Manipal Education, a pioneer & the largest higher education provider in India, and City & Guilds, UK?s largest provider of work-related assessment & qualifications, announced the formation of a joint venture – Manipal City & Guilds Skills Training Pvt Ltd, with 51% held by Manipal Education and 49% by City & Guilds. This pioneering new venture will provide its offerings under the name ?IndiaSkills?.
IndiaSkills ? which has been set up with the aim of redefining the way skills education and training is delivered in India ? will enable students to obtain skills-based qualifications in a wide range of industries, starting with retail, hospitality, banking, and English language training. The joint venture will also provide graduates with job placements at companies which require ?work-ready? staff, enhancing their career prospects, while creating the opportunity for enterprises to increase their productivity through a trained workforce.
Speaking at the launch today Shri. Harish Rawat said ?I am happy to see that institutions such as Manipal Education & City & Guilds are in the forefront of closing out gaps in the system. One of the biggest challenges our nation faces today is the mismatch between the available skills and the required skills in terms of quantity, quality & relevance. In order to sustain the high rate of economic growth through inclusive growth, and also for socio-economic upliftment of our people, we need to pay serious attention to skill development in our country with an eye on emerging skills. With proper skills development strategy our youth can realise their potential to be a great national asset?.
IndiaSkills Vocational Training Centres will begin opening in October across India. To ensure the highest quality teaching and assessment standards, the centres will enter into an operating agreement to deliver training according to benchmarks laid down in conjunction with City & Guilds.
The innovative business model ? which forges a direct link between skills training and industry demand ? has been described by Anand Sudarshan, MD & CEO, Manipal Education as ?what learners, employers, training providers and the government have been demanding?.
He elaborated saying ?In addition to industry-standard qualifications, prospective students are looking for a strong link to employment, affordable prices, flexibility and additional services such as learner and tutor support. In recent times we have seen an increasing requirement for formal assessment and certification of skills against international benchmarks and an increasing acceptance on the part of employers of the value of qualification. IndiaSkills takes the best elements of the two parent companies and has created a unique model that will provide a sustainable solution that will respond in real time India?s vast skills needs.?
City & Guilds which has a portfolio of over 650 qualifications over 28 industry sectors, will provide the core curriculum for the content of the courses. Manipal Education will provide support on the ground to deliver the work-based training schemes while leveraging its existing links with employers in India to help ensure newly qualified students obtain employment in India?s rapidly growing economy. IndiaSkills will work closely with the industry to make sure that the repurposed core curriculum and content are relevant to India?s needs.
Chris Jones, Director ? General, City & Guilds, stressed that IndiaSkills will localise business processes & systems to create qualifications and assessment systems designed to match the needs of India?s very specific regional and sectoral market requirements. These will be directly relevant to employers in India but benchmarked against standard worldwide. He emphasized ?India?s economy has the potential for huge growth if it harnesses the capacity of its large and growing labour force, especially when the rest of the world is expecting to face a skills shortage due to an ageing workforce. As the competitive job market becomes more and more global, the demand for certification and quality assured training is becoming increasingly important – employers & learners need a referenced point, which will be IndiaSkills?.
The establishment of IndiaSkills responds to the government?s vision to skill 500 million people to meet the challenges of Independent India @ 75 by 2022. Over the next 5 years, IndiaSkills aims to deliver training, assessment and certification across 500 Vocational Training Centres covering close to 50% of India?s districts targeting 1 million learners.