Excellence achieved in different facets of rubber sector skill ecosystem came alive at RSDC Annual Awards 2019 organised by Rubber Skill Development Council (RSDC) at New Delhi.
As one of the largest gatherings in rubber sector, the award ceremony, fourth in the series, brought together training partners, assessment agencies, policymakers, representatives from state skill missions, industry, academia and a large number of stakeholders from all the parts of the country.
Anshuman Singhania, Vice Chairman Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), V T Chandhrasekharan, President All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) and Professor Sanjay Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor Manav Rachna University graced the occasion as guests of honour.
In his welcome note, Chairman of RSDC, Vinod Simon apprised the audience about the milestones reached in the seven years of RSDC's existence.
"National Occupation Standards (NOS) have been developed for the entire sector including manufacturing and plantation segments. One lakh plus trainings have been imparted so far. Skill gap analysis has been undertaken for all the states in the country in the rubber sector. RSDC has already tied up with 14 State Missions besides 11 universities and was the first to start B.Voc. in Rubber technology. RSDC has on its board 950 certified trainers, 475 assessors and around 150 training partners. Now chemical and petrochemical sector is also aligned with the Rubber SSC," said Vinod Simon.
VT Chandhrasekharan, President AIRIA urged the industry to make the most of skilling ecosystem being developed by RSDC.
"More organisations, especially in the MSME sector, need to come forward to absorb the workforce being skilled by RSDC. Traditionally MSMEs have believed in imparting on the job training rather than hiring skilled manpower. That mindset has to change. The role of Training Partners is vital here. Trainers need to ensure that workforce being trained is employable from day one," said Chandhrasekharan.
"Northeast of India is emerging as a potential rubber growing area and can fill shortage of NR in India if skilled manpower is employed. National Rubber Policy 2019 has highlighted shortage of skilled rubber tappers. We are sure that RSDC is taking up the issue of skilling in Northeast with the seriousness it deserves," said Anshuman Singhania, Vice Chairman ATMA.
"Tyre Industry is fast moving towards radialisation in truck and bus tyres. Manufacturing of new generation radial tyres requires NR of very high quality. Traditional rubber sheet making needs large scale improvement which can be brought about by skilling and training rubber farmers. In fact NR processing holds immense job potential for large number of self-employed young entrepreneurs already engaged in the field," added Singhania.
"In university system, we teach a principle called ASK (Attitude, Skills & Knowledge) in that order. Unfortunately, we have been historically programmed to give undue importance to Knowledge while Skills and Attitude which should have been in the forefront in education have been downgraded. As a result, we have systematically killed skilled mindset in the country. The day skills become aspirational, our country will go for a paradigm shift," said Professor Sanjay Srivastava, Vice-Chancellor Manav Rachna University.
Last year, RSDC initiated the project, Saamarth, to empower a million lives in rubber. It aims at up-skilling and re-skilling the masses, in tyre service and maintenance sub-sector, plantation sub-sector, and people employed at various rubber manufacturing units across the country.
Ever since its launch, Saamarth project has triggered several skilling movements across the country. RSDC has taken up a tyre service and maintenance job role in a mission mode. More than 13 mobile skill vans fitted with state-of-the-art equipment's have been flagged off across the country.
So far, in different parts of the country under the Saamarth Project, over 50 thousand people have been trained and certified in plantation, 20 thousand in manufacturing Units and more than 40 thousand people have been certified as tyre fitters.
At the Annual Awards 2019, first prize as Best Training Partner went to Focal Skill Development Pvt. Ltd. Venugopal S from HLL Academy and Partha Debnath from Rubber Board of India were adjudged as the Best Trainers.
Mercer Mettle received the award as Best Assessment Agency.
Prabhati Sikdar certified in Material Handling and Storage Operation by Shri Ram Skills at Uttarakhand was conferred the best trainee award in manufacturing, whereas in Plantation best trainee award was awarded to Sanjoy Das in Latex Harvest Technician Job role and trained by Rigpa Solutions in Tripura.
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