Offizielle Ministeriums-Vertreter haben eingeräumt, dass die Effizienz der indischen Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) unter einer schlechten Finanzwirtschaft leidet.
Skills ministry to recast ITIs, tap CSR spending
Ministry officials admit poor finances affected operational efficiency of
ITIs, run by both govt and private enterprises.
Training one-and-a-half
million hands every year to work India's factories is no child's play, and the
Union skills and entrepreneurship ministry is learning it the hard
way.
An initial assessment by the ministry barely a fortnight after it
took charge of the training and apprentice departments from the labour ministry
found the nation's 11,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) saddled with old
machinery and outdated curricula.
At least two government officials, who
confirmed the assessment, said even the 37 Advanced Training Institutes that the
skills ministry has inherited from the labour ministry are archaic. The
officials declined to be identified.
Skills ministry officials, who have
already met officials of the two divisions twice, admit poor finances have
affected the operational efficiency of the ITIs, run by both the government and
private enterprises. More than one-and-a-half million students graduate from
ITIs every year.
"I don't believe in a blame game but there is quite a
challenge," said Sunil Arora, secretary, skill development and
entrepreneurship.
Another government official said at least 90% of ITIs
must overhaul their outdated curricula. Machines and equipment used for teaching
at these institutes are decades old, and do not help students prepare for a
modern industry. "The two divisions have come to the new ministry, but they are
not in great shape," a second official said, requesting anonymity.
On 16
April, the cabinet secretariat moved the training and apprentice divisions of
the labour ministry to the skills ministry, which was formed in November
2014.
The move brought the ITIs and scores of other institutions under the
skills ministry, empowering it.
The ITIs are a critical cog in India's
skills mission. The labour ministry has a target of skill-training 100 million
people by 2022. This is second only to the target for the National Skill
Development Corporation - which comes under the skills ministry -with a target
of 150 million. With the transfer of the two divisions to the skills ministry,
it automatically inherited the target of skill training an additional 100
million people by 2022.
The second official quoted above said the
ministry would need more funds and is thinking of requesting industries to route
some of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending towards skill
development activities, especially in improving ITIs.
Arora said that
Germany's private and government sectors spend billions annually for a range of
training programmes. "We would like more industry participation," he
said.
Meanwhile, India's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, has
decided to set up centres of excellence at 45 ITIs in 2015-16. The focus of
these centres -10 of which are in place - will be automobile
training.
Other than providing machines for training, the car maker will
also teach at these schools for nearly 50 days a year and award a joint
certificate.
Pankaj Narula, executive director (service) at Maruti
Suzuki, said the expanding automobile sector is finding it difficult to get
enough trained technical manpower. Though Maruti Suzuki prefers ITIs, he said,
many of these institutions don't have modern facilities and are not well-versed
with new technologies.
"The equipment they have is not the latest and for
improving productivity, we thought of raising their technical skills," said
Narula, adding that Maruti Suzuki and its dealership network are looking to hire
nearly 1,500 well-trained people this year from ITIs.
The car maker that
said each of the 45 ITIs will get machinery worth Rs.15 lakh and that the funds
will come from their CSR corpus. Going forward, the company will engage more
with students and ITIs.