Short on skilled labour, rubber industry & NSDC set up council

The Rubber Industries Sector Skill Council (RSSC) formed by NSDC in collaboration with All India Rubber Industries Association (Airia) & Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (Atma) will be determining the competency standards and qualifications for the labour joining the rubber industry estimated to be R50,000 crore.

RSSC would identify skill development needs including preparing a catalogue of types of skills, range and depth of skills to facilitate individuals to choose from.

“One of the objectives of the council will be to participate in accreditation, examination and certification of training courses at the institutes, besides promoting academies of excellence. Planning training is another vital aspect before the council,” Vinod Simon, President, Airia told FE.

“A sector skill gap study was undertaken us, in which we found that there is a significant gap between the availability and demand of trained manpower in the sector. While there are a large number of training institutes, employability is often an issue. There is need to create talent that is industry-ready,” Simon observed.

Labour-intensive rubber industry comprises 500 large and medium scale units and nearly 5,500 small and tiny units and an estimated five lakh people are directly employed in the industry.

Under the rubber skill council project, the number of trainees to be certified over a period of 10 years is close to seven

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