SKILLING -THE WAY FORWARD

Construction industry, the second largest contributor to the economic growth of the country, is not only poised to cross the one trillion-dollar market sooner than predicted, surprisingly it has shown resilience better than what was anticipated in view of pandemic impact. Perhaps the only industry which works across many sub-sectors and has linkages across major sectors. With increased FDI, enjoying prime attention of the government, reforms being brought in, the day is not far when India would be the third largest construction market in the world. Construction industry presents ocean of opportunities today but all the stakeholders need to see these opportunities and if they are unable to see through then build a door for the opportunity to knock and therefore catapult their efforts with more vigor than ever. It is high time the prime stakeholders lead the way for the other stakeholders to follow in realizing the immense potential that this industry holds for bringing the much needed employment opportunities, much needed social stability, competitiveness and growth. One of the quicker ways perhaps this could start and therefore impact the industry functioning is by ensuring that 80% of its informal workforce becomes part of the formal economy. This will by all means lift the economic development of the country to a completely new level which will further propel and ensure that India is moving on to the path of being the world leader with all engines firing.

Construction Skill Development Council of India (CSDCI) as mandated with due support and promotion from 'National Skill Development Corporation' (NSDC) plays a major role in catalyzing skill development across the construction industry. We at CSDCI develop, establish, standardize and sustain industry competency frameworks, skill levels, occupational standards, build create and deliver capacity, investment and skilling outcomes which shall meet or exceed customer expectations through ethical, transparent and effective management of the construction and infrastructure industry skill development fund. We also endeavor to establish, constantly monitor, update and sustain corporate values and ethics for all its participants, employees, industry members and related stakeholders. We aspire to be the leading body of the construction and infrastructure industry in developing and support skilling solutions and advocacy of all connected services for ensuring the skill needs of the construction industry.

Standards & Research team at CSDCI provides the much needed knowledge and competency products to the construction skill ecosystem. The team works to catalyze the skilling initiatives in construction sector by facilitating the availability of technical knowledge resources and instructional material. It provides supports for aggregation and delivery of instructional content such as qualification pack (QP), curriculum, participant handbook, facilitator's guide, e-Skilling contents, training delivery plan (TDP) and a wide range of innovative learning materials through various platforms such as Skill India Portal, National Qualification Register, etc. The standards team facilitates the creation of quality assurance tools aligned to qualification packs for implementation of training and assessment. Till now there are 102 Qualification Packs developed under 18 occupations, 20 participant handbooks and 3 audio visual contents for Construction Job Roles. The aim is to create plethora of audio-visual content which would benefit the Training centers and Construction Industries' workforce in alignment with the Government's aim to Skill India.

Our Business Development team makes this possible by establishing and developing relationships with National Skill Development Corporation, States (State Skill Development Mission), Training Partners (TP), Assessment Agencies (AA) and leading construction Industries. It also looks into promoting the schemes and its benefits under Skill India Mission via social media, workshops, seminar/webinar and other platforms. It also affiliates Training Partners and Assessment Agencies to conduct trainings and assessments in construction job roles by CSDCI's certified Trainers and Assessors respectively. More importantly the business development team plays the most important role in advocacy of National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) in the Industry. Identification of sectors suitable for apprenticeship programmes, assist Industry in developing apprenticeship curriculum, capacity building activity for provision of basic training and on-the-job training & in empanelment of Training Providers and act as an aggregator (TPA) to support the MSME clusters in running the apprenticeship program. With more facilitative changes coming into NAPS couple of years ago, construction organizations need to fast realize that a long apprenticeship duration and wider approach to include the requisite numbers and categories from as many functions on the construction site as possible will be the most logical way to march faster towards the intended success'.

Additionally, with the support of technical experts and jury members of leading Industries, BD administer the different skill trades for WorldSkills, Shanghai 2022 under the guidance and mentorship of NSDC. It also plays crucial role in conducting of Monthly webinars under 'Azadi ka Amrut Mahotsav: India @75' organised by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to make Industries aware about different ongoing skill schemes, its benefits and promote Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer (ASEEM), a Skill Management Information System to bridge the gap between skilled workforce and employee.

The 'Training of Trainers' team at CSDCI ensures the capacity building of Trainers
and Assessors through training delivery and further certification. This is carried out based on the industry expectations, demand and supply gap of CSDCI's certified Trainers and Assessors and on target allocated to Training Partners under various schemes. CSDCI also involved in 'Accreditation' of 'Training of Trainers' centre by ensuring the availability of required infrastructure and master trainer for the applied job role. It further coordinates with Centre regarding the scheduling & Announcement of program, Shortlisting and Mobilization of candidates, assures the quality of training and assessment as per the requirement of Qualification Packs / National Occupation Standards and fair assessment, publish the Training of Trainers / Training of Assessors result on CSDCI website & finally approve the certificate request applied by the qualified Trainers and Assessors on Skill India Portal.

Operations team facilitates quality training, conduct fair assessments through the CSDCI's affiliated Assessment Agencies and finally certifications of the trained manpower as per National Occupation Standards and align them to National Skill Qualification Framework levels which enables a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood. Individuals with prior learning experience or skills will also be assessed and certified under Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

The benefits of Skill Development for Industries include increased business profits, improved performance, improved accuracy & quality, improved communication, complies with rules & regulations, improved recruitment & career opportunities, and development of good customer relations. The various schemes in which the CSDCI ensures fair assessment through its affiliates are as under:

1. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY)

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is a method of assessment which allows learners to gain formal recognition (certification) for knowledge, skills and competence that they already have. Different types of 'Recognition of Prior Learning' (RPL) programs cater to multiple requirements such as recognizing and certifying through Camps, Employer Premises, By Demand, with best-in-class employers and online mode as well.

2. Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan (GKRA) aims at initiating public works, construction activities and other economic activities on a large scale to meet the livelihood and income requirements of migrant workers and similarly affected rural citizens.
3. PMKVY Special Projects
4. Central & State Government Funded Skill interventions covers plethora of programs and schemes under various public departments, under various ministries.

For example, as part of Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) housing for all which is an initiative of Ministry of Rural Development, CSDCI plays a major role in creating new skills and also in upskilling the construction workers under rural sector.

National Urban Livelihood Mission (NULM) as launched by Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA) focuses on organizing urban poor in their strong grassroots level institutions, creating opportunities for skill development. The Mission is aimed at providing shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner. In addition, the Mission would also address livelihood concerns of the urban street vendors.

Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitization now known as Ministry of Jal Shakti launched a program in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, under Swacch Bharat Mission on 30th September' 18. The ambitious project aimed to skill and train 3000 rural candidates in Rural Mason qualification pack with special emphasis on rural sanitization and usage of twin pit toilets.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in collaboration with Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), NSDC and CSDCI has taken up an initiative for training and certification workers engaged at ongoing roads and highways sites.

CSDCI is providing support in vocational education which is an initiative by Ministry of Human Resource and Development by conducting assessment for school students of classes 9th to 12th.

5. Non-Government / Industry Funded Programs involving various schemes. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding is used for skilling of construction workforce.
6. World Bank Funded Program Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (Sankalp), a programme of the Ministry of Skill Development with loan assistance from the World Bank.
7. NSDC international migration initiative under 'Recognition of Prior Learning' – Saudi Arabia

As part of this initiative assessments were conducted by CSDCI for potential workers of Saudi Bin Laden Group, Saudi Arabia under the India Saudi Skill Harmonisation of Framework.

Programs / Schemes are monitored for adherence to quality norms such as online monitoring, surprise visits and mapping of evidence post assessment based on criteria set by quality department.

CSDCI ensures process audit of assessment in all skilling schemes of CSDCI with the help of its IT team which additionally provides the web portal support used in skilling.

While the skill training schools / centers support in creating the new workforce, it is equally important that the major players in the construction industry come forward in upskilling the construction workers taking help from any of the schemes / programs as mentioned. Upskilling could happen without stopping site operations as this would only improve the operational effectiveness and efficiency of the organization.

Although skilling is one of the major initiatives that will make all the positive impact in making a paradigm shift in the way the construction industry conducts itself, there are few other concerns such as the traditional way of contracting the labour forces which require a complete overhauling. One obvious change which would be evolve these traditional labour contractors as 'Professional Staffing Organizations'. This would go a long way in securing the interest and welfare of the construction workers and stop them from getting further exploited. Further this would ensure delivery of Employee State Insurance Scheme, Provident Fund etc., to the last mile. Ease of working, dignity of working and self sufficient transit camps for the construction workers would come much easier and stronger in view of the professional approach by the staffing organizations. Professional staffing organizations also have the opportunity to evolve as small time construction contractors in a more professional manner. Lastly, today needs large and small construction contractors in large numbers if it has to move towards a USD 5 trillion economy. Packaging all kinds of trainings in one box in one go will not help the in uplifting construction workers. This has to have an evolving, flexible and customized approach across the construction industry owing to different kind and scales of construction projects.

As once said by our Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 'The more importance we give to skill development, the more competent will be our youth'. Every entrepreneur in the construction industry should remember that with every upskilling initiative, with every new skill acquired, skilling, qualifying and certifying the workforce, only doubles odds of success.

– Narendra Deshpande

Chief Executive Officer, Construction Skill Development Council of India

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