VET models and views on govt projects

1. nileshjuvalekar

2. www.thesmartmanager.comT h e S m a r t M a n a g e r Sep-Oct 10
s m a r t EN T ER P R I S E
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skills are for ever
by Sanjay Shivnani (In conversation with Tanmoy Goswami)
Since the emergence of technocracies as power-brokers in the globalized economic order, perhaps no other
word has gone through so many shifts in meaning and significance as ‘skill’. The concept of skill within the
broader framework of knowledge tends to obsolesce itself faster than we can notice—simply think of the
number of professions that have disappeared into nostalgia in the last decade. The need for a dynamic skills
training environment that can help people upgrade their capabilities and convert skills into employment has
never been more pressing.
in India, this need is rendered more vital by a booming youth population that is seen as our big hope
in the economic leadership race. But how realistic is our hope? We produce graduates in astronomical numbers, but far from
reassuring us, this is fast turning into an Achilles’ heel in the absence of result-oriented vocational training programs. The government
runs thousands of Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and Industrial Training Centres (ITCs), but the lack of job creation and a robust
delivery platform tend to throw a spanner in the works. In brief – a large part of our educated youth is unemployable.
This is where Career Launcher (CL) steps in – though strictly speaking, it need not. A household name in much of young India on
the back of its reputation in the MBA test prep business, CL’s Skill School initiative now touches thousands of below poverty line,
tribal, rural and urban youth, training them in trades as diverse as diesel engine maintenance, marketing and sales and computer-
based accounting. It also provides personality development training to these youth, many of whom could not even dream of two
square meals a day, based on its belief that a confident handshake often works better than a well-made weld.
Apart from working with corporate partners to ensure job creation, CL is also working as a pace-setter in the nascent public-
private partnership (PPP) segment in the country. They have adopted 21 ITIs across six states, and their campaigns have seen
them work closely with village panchayats and block authorities. The result is a unique form of social entrepreneurship that cuts
through cynicism by putting skills firmly back in the knowledge game.

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S K I L L S ARE F O R E V ER by Sanjay Shivnani
individual is able to achieve her aspirations and make her
dreams come true. Within this larger goal, the field that CL
plays in is education. CL has been the pioneer of the test prep
industry in this country; we started this way back in 1995. As
our brand started building itself and propagating its virtues,
we realized that we could extend this franchise across other
segments of the education pie. A few years ago, CL started
its own school chain christened Indus World School; the first
one being in Hyderabad on a sprawling campus with world-
class facilities. So, CL had entered mainstream education,
and that was stretched further to higher education with our
first bschool called Indus World School of Business at Greater
Noida in the National Capital Region. And thus, step by
step, we started extending our footprint into the education
sector. Finally, we realized that education allows core-sector
companies like CL, which have a strong core purpose and a
committed team, to pursue the larger goal of inclusiveness and
contribute to nation building. We internalized the compelling
argument that education must be democratized; that we must
reach out to the masses and make a difference. That is India’s
only escape to victory and global leadership.
Simultaneously, the Government of India (GoI) was
espousing the human capital opportunity that resides within
India. A few years ago, India’s population was its biggest
nightmare; today it is probably India’s only engine for global
dominance. If the GoI executes as per plans, India will emerge
as the skill capital by 2020 and we will be exporting skills and
L’s core purpose is to ensure that each and everyc
Sanjay Shivnani is President,
Vocational Education & Training,
atCL.BeforejoiningCL,Shivnani
spent several years working at
3M India. An IIM Lucknow
alumnus, he is responsible for
CL’s geographic growth and for
maintaining relationships with
decision makers in the Asian
academic community.

4. www.thesmartmanager.com31T h e S m a r t M a n a g e r Sep-Oct 10
S K I L L S ARE F O R E V ER by Sanjay Shivnani
human capital to the rest of the world. Just
to share a statistic, by 2022 India will have
about 50 million additional skilled hands,
while the rest of the world will have a deficit
of 47 million.
India’s teeming millions and raw talent
can be harnessed by vocational education
and training which empowers these millions
with employable skills. It raises their
employability potential and gives them a far
better chance at improving their livelihoods
and partaking in the country’s economic
growth and progress.
CL wants to be at the forefront of this
engine of inclusive growth; it’s a natural
progression for us from regular mainstream
education to vocational education and
training. The contextual domain remains
the same and this is CL’s raison d’être which
is already articulated in our Core Purpose.
Vocational education and training is also very
outcome- and achievement-focused; training
by itself means nothing unless it results in
better salary and/or better employment and/
or new employment.
I think organizations have to realize and
internalize the fact that one way to do well
in business is to do good, and the greatest
good can happen if one works on a canvas
of inclusiveness.
on CL’s vocational education and training
model and branding challenges
CL Skill School works with a lot of poor
people in really backward areas. We train
them thoroughly on job-related skills and
get them placed with corporates that recruit
large, high-productivity workforces on the
ground, for example, in sales. The bedrock
of our business is the understanding that vocational training
is a livelihood issue for our trainees. When you and I go for
a training program, we only look to enhance our existing
skills, but for these guys it is a question of survival. This
makes them far more focused on the final outcome than we
urbanites can ever be. They have neither the patience nor the
need for ‘branding’ as we understand it. All our promotional
activities have to be extremely localized, through leaflets,
pamphlets and canvassing in the local language. We go door
to door to acquire trainees after drawing up village- and
block-level lists with the help of panchayats and other local
bodies (community mobilization drives). Thereafter, all they
really care about and judge us by is the end result – whether
we are really able to get them jobs as promised. There is not
much room for perceived brand value, etc. Our model can be
summed up in one simple phrase—‘repair and prepare’.
Most of the trainees are too poor to pay their own fees.
This is where our corporate clients and partners come in. We
work with many FMCG, telecom and BFSI companies which
hire the trainees at the end of the respective programs, and
they subsidize the cost of training. Our training centers are
generally located at the fringes of big cities, areas with a high
concentration of migrants and slumdwellers.
Our trainers are ITI-certified, ITI-trained people. They may
also come from rural schools and polytechnics. On a case to
case basis, we co-create the content with our corporate clients.
The government creates the content wherever it is involved.
on whether India is in a position to sustainably manage
its demographic advantage
I think the opportunity that India is sitting on is very real. The
real advantage that I have personally witnessed at the ground
level is no matter what one’s living conditions, Indians have
huge aspirations. That is real fire power alone; given some
empowerment, this fire power can be harnessed to create an
economic powerhouse that the world may not have seen till
now. My work in vocational training takes me to remote rural
locations, and when I spend time with the youth I notice that
they all want to become Amitabh Bachchans someday, even
India’s teeming millions and raw talent can be harnessed
by vocational education and training

5. www.thesmartmanager.com32T h e S m a r t M a n a g e r Sep-Oct 10
S K I L L S ARE F O R E V ER by Sanjay Shivnani
PPP is a wonderful framework and
also the need of the hour
though they have no idea where their next
meal is going to come from! Beside this, we
already have, in sheer numbers, the world’s
largest population below the age of 35, and
this is an enabling factor.
To ensure that we make all of these
natural advantages work for us and in the
right direction, we must ensure that all our
strategies, plans and programs focus on three
critical measurable parameters, or what one
can also term non-negotiables:
01 inclusivity
02 execution
03 stakeholder participation ensuring
integration of the outcomes
For example, the Ministry of Labour,
via the Directorate General of Employment
& Training (DGET), has come up with
world-class vocational training projects
in PPP mode, and even corporate India
is participating wholeheartedly to train
millions of youth, especially in rural
areas. However, the missing bit is job
creation, which must be activated by other
departments/ministries of the GoI. This
effort is not visible; at least not just yet.
Sustainability of vocational training
will be directly a function of win-win
partnerships between government
and industry along with gainful local
employment opportunities for the masses
who receive vocational training.
on the most immediate means to
popularize the PPP model in India
The government calls the shots here, and it
is their idea in the first place. CL is involved
in a number of PPPs with state governments
and the central government. PPP is a
wonderful framework and also the need of the hour. The
problem identified is right and so is the solution construct.
What really needs to improve is the government’s way
of operating the PPPs. The approach must be win-win, with
far less control. The government must learn to ‘let go’ after
having ensured that it has selected the right partner. Once
this is done well, there must be complete trust. Additionally,
PPPs must be allowed to operate in a private fashion rather
than with standard government processes and systems. Any
government must play the role of a facilitator. I know some
of this is wishful thinking given the fact that there are many
political compulsions, but such steps as I have suggested could
fire up the PPP juggernaut and encourage huge participation
from private industry.
Last but not the least, the government must give the
private industry time and breathing space to perform; this is
new for everyone.
on the changes in CL’s corporate DNA necessitated by
government partnerships
We are working with the governments of Punjab, Haryana,
UP, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. Our projects span PPPs
directly with the state governments or as tripartite partners
with central government projects.
For the last fifteen years that CL has been in existence,
this is the first time that we have done a deep dive with
the government. It is early days still, and we are learning.
However, compared to the normal or prevailing view about
how the government functions, we have been pleasantly
surprised with the objectivity and purposefulness of the
projects in the education and specifically in the vocational
training space. Everyone in the government is on a fast-
track mode and wants to get things done. I find this very
encouraging and it empowers us to reach out and enhance our
engagement with the government.
Finally, I think one has always a choice to call a glass half
empty or half full.

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S K I L L S ARE F O R E V ER by Sanjay Shivnani
the industry has to participate in curriculum development/
enhancement, and even delivery if required
on the curricular structure of education in India
I think this subject is like cricket; everyone in this country
will have a view on it. There is no rocket science here;
curriculum must be ever-changing and must reflect the needs
of the industry.
When we say ‘system’, then we must define the system. In
my definition, system includes employers and the industry as
well. Much too many of them are still sitting on the sidelines
and passing comments on the poor state of graduates and
their lack of employability. The system has to perform, and
this includes the industry as well. The industry cannot point
fingers; it has to participate in curriculum development/
enhancement, and even delivery if required.
On the other side of this equation is whether the other
system player allows for this suggested holy matrimony
to thrive. I am implying the holy cow boards, regulators,
councils, etc. Education is over-regulated and needs to be
unshackled. Like I said before, the government needs to let go.
See what industrial reforms did to this country. It’s now time
for educational reforms.
a fond story of transformation
There are many; among them is the story of a young man
of about 25 from a small village in Solan, Himachal Pradesh.
His father was a construction laborer, and he had had to
drop out of school after the eighth standard. After a while,
he decided that he was becoming a burden on his family and
came to Chandigarh to make a living. In Chandigarh, he sold
vegetables at a sabzi mandi (vegetable market) and earned the
measly sum of R850–R1,000 a month. Out of this, he sent
R400 back home to his parents. I asked him how he managed
to make both ends meet. He said he only had one meal a day
and slept in the local municipal park. When he approached our
Chandigarh center, we put him through a two-week training
program to teach him how to sell water purifiers. After
attending the training, he got a job that paid him R4,500. His
life changed…in just two weeks! n
on mindsets and the oft-blamed specter
of policy-level inertia as the key reason
for the failure of socially-conscious
entrepreneurship
Frankly, at least in this space I don’t see any
policy level inertia or at least it is not so
obvious. In fact, I think it is the other way
around; I think there is inertia in the private
industry. It is not jumping in as it should. I
think this is largely because such activities
are seen as ‘social’, which has come to mean
‘not for profit’. This is a mindset that needs
to change.
The government must ensure that PPP
projects provide an opportunity for private
industry to create economic value as well
as social value. This is a core sustainability
issue. This is critical, and in that sense
government mindsets need to change. Of
course there is always a difference between
profiting and profiteering.
From a very different angle, there
is a strong mindset within the current
government initiatives in vocational
training toward aligning all projects with
the manufacturing sector. This is flawed in
some sense, given that the service sector’s
contribution to economic growth is
outpacing the manufacturing sector’s
growth by several multiples. I am not
calling for abandoning the manufacturing
sector but for a small phase shift in
thinking and approach. For example,
speaking English or not can alone make the
difference between being employed and
unemployed. A strong handshake with
good doses of self-confidence can be far more
empowering than making a better weld!