Evaluation Study MSE Cluster Development - Ministry of Micro ...

Chapter No: 3 – The Cluster Development Executive/Agent• Project Formulation, Management, and Monitoring Skills for CDEs.• Financial Management and Accounting Skills for CDEs.It is essential for each of these modules to be designed and conducted by expertinstitutions, which specialize in each of the thematic areas. Though it is necessary toconduct these programmes at the Regional MSME-DIs in order to ensure that thefacilities available are properly maintained and utilized. It is also necessary to earmarkadequate funds for training. Additional resources will be required for the design andregular conduct of these programmes in the 11th Plan Period.It is important to emphasize that these refresher programmes should be sequenced toconform to the project cycle of about 3 years with modules (a) and (b) being offered tothose CDEs who are involved in soft interventions. The (c) and (d) modules should betargeted at those CDEs who are involved with hard interventions. It may also be notedthat these refresher programmes cater to the needs of all the existing as well as thenewly recruited CDEs. Attending these programmes should be made statutory and allfurther increments and promotions should be subject he regular attendance andsuccessful completion of these programmes.Turning now to the present status of training provided to CDEs in the sampled clusters,we see in Table 3.4 that of the 21 CDEs covered during this study as many as 19 claimsto have attended the training programme for CDEs. It is to be further noted that most ofthem have attended only one such programme after being appointed as CDEs. Moreoverthere are 2 CDEs that have not attended any training programme related to ClusterDevelopment. It may also be mentioned that only one CDE has attended a refresherprogramme in addition to the general programme for CDEs.Table No.-3.4: STATUS OF TRAINING AMONG CDEsTotal CDEsInterviewedParticipation inTraining *Adequacy ofTrainingYes No Yes No N.R. Due toDeficiency inContent andDesignInadequacy of TrainingDue toDeficiency inPedagogy21 19 2 10 9 2 7 9Note: * Most CDEs who report to have participated in training have attended only oneprogramme during their present tenure, while one CDE has attended an additionalrefresher course.N.R: No ResponseTable 3.4 also highlights the responses of CDEs regarding the inadequacy of the trainingthey have attended. It is seen that of the 19 CDEs who participated in training as manyas 9 reports that the training provided was inadequate while 7 out of the 9 respondentsreport that the deficiencies in training were on account of content, and design, all the 9respondents report that the pedagogy adopted was also deficient. Discussions haverevealed a distinct preference for focused training in the relevant functional areas, theuse of the case study method, and field visits and interaction with projects that haveadopted a set of best practices, and also projects that have failed to deliver.72