Imparting Demand Driven Employability Training to BPL Youth 67 Imparting Demand Driven Employability Training to BPL Youth in Identified Districts of Madhya Pradesh – A Breakthrough Pathway Towards Skill Empowerment Mukesh Sharma and Dr. Ranjan Kumar Keywords: SGSY, BPL, CRISP, PDCA, ILO, UNDP, GTZ, CEA, ISO, MoRD, CEO, DEO, RGM, MO, SG, SM, BE ABSTRACT India has a large number of illiterates, school dropouts and unemployed rural youths. It also has one of the highest numbers of unskilled or inappropriately skilled manpower idling for want of opportunities. There has been proliferation of private and government run technical institutions which are specialized in vocational training. However, in spite of these efforts the number of unemployed youths is constantly increasing. The project is an initiative of the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) of the Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). It aims to uplift families on the Below Poverty Line (BPL) through various income generation initiatives. The project was aimed at providing skill based training to the youths belonging to BPL families and to provide them employment opportunities for sustainability and better quality of life. Thus, the younger generation living in rural areas which is full of energy, talent and creativity could be provided meaningful tool in the form of appropriate training in skills that enables them to earn decent livelihood. This will also be a good step to avert vulnerability of their distraction to destructive/antisocial activity which, in turn would create a congenial atmosphere for improved social relationship and on the one hand, would also help and uplift the economy of the area. Thus, the Youths participating in this program can enjoy an honorable life. Introduction Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance, (CRISP), Bhopal was established in the year 1997 as an autonomous Society under the Indo–German Technical Cooperation Agreement. Ministry of MSME, Government of India was the line ministry for this project whereas the Department of Technical Education & Skill Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) were the implementation partners. It is headquartered in Bhopal with national & international operations dedicated to human resource development & organizational development. These activities are targeted at Government organizations, Industries, Academic Institutions, Developmental Organizations and the Civil Society as well. CRISP, one of the first training organizations in the state of Madhya Pradesh to have got an ISO 9001:2000 certificate got it in the year 2000 and is still continuing with it. CRISP has also been recognized by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for organizing training programs for the personnel of Hydro Power Plants operating throughout the country.
Transcript
Imparting Demand Driven Employability Training to BPL Youth 67
Imparting Demand Driven Employability Training to BPL Youth in Identified Districts of Madhya Pradesh – A Breakthrough Pathway Towards Skill Empowerment
ABSTRACTIndia has a large number of illiterates, school dropouts and unemployed rural youths. It also has one of the highest numbers of unskilled or inappropriately skilled manpower idling for want of opportunities. There has been proliferation of private and government run technical institutions which are specialized in vocational training. However, in spite of these efforts the number of unemployed youths is constantly increasing. The project is an initiative of the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) of the Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD). It aims to uplift families on the Below Poverty Line (BPL) through various income generation initiatives. The project was aimed at providing skill based training to the youths belonging to BPL families and to provide them employment opportunities for sustainability and better quality of life. Thus, the younger generation living in rural areas which is full of energy, talent and creativity could be provided meaningful tool in the form of appropriate training in skills that enables them to earn decent livelihood. This will also be a good step to avert vulnerability of their distraction to destructive/antisocial activity which, in turn would create a congenial atmosphere for improved social relationship and on the one hand, would also help and uplift the economy of the area. Thus, the Youths participating in this program can enjoy an honorable life.
Introduction
Centre for Research and Industrial Staff Performance, (CRISP), Bhopal was established in the year 1997 as an autonomous Society under the Indo–German Technical Cooperation Agreement. Ministry of MSME, Government of India was the line ministry for this project whereas the Department of Technical Education & Skill Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh and the German Technical Cooperation Agency (GTZ) were the implementation partners. It is headquartered in Bhopal with national & international operations dedicated to human resource development & organizational development. These activities are targeted at Government organizations, Industries, Academic Institutions, Developmental Organizations and the Civil Society as well.
CRISP, one of the first training organizations in the state of Madhya Pradesh to have got an ISO 9001:2000 certificate got it in the year 2000 and is still continuing with it. CRISP has also been recognized by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) for organizing training programs for the personnel of Hydro Power Plants operating throughout the country.
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Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna (SGSY) is an excellent initiative of the Government of India to uplift poor BPL families through various income generation avenues. “Demand Driven” Employability Training to BPL Youth in Identified Districts of M.P. has been conceived under this scheme (SGSY) with the main objective to enhance and provide appropriate skills to the trained youth for sustainability and better job employability.
The project was started in January 2012 and lasted till December 2013 with the target of training 10,000 youths coming from BPL families from identified districts of Madhya Pradesh with assured placement of 75% beneficiaries.
CRISP had implemented this job oriented skill development program under the scheme of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India (GoI) in these selected districts of Madhya Pradesh targeting rural youth mainly belonging to BPL families, SC, ST, Minority, Physically Challenged Men and Women aged between 18-35 with basic qualification of 8th standard. As pointed out, the target was to train 10,000 youths in 12 districts with assured employment/placement to around 75% trained youths within a span of 2 years (January 2012 to December 2013).
In order to get better results, access benefits and at the same time, ensuring sustenance of benefits thereafter, the following factors were kept in mind while planning and executing the project:
• Liaisoning with Industries for developing training module and schedule.
• Selection of locations based on convenient linkage to the villages and towns having youth population living below poverty line and having necessary facilities and infrastructure needed for training and also communication with industry and business houses situated in close proximity of such locations.
• Creation of training centers in the respective districts as part of block resource centers that possess infrastructure and facilities so that the same could be used for training even after completion of the project.
• Selection of trades based on market demand and availability of employment opportunities.
• Design of practice and skill oriented training curriculum based on industry requirements with focus on soft skills such as verbal and written communication skills, personality development, team work etc.
• Flexible duration of training ranging from 2 to 2.5 months with access to instructional material in local language and special inputs related to entrepreneurship development.
• Interaction of participants with government/private financial institutions to start their own micro enterprises.
• Close liaison with industries and potential employers while developing training course and association of experts from industries as well as local bodies as trainers/guest lecturers.
• Continuous evaluation of participants’ performance and feedback for improvement with provision for retraining of students in weak areas based on assessment/evaluation.
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Special initiatives for placement and retention such as employment •potential assessment, MoUs with industries for on-the-job training (OJT) and placement, establishing of placement and counseling cell at each centre, regular visits by the coordinator and conducting counseling sessions at industry for continued retention of the candidates getting placement there.
The project was executed following conventional PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, followed by standard Management Techniques such as Brainstorming, preparation of Project Planning Matrix and Plan of Operation, Milestone/PERT Chart, Project Evaluation and Review Technique, formation of project implementation teams and defining their roles and responsibilities. Regular project monitoring and reviews were conducted with on-course correction applied wherever necessary. Performance assessment of candidates and feedback from students and employers were collected regularly and analyzed for any desired action for improvement.
Project Planning
While planning the project, the following critical to quality (CTQs) aspects were identified keeping in view the expected results and the outcomes.
• Target beneficiaries to be youths belonging to BPL families, SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, Physically challenged Men and women.
• Assured employment for at least 75% of the beneficiaries.
• Establishment of training facilities at the district itself as part of block resource centre to ensure continuous use of training facilities even after the project exit.
Project Management
After initial planning as above at CRISP headquarters, a meeting with the concerned agencies associated with the project was held for deciding project implementation strategy, structure, roles and responsibilities of different agencies, teams and personnel. Based on this, a project management structure was worked out both at CRISP headquarters as well as at district level. A Project Management Committee was also formed to monitor and review the progress and the results of the project.
Selection of Locations and Trades
Based on the outlined criteria and interaction with the Industry and survey of Business Houses and Services as well as placement potentials, following districts were selected. In order to ensure optimum utilization of the training centre and placement opportunities, it was decided to have only 3 to 4 trades per centre.
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Short forms of Trade identified
DEO–Data Entry Operator RGM–Readymade Garment Making MO–Machine Operator
3 Chhindwara Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
4 Satna Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
5 Jabalpur Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
6 Hoshangabad Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
7 Sehore Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
8 Katni Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
9 Sagar Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
10 Vidisha Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
11 Sidhi Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity GuardSales Marketing
12 Singrauli Data Entry OperatorMachine OperatorSecurity Guard
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Design of Curriculum and Training Program
After selecting the trade, action for designing of curriculum and training programs for these trades were undertaken in association with industry and local experts.
Provision was also made for re-training of candidates in weak areas based on assessment. The training courses were also got certified by NCVT and affiliated by IGNOU.
The following Flow Chart explains the training activities that were pursued.
Process Flow Chart for Training
Employment Potential Assessment
Establishing Livelihood & Skill development Centre in BRC
Taking Over BRC
Identification of trades / skills
Selection of beneficiaries for Training
Conduction of 240 hrs of training at Centre & On-site
Assessment
IGNOU/MES Assessment
Final Certification by CRISP & IGNOU/NCVT
Retraining in weak areas
Satisfactory performance
Unsatisfactory performance
Initiatives for Placement and Retention
Keeping in view the target of placement and employment to at least 75% of the beneficiaries, following initiatives were undertaken:
• Survey of industries/business houses/services around the selected districts and assessment of employment potential in the selected trades/skills.
• Association of industry experts in developing curriculum and training program and also as guest faculty.
• Networking and linkages with industrial units, business houses, services sectors, insurance companies, banks, business associations and placement companies.
• Signing of MoUs for on-the-job training and placement.
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• Establishing placement and counseling cell at each of the selected training centres.
• Tracking of candidates after placement and efforts for retention through regular visits by coordinators and arranging counseling sessions at industries for candidates taking up employment.
Project Outcome
Due to the efforts undertaken during the project, it was possible to exceed the target given with regard to training and placement.
Total number of, 10014 youths were imparted training while 7682 beneficiaries out of them were provided with placement/ employment. The placement percentage was above 76%.
Monitoring System
CRISP has developed a dedicated monitoring and review system for the project with such features as:
• Simple and user friendly monitoring system.
• Web based system with provision for updating and on-line monitoring.
• Facility for report generation in pre-design formats for different levels.
• Online performance tracking of the trainees during the training and post placement.
The project has resulted into the following tangible/intangible benefits and impact.
Financial Benefits
Skill Development trainings were planned at District level which, in turn, resulted in savings to individual candidates, CRISP and ultimately the Government in various forms.
Benefits to Trained Youth
Capacity Building & Empowerment
• Skill training and up-gradation as per market demand and trend.
• Personality Development and life skill development.
• Team building and coordination skills for enhancing output.
• Quality consciousness and marketable skills.
• Basic mannerism and leadership skills.
• Confidence building and ability to market their skills.
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Material Benefits & Assets
• Training material and reference kit.
• Linkage with placement centres and potential employers.
• Linkage with banks and other credit institutions.
Indirect Benefits
• Regular and sustained employment.
• Enhanced image in the community.
• Improved income pushing them above the poverty line.
• Improved standard of living.
• Improved abilities and positive work culture.
• Empowered to take decisions.
• Empowered to market their skills.
• Overall personality development.
Benefits to Industry
• Availability of Trained and skilled youth.
• Saving in the form of induction training, improvement in performance and the resultant overall productivity.
• Because of training facilities being created in the District itself, the Industries around these Districts can look forward to continued availability of trained and skills youth.
Discussions
In order to sustain the benefits even after the project completion, the following activities were undertaken.
• Creation of permanent training infrastructure and facilities at block resource centres which could be utilized on a continuous basis.
• MIS (on line data base) has been developed to track the progress and a website has also been developed for this purpose.
• Development of placement directories district wise.
• Creation of placement cell at each centre, developing understanding and relationship with local industries for placement of successful candidates.
• Training of local experts as training resources.
Thus, the benefits realized through this project would continue and this model could be replicated in other districts as well as in other States. This can substantially contribute in the overall upliftment, better living conditions and quality of life of the under- privileged community.
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Conclusion
CRISP has been implementing a number of projects connected with rural development and upliftment of under-privileged society for different government agencies including International Labor Organization (ILO) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). However, the present project has been the first project of its kind with for larger dimensions and challenges. The project has been successfully implemented utilizing past experience, profession at quality and management practices. Conventional PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach has been followed using Professional Management Tools and Techniques such as Brainstorming, Pert Chart/Milestone Chart for project planning and other standard charts/flow diagrams for data analysis and information presentation.
