Skill Development - scope

Issues in Human Resource Skill
Development - Knowledge Management
Dr. Rajen Mehrotra*
Dr. Rajen Mehrotra
Reality is that enterprises
for their success not only
needs to recruit workforce
at all levels (i.e. workers,
supervisors, officers and
managers) with the requisite
knowledge, skill and
attitude, but also develop
the knowledge and skills
of the existing workforce
at all levels for meeting
the future needs of the
organization, hence a lot of
enterprises have also been
looking at the concept of
Knowledge Management
at the enterprise level.
At the inaugural address
of the 45th session
of the Indian Labour
Conference held in New Delhi
on 17th and 18th May 2013 the
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan
Singh mentioned that 20 million
additional job opportunities were
created during the period 2004-05
to 2009-10. He further mentioned
that employment in the organized
sector registered a growth of
more than 9% from 26.5 million in
2005 to 29 million in 2011. He also
mentioned that women employment
in the organized sector has
also registered a growth of about
19 % during the same period. At
the same time the Prime Minister
Dr. Manmohan Singh mentioned
that a skilled workforce is a prerequisite
for the achievement of
the country’s desired rapid and
inclusive growth. He mentioned
that the Government aim is to
skill 50 million people by the end
of the 12th Five Year Plan. The
Prime Minister added that availability
of skilled personnel will
not only help in generating good
quality employment, but will also
provide industry with the skilled
workforce needed to expand and
modernize their operations. To
achieve the ambitious target of
skilling 50 million people by the
end of the 12th Five Year Plan the
Prime Minister called upon industry
to supplement the skilling
efforts of both the Central and the
State Governments.
The Government of India for promoting
the efforts of Industry on
skill development in 2009 has set
up the National Skill Development
Corporation (NSDC). The
National Chamber of Commerce
& Industry / National Employer
Organizations have been associated
with NSDC. In addition
the Government of India has recently
taken a decision to set up
the National Skill Development
Agency (NSDA) to anchor and
operationalize the National Skill
Qualification Framework (NSQF)
which can play a vital role in
transforming the quality of training
in India. The objective of the
NSDA is also to bridge the social,
regional, gender and economic
divides in the process of skill
development, as per the Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh’s
inaugural speech.
There are manufacturing and
service enterprises both in the
Public & Private Sector that recruit
youngsters as apprentices,
give them class room knowledge
and skill training and then absorb
* President Industrial Relations Institute of India (IRII) Former Sr. Specialist on
Employers’ Activities for South Asia with International Labour Organization (ILO)
and Former Corporate HR Chief of Novartis India Ltd and ACC Ltd.
34 Kaleidoscope July 2013