In a major fillip to skillful
tapping of rubber plantations, Rubber Board and Rubber Skill Development Council (RSDC) have joined hands to impart training and certify the skilled workers. The training is being currently provided under PMKVY (Pradhan Mantri Kausal Vikas Yojana) of the Government of India.
RSDC, the Sector Skill Council for the rubber sector set up by All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) and Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) in collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), is focusing on skill development and training needs of the rubber sector.
"Moving beyond the initial mandate to serve the skilling needs in the industry segments, RSDC has signed an MoU with the Rubber Board for imparting skill based trainings to plantation workers. RSDC-Rubber Board association has got further strengthened with the roll out of current skill training exercise amongst plantation workers," said Vinod Simon, Chairman RSDC.
Under the current RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) Scheme, RSDC is conducting training for the job roles of Latex Harvesting Technician. The training is being conducted through Rubber Board Channel of 2314 Rubber Producer Societies and 254 Group Processing Centers in Kerala.
The exercise will skill and recognize as many as 22,500 candidates for Latex Harvest Technician for controlled upward tapping and 4,500 candidates for the job role of Low Frequency Tapping.
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"Tapping of rubber is a highly skilled job and the reason for the wide gap between the present NR productivity and the production potential is also attributed to shortage of required skilled personnel for tapping coupled with the skill gaps in the available tappers. Skill development aimed at productivity enhancement shall lead to increased resource efficiency and increased farm income," added Simon.
The training process will continue till January, 2017. Duration of this training is three days and is given to the workers who have prior experience in tapping and processing. Each batch is comprised of 30 trainees.
Skilling is important particularly for the role of Tapper, as an unskilled tapper would not only affect the yield of the product but can also damage the life of the Rubber tree. In Kerala, many holdings are believed to have been left untapped owing to the shortage of skilled tappers.
With a view to motivate the youth and to certify the skills that they have learnt, the government has devised PMKVY scheme to certify and reward the candidates.
A candidate who achieves greater than or equal to the set pass percentage would be rewarded with a skill certificate, mark sheet and payout of Rs. 500.
In case the candidate achieves less than pass percentage but more than or equal to 30 percent then they would receive only the mark sheet and the payout of Rs. 500. If the candidate achieves less than 30 percent of the total score they would receive only mark sheet and will be encouraged to undergo short term training under the PMKVY 2.