Job Opportunites As Electronics Sector Will Grow From $70 billion to $400 billion: N K Mohapatra, CEO, ESSCI
The government is striving to give a boost to the electronics sector manufacturing in India and has developed a comprehensive plan to realize the vision of making the country self- reliant.
ESSCI’s vision is to provide skill based training to 2 million candidates. Talking to Rajguru Tandon, N K Mohapatra, Chief Executive Officer, ESSCI talks about skill training, job creation and employment chances.
Job creation has been an issue lately. What has been lacking in the market, is it the number of jobs or the lacking skills in employees?
Given the large population of the country, job creation has always been desirable and there has been a need for creation of jobs in the market. The government has embarked upon the skill India mission to ensure provision of skilled manpower to the industry.
With the government’s push for increasing manufacturing under the ‘Make in India’ program and Digital India taking shape with emerging requirements in IOT and smart city areas, we expect huge opportunities for job creation in the electronics sector, as it is poised to grow from the current $70 billion to $400 billion.
Startup India has given rise to huge opportunities in self-employment and micro enterprise. ESSCI is supporting various initiatives to create self-employment opportunities for the youth especially in rural India. This ensures that both the number of jobs in the market and the skills required will see a leap.
How important is apprenticeship in line with gaining relevant skills for the job?
The government is promoting apprenticeships in India through its NEEM (National Employment Enhancement Mission) and NAPS (National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme) programs. The programs support and incentivize the industry for mobilising and engaging apprentices and also provide training and certification for candidates to be employment ready and contribute to the growth of the industry through the acquired skills under such programs.
What sectors are most affected by the skill gap in employees?
The Electronics Sector has large emerging requirement for skilled manpower and is currently facing shortage of skilled resources in emerging sector like IOT, Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, Embedded Design and other new age economy skill sets. ESSCI is committed to meet the industry requirement for skilled manpower and ensure supply of skilled manpower in relevant job roles.
The MSME sector lacks in appropriate and sufficient infrastructure to skill the large workforce required and there is also the issue of technology obsolescence wherein ESSCI steps in and ensures supply of relevantly skilled resources across the country’s geography and also for international requirements.
What is the training and assessment process of ESSCI after the skilling program?
The ESSCI is a certifying authority in electronics job roles under the National Skill Qualification Framework. Once the skill program comes to an end, ESSCI conducts assessments as per laid down norms and awards certificates to the candidates who make the grade. The assessment processes followed are as per the best global practices and all appropriate tools, equipment and processes are followed to ensure fair and transparent assessment by certified assessors and the certificate awarded comes along with a skill card, both having QR codes to allow verification with a simple mobile app.
Only around 50% people skilled through NSDC got selected for certain jobs. How do you ensure people skilled through ESSCI are job ready?
Our Qualification Packs are developed with active industry consultation and involvement. The final document is validated by industry partners and only then do we embark upon the training programs. The training undertaken through our network of training centres across the country is imparted by certified trainers with the relevant equipment and tools being used to ensure skill training as per the best global standards. The training process is closely monitored to ensure fair training as per market demands.
How has recruitment policies changed with new skills coming up in demand?
The industry is being sensitised about the National Skill Qualification Framework and how candidates skilled under the framework come with standardised skills benchmarked to the National Occupation Standards. The industry is slowly adopting to the NSQF certified resources as it gives them uniform skilled resources with skills aligned to the National Occupation Standards. The HR policies are being aligned to the NSQF with some companies agreeing to prefer hiring resources skilled under the NSQF.
