Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) and Society of Indian Aerospace Technologies & Industries (SIATI) have come together to form a non-profit organisation for developing skills in the aerospace and aviation sector.
RK Tyagi, chairman, HAL, would head the governing council of this organisation to be registered soon. The council will comprise members from aviation majors, airport operators and academia. Invites have been sent to Air India, Jet Airways, SpiceJet, IndiGo, GVK Group, Tata, Isro and NAL to join in this endeavour.
“The council is mandated to train approximately 400,000 people over the next 10 years in 90 different trades identified for better employment opportunities, improving employability and bridging gaps in skills required in this sector,” said Tyagi.
The broader objective of the collaboration is to aggregate skill requirements of the industry, including sub-sector requirements, regional requirements, and international trends and best practices that can be introduced in the domestic skill development space. The Sector Skill Council would also build capacity for training delivery and regulate the skill development activities in the industry sectors, including development of National Occupational Standards, qualifications, training curriculum and assessment criteria.
According to a Census report, about 54 per cent of Indian population is under the age of 30 years and the ratio of population in the working age group (15-59 years) is likely to be 64 per cent by 2021. This also means that India will have approximately 25 per cent of the world’s workforce by 2025 and the initiative such as SDC will be useful in creating opportunities for young people.
On the flip side, by 2022, the country will require about 500 million skilled workers across all skilled sectors, specifically in the manufacturing. The country will see a skills gap of nearly 90 million workers -almost twice the current figure.
As of now, only 5 per cent out of 470 million Indian workforce is vocationally-trained and skilled.
Another fact is that, a meagre 2 per cent is vocationally skilled. In comparison, the ratio is 75 per cent in Germany, 96 per cent in Korea, 80 per cent in Japan and 68 per cent in the UK.
Against the 12.8 million new entrants to the workforce per year, the existing training capacity is only for 3.1 million per annum.
