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Chamber News
KARNATAKA BRANCH
Skills Summit - American Experiences &
Indian Initiatives
Education in India is one among various other aspects India to meet their talent needs. Keeping this
that have captured the attention of the world in recent requirement in mind, skills development has been
years. The growth of the Indian economy has led to a recognized as a major issue in India that needs
surge in demand for skilled and educated workers and immediate attention.
the compulsion to sustain it is also forcing the Indian
Dr. Kela stressed the need for industry involvement in
government to accelerate the process of developing all
defining and delivery of curriculum and certification to
the branches of the Indian education system.
ensure an output of employable ready youth for the
The United States has a well developed skills country.
development programme through the community
Manish Sabharwal , CEO, Team Lease Services stressed
college concept. Can India learn from American
the need of education, employment and employability
experience and develop Indian initiatives to reap the full
for poverty reduction. The Government is bound to face
benefits of the so-called demographic dividend?
a problem when one million people will join the labour
To address some of these key issues like the above force every month in the next 20 years. He also
mentioned and to ensure sustainable skilled manpower addressed the need to convert our training courses into
supply not only to Indian industry but to the international jobs in fine print.
economy, IACC Indo US Education forum & NHRD
S.R. Umashankar, Commissioner Employment &
organized a one-day Skills Development Summit
Training, Government of Karnataka, spoke about the
focusing on “American Experiences - Indian Initiatives”,
lack of adequate study of the skills requirement of the
in Bangalore on 4 February 2011 at the Lalit Ashok.
industry thus widening the skills gap.
Vasanth Kini, Regional President IACC-SIC and R. K.
Dr. Sankaran Raghunathan, Dean of the National
Chopra, Secretary General, IACC, welcomed the
Management School, Chennai and Co-Chair of the
panelists and delegates for the summit and briefly spoke
IACC Indo-US Education Forum, spoke about how the
about the role played by IACC in promoting Indo-US
shortage of service providers would ultimately lead to
Education.
the rise in cost of these services. This gives rise to
Dr. Ajay Kela, President & CEO of Wadhwani opportunity to the “Do-It-Yourself“ market wherein
Foundation, stated that 950 million people in India will educated workforce can get trained to handle basic
be in the working age group by 2020 and globally all skills such as plumbing, gardening etc.
industries and companies are going to be looking at
John Halder Global Outreach Consultant, Community
Colleges for International Development Inc Iowa, USA at the
IACC & NHRD Skills Development Summit 2011.
Anand Sudarshan, MD & CEO of Manipal Education chairing
the closing panel discussion addressing the way forward for
skills development in India.
- INDO US BUSINESS May-June 2011
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