students who, largely on their own (at times, with the help of a few sincere instructors) actually learn something! And they start contributing to Indian industry!! But the placement percentage is most places do not even cross 50%.
Actually, watching this happen, I realize that, in India, most employed people are ‘underemployed’ – MBAs/PGs are just supervisors (at best), Engineers and Diploma holders are skilled workers, ITI pass-outs are labourers…………. Are we on our way to being a superpower?
Private Initiatives
Now, let us take a closer look at the private initiatives (like the ones we have in CL Skill Schools). These are conventional ‘teaching shops’, where sincerity of instructors and students is the great differentiator. At the same time, they mostly lack the hard infrastructure, which is made up for by some decent soft infrastructure. Just one comparison (in these hot summer months) – CL Skill School centers in Bikaner, Ganganagar (where temperatures soar to 50°C), the computer labs are working regularly, sometimes even without a desert cooler. Compare this with one of the ITIs in Haryana, where they do not run the computers in these months, since it is hot (about 43 degrees at the most) and 3 ACs are not sufficient for 16 computers of the lab. At the CL Skill School centers usually at least 70% students get meaningfully placed at the end of the course.
Is there a way that these two complementary systems converge to create institutions that are strong in both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure (which, of course, exists in a few of the private institutions and a handful of public institutions)?
It is good to notice that a number of PPP initiatives are being adopted by the governments across the states as well as at the Center. However, to make these meaningfully contribute to the Indian industry, I strongly feel that the objectives will have to be ensure that there is a win-win for all.
Industrial Training Institutes
On one hand, we have the ITIs (Industrial Training Institutions, for the uninitiated); reasonably good hard infrastructure (buildings, machines, facilities) and extremely poor soft infrastructure (people, quality of training and even basic discipline). It has been a great experience for me to be acting as Chairman for 7 ITIs in Haryana for the past 30 months.
Taking a closer look, the students coming into these institutions from the villages in the state have great potential and most of them, contrary to popular belief, come in with a lot of expectation. However, they soon become part of the web of “free” education with no accountability on the quality of training. New buildings are made, but housekeeping staff (‘sweeper’ in government parlance) is not available. In fact, those that are available are physically/mentally disabled or alcoholic or, simply, close to the local politician and hence will not be physically available at the institution. New buildings are made, without provision of power and electricity (imagine industrial training without these!). New buildings are made, hence intake is increased – however, faculty is not hired. New machinery, tools and equipments are being bought – the ‘million dollar’ question is who will use them in absence of qualified instructors and power. Among all this gloom, there are a number of students who, largely on their own (at times, with the help of a few sincere instructors) actually learn something! And they start contributing to Indian industry!! But the placement percentage is most places do not even cross 50%.
Actually, watching this happen, I realize that, in India, most employed people are ‘underemployed’ – MBAs/PGs are just supervisors (at best), Engineers and Diploma holders are skilled workers, ITI pass-outs are labourers…………. Are we on our way to being a superpower?
Private Initiatives
Now, let us take a closer look at the private initiatives (like the ones we have in CL Skill Schools). These are conventional ‘teaching shops’, where sincerity of instructors and students is the great differentiator. At the same time, they mostly lack the hard infrastructure, which is made up for by some decent soft infrastructure. Just one comparison (in these hot summer months) – CL Skill School centers in Bikaner, Ganganagar (where temperatures soar to 50°C), the computer labs are working regularly, sometimes even without a desert cooler. Compare this with one of the ITIs in Haryana, where they do not run the computers in these months, since it is hot (about 43 degrees at the most) and 3 ACs are not sufficient for 16 computers of the lab. At the CL Skill School centers usually at least 70% students get meaningfully placed at the end of the course.
Is there a way that these two complementary systems converge to create institutions that are strong in both hard infrastructure and soft infrastructure (which, of course, exists in a few of the private institutions and a handful of public institutions)?
It is good to notice that a number of PPP initiatives are being adopted by the governments across the states as well as at the Center. However, to make these meaningfully contribute to the Indian industry, I strongly feel that the objectives will have to be ensure that there is a win-win for all.
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