Establishing a consortium approach is the need of the hour to create a balance of human resources in a workplace |
Skills and knowledge are the driving force of economic growth and social development of any country. It also helps in faster employment generation. In the last 50 years or so, India has seen tremendous change in the requirement of skills. At one time, computerisation of railways reservation system was one of the greatest challenges. Most of the trade unions were fiercely against it fearing unemployment/ redundancy of the existing work force. But proper training of the people not only improved the systems efficiency but also made the life of all concerned much comfortable.
The accelerated economic growth has increased the demand for skilled manpower that has highlighted its shortage in the country. During the past few years the manufacturing and automotive sector have diversified into various sub sectors like R&D, diagnostics, design, sales and services. This has given birth to new skills requirement within the Indian workforce. Some of these skills include engineers in the space of aerospace design, structural design, product and R&D, mechatronics, supply chain etc. Within the automotive sector there is a skill gap across the technicians, supervisors and managerial levels.
In the manufacturing sector, there is a lot of temporary and contractual hiring that takes place. Here the demand of contractual workers continues to remain high and the supply seems to be moderate due to the gap in skills present in this sector. There is a serious shortage of mid-level employees as this post requires a certain type of skill set. It has also been observed that the attrition rate within this level is also high. Due to the high level of attrition manufacturing companies should invest in vocational training to develop relevant skills and empower them to perform. This way, good quality training will ensure hiring and retaining of best talent in the long term.
The best and most selective universities generate too few graduates, and new private colleges are producing graduates of uneven quality. At the entry level, trainees and technicians are directly recruited from institutes and colleges. Here a graduate degree within a specialised field is important i.e. an automotive engineer or a bachelor’s degree in accounting or economics helps to get a foot in the door. Many companies further induct these fresher’s into various training and development programs to teach them the desired skills that they are looking for. Universities and educational institutions have been unable to update their syllabi with regards to the continuous changes and developments happening at a global level. Hence, fresh graduates are not equipped to meet the current industry skill. Besides the technology aspect, industries also evaluate competencies ranging from soft skills, team building, overall attitude, and values.
In response to these challenges, many companies today have intensified their approach to train new hires in order to meet the shortage of knowledgeable and skillful workforce. Additionally, many multinationals have also established alliances with academic institutions on specific initiatives covering faculty up gradation, internships, curriculum revision workshops, research incubation, etc.
In India, the manufacturing and automotive companies have been introducing programs around a range of topics from as diverse as lean thinking, Kaizen and 5S, functional analysis and planning, production management basics to effective communication, enhancing personal effectiveness, quality management to name a few. These programs are also tweaked depending on the audience it caters to. We also have programs for specific functions, which are designed keeping in mind the overall impact it will have on an individual’s effectiveness to his current role. Training programs around supply chain management, production planning and optimisation are specifically meant for specialised workforce with niche skills.
Due to the inability of the existing system to produce the right kind on employable people the industry today has taken a leadership role in adopting Industrial Training Institutes (ITI’s), partnering with colleges, setting up their own training centres and working with NGO’s, other training partners to hire and retain trained people who are employable. Many have launched CSR initiatives either at their place of work or at remote centres.
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has a large driver training and refresher programme. In India, we have technical institutions imparting engineering education. Many of these institutions used to provide training in automotive engineering through well-established Internal Combustion Engineering (ICE) and mechanical engineering departments. However, the new wave of IT, electronics and communication technology has forced these institutions to close down ICE departments and also reduce the number of mechanical engineering departments. It is true that more than 50% of the total components of the current automobiles are electronic and that the importance of communication technology is also increasing. However, the advances and training in these areas cannot be at the cost of the fundamental aspects of auto engineering including thermodynamics. Therefore, we need to redesign our automotive engineering courses and brand them properly to attract good students. This will help in not only increasing the number of auto engineers, which is crucial to the growth of the auto industry, but also get the human resources to carry out research in the auto sector and achieve breakthroughs necessary for designing the next-generation vehicles.
There is also an urgent need to Improve the quality of skilled and semi-skilled manpower working in the auto industry. To do this the existing vocational educational institutions have to be upgraded and more number of such institutes should be started. Today, most of our vocational educational institutes are poorly staffed, unmotivated with uninspiring faculty, and outdated equipment, machines, syllabus and governance system. There is a need to redefine the relationship of education, employment and skills development. People perceive vocational education as something which one pursues when one cannot get into a mainstream course. It is believed that a vocational course takes one to a shop floor while a graduation degree will lead to a good office.
People need to change their perception and this change is all the more important as the prevailing higher education system in India is not churning out skilled individuals thereby, affecting the employability quotient. There is also a dearth of quality institutions as compared to the number of students coming out of secondary schools and joining higher education. In such a scenario, vocational education can prove to be a lucrative option for students as it will skill them and help gain employment.
The growth of the auto industry in India will be contingent not just on the domestic demand, but also equally on exports. Therefore, the present projections will become a reality if thrust is given to original research that will yield breakthrough results. These results help in addressing the current global concerns such as environment, fuel efficiency, need for alternate and renewable fuels and materials etc. This can happen only through a consortium approach where various auto companies and academic institutions work together as in the case of IT hardware industry.
The consortium approach should be extended to address the trained human resource shortage as well. The government should act as a facilitator by bringing about necessary changes in the current laws that will encourage private participation. Finally, there should be mechanisms in place that will ensure that there is a balance in the pool of human resources comprising research scientists, managers, engineers, designers, technicians, and skilled and semiskilled workers.