Mumbai : In the long line of CXO Meets aimed at forging greater and stronger collaboration between the public and the private sector, the 3rd CXO Multisector Industries Partnership Summit on Skill Development was organized under the aegis of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya-Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) by Maharashtra State Rural Livelihoods Mission (MSRLM) on 20 December 2018 at Gram Vikas Bhavan, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai.
The theme for this summit was ‘Joining Hands for A Skilled Maharashtra’. The Summit aimed at triggering a debate around the desired future skill sets and to pave the way forward by formulating a strategy in consultation with the private sector and the sector skills council. The Summit comes with the belief that youth in India must be equipped not just to meet the domestic demands but also to cater to the emerging manpower requirements in face of future trends and challenges. The Summit was organised in collaboration with National and State Technical Support Agency and Sector Skills Council and was well represented by 70 Industries, 90 Project Implementing Agencies, 6 Sector Skill Councils, officials and grassroot functionaries of the State Government, the media and witnessed a total head count of 310 participants in attendance at the Summit. The Industries present at the summit ranged across sectors and came from IT/ITES, BFSI, Logistics, Security, Manufacturing, Electronics, Healthcare, Beauty and Wellness, Construction and Real Estate, Retail and Tourism and Hospitality (please see annexure 1 for the agenda and full list of industry delegates that served as panelists).
Key Outcomes of the summit
Drive Industry-Govt Engagement: Foster ties with Industries and organisations through B2B Meetings, CXO Meets and create better synergies by working together for achievement of shared goals.
Encourage Industry Involvement: Learn & enhance awareness about strategic advantage of partnering with Maharashtra on DDU-GKY to drive greater industry engagement
Gain from Best Practices and Sharing of Experience: Learn from the skilling ecosystem of other states and countries on best practices adopted by them and how they can be tweaked to suit our programme in the State. Learn from mistakes and examples to avoid wastage of time and resources. Invest in robust mechanisms, greater accountability and alignment of the curriculum and training to industry’s needs and demands.
Showcase State Strength: Showcase key achievements of the Skills Ecosystem in Maharashtra and strength of its demographic dividend for global and local market
Invite Greater Investment: Connect with potential partners from domestic markets to invite more investment in the burgeoning Skills landscape of Maharashtra and India at large.
Profile of Delegates Key Debates Opportunities to Collaborate
• Domain/ Sector Experts
• Senior Industry Members
• State Government
Officials
• Mentors /Consultants/ Academicians
• Sector Skills Council
• National and State Technical Support Agency
• Training Providers • Skilling Lessons from collaboration between the public & private sector
• Maharashtra’s strategic viability for partnerships on the programme
• Identifying emerging trends and opportunities to forge stronger collaboration
• Challenges in creating a skilled talent pool and ways to increase manpower efficiency
• Importance of OJT and knowledge on career progression within sectors/trades
• The talent demand & supply conundrum • Own a Batch
• Mentoring/ Internships/ Guest Lectures/ OJT/ Placements
• Job Fair
• CXO & B2B
Through the summit, MSRLM focused on exploring ways and opportunities to enhance partnership with the industries under DDU-GKY in the State of Maharashtra. The Summit also aimed at highlighting major achievements made under the programme within the stateand addressing a few key challenges that remain critical to the success of the mission.
Mr. Anil Sonawane, Deputy Director, MSRLM welcomed the audience and proudly spoke of Maharashtra’s achievements under the programme and its implications on the candidates, their family and community and the State.
Hon. CEO, MSRLM, Mrs. R. Vimala, during her keynote address warmly addressed the audience and introduced them to the broad goals and objectives of the MSRLM and ways in which it empowers the vulnerable sections of society through knowledge, trainings and creation of livelihoods. She then moved onto elaborate upon the mission of DDU-GKY which aims to diversify the incomes of the rural poor and caters to the career aspirations of the rural youth. She succinctly summed up the narrative on the programme by stating whether it’s a rural youth looking to enter the workforce or a training provider developing talent, or a manager tasked with hiring and retaining, DDU-GKY is the programme to partner with as it serves as a unified platform for all stakeholders involved in the skilling ecosystem who are working with a shared interest for the achievement of common objectives and similar goals.
Taking this a step ahead, Mr. Chetan Bhakkad and Mr. Jitendra Kumar from Grant Thornton India LLP, which serves as a State Technical Support Agency to MSRLM on DDU-GKY, shared how the private sector could align the needs and demands of their industry with their strategic priorities to radically and sustainably improve the curriculum, training and performance, specific to their sector. They briefly touched upon the leading role the private sector could play in forecasting demand and identifying gaps between the current labour demand and training provision, responding to skills needs and the impact the sector could create by tapping into the hidden and untapped potential of the rural youth. An example with respect to the earlier two CXO meets was cited which fruitfully led to the signing of 20 MoUs since June 2018 with leading industries across sectors, consequently leading to increased, improved and mutually beneficial outcomes for stakeholders and beneficiaries alike.
The summit saw the launch of two exclusive accomplishments exclusive to the State. One was the launching of the ‘Rozgar’ portal which is an innovative workforce solution that aims to connect human potential to the power of business. It aspires to serve both, large and small organizations across all industry sectors through its manpower management by efficiently connecting demand with supply. The portal is developed by Hardshell Technologies Pvt. Ltd. for recruiters to recruit blue color workforce specially trained under Government programmes like DDU—GKY. Apart from the industry, the Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs) also stand to gain from the numerous benefits of the portal through which PIAs will be able to track, manage, monitor, and send timely messages and notifications to candidates (Yuva Sampark). The other was the launch of a teaser DDU-GKY anthem “Napi Hai Jameen, Aab Chuna Aasman Hai”, an inspiring, motivational song composed, sung and performed by Mr. Vishal Jadhav, Mission Manager, Rural Self-Employment Institutes of Training (RSETI), Maharashtra, which aims to encourage and uplift the morale of the rural youth.
Apart from the above, the summit also celebrated the determination and hard work of 12 meritorious candidates who were felicitated as DDU-GKY Skill Icons, as were some of the industry partners who have lend MSRLM their invaluable support as partners on the programme.
A few more memorable moments witnessed at the summit included a B2B networking session where sector-specific stalls were put up for PIAs and Industry to interact with, and explore ways and opportunities for greater and stronger collaboration under the aegis of DDU-GKY.
One of the key highlights that emerged was the signing of the MoU with Aditya Birla Retail Limited whose expertise shall be drawn into at designing the curriculum and training of candidates for the retail sector, placement of trained candidates and owning a batch. A total of 15 more MoUs with other established industries were also signed that signaled the forging of new partnerships and renewing of old ones as each joined hands with the other at working together with the promise of creating a skilled Maharashtra.
The event then progressed towards panel discussions where the first panel revolved around the significance of the IT/ITES & BFSI sector where the panelists discussed ways and measures to reduce the skill gap by creating effective synergies between the government and industry. The panel was moderated by Mr. George B. Shaw, State Mission Manager, MSRLM and guests on the panel included representatives from BFSI and BPO industries, training implementing agencies from within the sector and officials from the sector skill council. Ms. Deepti Talukdar from Aegis Global India rightly pointed out that our country is losing business in the sector to other countries where manpower is available easily, whereas in our country language is a barrier. Adding to the discussion, Mr. Yogesh Parvi and Mr. Ajit Padhi from NASSCOM discussed the skillset renovation required to attract a higher number of youth to train within the said domain as well as the impactful role the job portal could play at increasing the retention rate in face of newer and emerging challenges.
The second panel rightfully dealt with identifying emerging trends and opportunities to form interlinkages with DDU-GKY and the panelists included representatives from the Healthcare and Beauty and Wellness sector. The session was moderated by Mr. Santosh Loni, Assistant Manager, Grant Thornton India LLP. Mr. Rupesh Jadhav from Four Fountain Spa stated how customized trainings are the need of the hour as an industry as wide as hospitality and as evolving as the beauty industry requires multiple job roles. His statement was backed by Ms. Rekha Chaudhary from JCKRC who further elaborated upon the rural mindset and life transforming experience they undergo through the training. To this, Mr. Jeetendra Nair stressed on the need for effective counseling methods and strategies in order to decrease the attrition rate in this industry. Dr. Akash Rajpal, CEO, MedikaBazaar gave the audience insights on how e-commerce can play a leading role in the next few years at raising pay and creating jobs around the country – an interesting trend to watch out for and stay prepared. The key takeaway from the session was the need for the integration of the healthcare and allied sectors which has tremendous potential at creating jobs that can accommodate a huge chunk of manpower skilled under DDU-GKY.
The next panel discussion focused on increasing manpower efficiency in the manufacturing and electronics sector and was moderated by Ms. Mohita Gupta, Consultant with GT India. An overview of the Manufacturing and Electronics sector was first presented to the audience which highlighted impressive facts and figures on the growth potential of the sectors. Maharashtra is the hub of manufacturing and the session therefore focused on how DDU-GKY can create greater in-roads into the rural pockets to attract more youth to train under the aforementioned sectors and ways to establish stronger collaboration with the private sector. Mr. N.K Mohapatra, CEO, Electronics Sector Skill Council of India (ESSCI) stated that one critical gap which must be addressed is the alignment of the needs and demands of the sector with the curriculum designed under the programme. Agreeing with Mr. Mohapatra’s view, Mr. Vikas Chaitanya, subject matter expert at ESSCI, believed that the industry has a bigger role to play and encouraged the PIAs to reach out to them via mentorship programmes, apprenticeship, guest lectures, exposure visits and OJT. With respect to OJT, however, it was stated, and agreed upon by everyone in the panel, that a one-month period is not necessarily sufficient and there must be some flexibility incorporated into the programme with respect to certain aspects/ demands associated with job roles. Some important points raised by Mr. Sadanand Deshpande, MD, MPTA Eucation Services and Mr. Ajay Jakle of Extencore Solutions dealt with special pre-requisite qualifications w.r.t. hiring and training of youth under the sector, importance of charting out career progression within the field and greater communication between the stakeholders involved. Mr. Manoj Kharb, Associate Director with GT India threw light on how the apparel and textile industry could be leveraged for increased tie-ups under the programme.
The fourth session brought up some key takeaways that could be utilised not only to refine the logistics and security sector but all other sectors too. Suggestions ranged from online courses to gamification of learning to make it more interesting. The panelists unanimously stated that the Industry must lead at designing the curriculum so as to meet the national standards and should offer their inputs in such a manner that emerging trends can be identified and incorporated into the training. The session was moderated by Ms. Divya Jain, a young and dynamic CEO and founder of Safeducate who succinctly conducted the session with guests on the panel which included Mr. Tejarao Patil, Principal of Larsen & Toubro Construction Skills Training Institute in Mumbai and Hyderabad; Mr. Dayakaran.C., General Manager (Security Operations), NISA Industrial Services Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. C.V. Kumar, CEO, CCI Logistics Limited.
The last session of the evening revolved around sharing of best practices and experience learning where all stakeholders involved – Industries, PIAs, Sector Skills Council, Technical support agencies, elaborated upon their experience as partners on DDU-GKY. It was agreed upon by everyone that the success of the mission lies in working together to achieve shared goals and common objectives. The employers, training partners and the government have to move together and support each other to ensure sustainability of the programme which aims to empower our rural youth to move towards their dreams passionately and fearlessly.
The evening ended with an affectionate vote of thanks, a delightful cultural programme, adinner feast and happy and smiling faces!
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