Navin Bhatia is the chief operating officer of the Delhi-based Bharti Learning Systems Ltd, described as one of the top 15 training companies worldwide with 600 full-time trainers. Bhatia has written a prescription for upskilling 500 million citizens by 2022 to “transform India into the skills epicentre of the world”. Excerpts:
• States need to establish State Skills Development Corporations on the model of the National Skills Development Corporation.
• States should launch initiatives to skill youth and women, especially from minorities, backward castes and scheduled castes/scheduled tribes for jobs within their districts in micro, small, medium and large enterprises.
• State governments should establish systemic linkages between NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) and Skills Development Corporations.
• In rural India youth and women should be encouraged to enrol for short-term vocational courses in construction, domestic help, hospitality, travel, tourism, telecom, retail, sales, customer care, insurance, food processing, and security services.
• The Central government should promote institutions in the PPP model which will continuously produce VET learning content in local languages for 5,000-8,000 industry specific short-term courses.
• State governments should permit large corporate houses to promote for-profit companies with ‘trainers’ and ‘skill assessors’ in each district/block of the country to deliver the 5,000-8,000 short-term courses.
• State governments need to promote employment exchanges in the PPP model for placing youth in small and medium enterprises.
• Government financial institutions such as NABARD, SIDBI, SBI, LIC, etc should disburse loans to students opting for government recognised skills courses.
• The Central government should promote a rural venture capital fund in association with institutions such as NABARD, SIDBI, SBI, etc for promotion of micro and small enterprises.