Even before the Union Budget for 14-15 was announced last week, there have been several moves and sound bytes on the reforms and new initiatives for job creation, skill development and facilitating entrepreneurship. The budget announcements towards higher education, skill development and employment support are aligned with the overall thrust of the BJP election manifesto as well as the early directions of the government.
If we were to analyse the impetus for knowledge-skills-employment areas, we should begin with the overall theme of the budget which is aimed at energising growth through investments in infrastructure and manufacturing, making it attractive for FDI in key sectors and its special focus on banking. All of these initiatives will lead to multi-fold job creation at various levels. Hence the budget has touched upon the Skilling India programme as well as the need for developing contemporary skills to promote handicrafts and other village arts.
On the other hand, synergistic with the anticipated talent needs of the industry, the budget has announced setting up of several institutions of excellence with the overall investment of close to R2,000 crore? 5 new IITs, 5 more IIMs, AIMS in 4 state capitals, agriculture and horticulture universities, National Institute of Humanities amongst others. With the view of nurturing entrepreneurship and according it a heightened relevance, a sum of R10,000 crore has been set aside to provide the seed capital for the start ups.
The other highlight of the budget is the announcement of the government?s intention to revisit the apprenticeship programme and make it relevant for the industry which could redefine employability in the country. The plan to convert employment exchanges into career counselling centres and the Digital India programme to facilitate digital inclusion through broadband connectivity at village level along with district level incubator network throw open exciting possibilities to tap the real potential of the youth and the rural income generation possibilities. With the thrust of the budget on technology access?virtual classroom, content creation, e-visas for foreign tourists, e-kranti and ecommerce would bring about qualitative change in education, commerce and communication which would result in large scale employment opportunities for the youth.
While the debate could be endless about whether the funds allocated is adequate , the moot point to be noted is the recognition of the government and its direction to support, modernise and augment the current capacity to groom and ready the talent for employment as well as help in building the ecosystem for them to flourish. In the coming days, we would get more clarity about the specific policies and how the funds would be made available for different schemes as would ministries such as skill development and entrepreneurship development would unveil the strategy to utilise the large funds at its disposal and so would the Digital India programme be rolled out. Several of these initiatives are interconnected and therefore while the detailing of the plans are awaited.
Setting up the infrastructure for educational institutions is easy if the funds are available but finding the right leadership talent is a tough one. We need to therefore focus on identifying academicians who could be groomed to take on leadership positions. If almost every state will have its own IIT and IIM, how do we maintain the standards and their pedigree? We should learn from some of the recently set up institutions who have had a struggle attracting faculty talent in remote locations as ultimately this is an important factor that has an impact on the quality of graduates they would be producing.
Hence we need some out of the box solutions for the future institutions that are planned in locations where the access to the industry and thought leadership may be minimal. We could consider hybrid models of build-operate-transfer with the help of leadership training centres established by some of the leading banks and industrial houses or creating strong backward integration with their own resource needs and hence possibly invite them to co-own these institutions. This would help in not only bringing industry to the classrooms of the remote locations but bring in uniqueness and specialisation in some of the newly formed institutions like IITs/IIMs that would enhance their competitiveness.
For the first time in the country, there is going to be a concerted attempt to foster entrepreneurial skills and mind set amongst the youth. For the scale of activity envisaged, the academic support and the framework available to engage with the entrepreneurs or the investing community is minimal and this would require urgent attention in order to succeed with this mission. Digital India will throw open several innovative opportunities to create start ups and there is a need to rethink management and technology curriculum as well as pedagogy to orient the youth to think of creating jobs rather than finding jobs. The plan to revitalise the apprenticeship programme would call for new forms of vocational institutions and closer working relationship with the industry.
The big thrust on talent development that we have been waiting to see happen is round the corner, the question is no longer ?when??, but it is ?how??as the time has come for out of the box thinking for improving the current delivery methods, making quality a non negotiable parameter, designing partnerships of new formats and creating sound foundations for several of the new programmes which would have a long term impact on the economy.
The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company