As a part of Digital India and make India’s mission, there is a clear focus of the government on accelerating the electronics and electrical sector. With a large talent pool available in the country, many companies have already shifted their production to India or started sourcing labor from India. And as a result, under the skill India mission, there is a future for skill development in the electronics sector. In a one-on-one conversation with Mr. Piyush Chakraborty, Officiating Head, Electronics Sector Skills Council of India (ESSCI) gave an overview of the initiatives undertaken by the Electronics sector skill Council during his conversation with Sumit Kumar, Vice President, NETAP.
Initiatives by the government to promote apprenticeships
A lot of international companies are setting up their base in India, especially the American mobile manufacturing sector. Strong companies like Exxon and Samsung have opened up huge manufacturing bases in Noida. So, these companies basically need skilled manpower and the people requirement is estimated to touch 24L. There are three schemes offered by the government of India to meet the demand. – PLI (Production Linked Center), SPECS, and EMC cluster combined together to solve the issue of the rising demand for manpower in the electricity sector. The Ministry of Electronics has also got the scaling system which is called DSD and they are aligning the manufacturing job roles also into the ESDM sector. There are companies that are doing it either through the NSDC scheme which is a PMTA waiver or through ESDM. They have also worked on Vivo courses as per national education policy with the government’s pre-integrated program that can be taken into any university. “So, we are doing this industry integrated courses, we are talking to different universities, we tied up also with three of them and started this program and also BSc with integrated courses like BSc specialization in renewable energy or BSc specialization in IoT. These are the things we are doing for the manufacturing job roles that are always in demand”, said Piyush Chakroborty, Officiating Head, ESSCI.
He also talked about the active employment of apprenticeships in the electronic and electrical sectors. At present they have 40,000 apprentices enrolled, which they are planning to expand to up to 60-65,000 minimum. The motivating factor behind taking up more apprenticeships is the help from the government schemes. Proper utilization of NAP schemes can benefit the electronic sector and encourage more and more organizations to enroll in apprenticeships. A lot of cases have happened where the industries or the TPS, are not keen on doing apprentice assessment at the end of the apprenticeship training. Piyush expressed his concern by saying that “I feel it is not good to ignore the assessment certification after the NAPS scheme. whatever has been learned through apprenticeship has to benefit both students as well as the industry”. Because the industry can also say that they have got so many certified technicians, which is impossible to say without a proper assessment.
Also read: Bridging the skill gap with apprenticeships in the automotive industry
One of the reasons why MSMEs shy away from trying out apprenticeships is the small number of employees they have. Instead of reaching out to individual companies, it is important to target the association. It would be better if an association is formed to understand the value of apprenticeship and get the MSMEs excited to try apprenticeships.
Implementing the degree apprenticeship as per the new education policy
Skill Sector Council (SSC) is going to play a pivotal role in the execution of degree apprenticeships. Logistics skills sectors are the pioneer of these kinds of degree programs. And a lot of opportunities are beaming in the electronic sector as well. Organizations are now contacting different Universities and showing interest in working with them. With proper implementation and assessment, degree apprenticeship can be a separate revenue stream for all sectors.
Apprenticeship definitely has to be an integral part of the education system. To scale up the apprenticeship model in India, it needs awareness. Different sectors have to come forward and join hands to work together for the betterment of the Indian education system as well as creating employment opportunities. For example, if we have to talk about apprenticeship in a BSc programme, a student can stay three semesters in the college and the remaining three semesters with the industry. A monthly stipend of 10,000 will be provided to the student, making them earn while they learn. Also, on-job training will help college placement records.
The main goal behind apprenticeship schemes is to actually generate more meaning or add quality to the education or help the students get the right return on education, which they totally deserve.
