*Sharda runs lower level skill courses for technician & supervisory levels.
SHARDA colleges strongly emphasize on “Skills & Practical Capability Development “ for its students as well other students willing to undertake training at Sharda Institutions. It’s our mission to develop competencies in our students for “Hands on “ engagement in real life situation of industry & trade, thus making them Industry ready. Therefore all SHARDA colleges have signed as MOU with the National Skill Development Corporation, Govt. of India for introducing higher level Skill Development courses (Levels 5, 6, 7 & 8 equivalent to Vocational graduation degree ), the dual degree for which is awarded by the way of Certification by the sector Skill Council in association with Sharda University and is a recognized skill degree all over the world.
The current landscape of vocational training in India comprises just about 5,500 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and 1,745 Polytechnic Institutes, compared to 500,000 similar institutes in China. Further, the US boasts about 1,500 trade training programs compared to India’s measly 171. India’s current vocational training infrastructure caters to just 2.5 million annually whereas the country is adding almost 18 million to its population every year.
Out of the estimated 555 million jobs in India in 2015, almost 90 percent i.e. about 450 million were skill-based jobs. The fact is that as many as 87 per cent of these 450 million skill-based workers received no vocational training at all either formally or through hereditary channels. Just about 2.35 percent have received some formal vocational training. In the absence of proper vocational training infrastructure (in quantity and quality), most high-growth industries are already facing shortage of skilled manpower, leading to wage inflation on the one hand and slowdown of growth on the other. We are also missing global opportunity as over 31 per cent of employers worldwide are struggling to find qualified manpower, especially those in manual trades. Looking at the demographic advantage that India enjoys, “Skill Development “for youth is a national priority & SHARDA colleges are making committed contribution in this regards.
KEY ISSUES
- Skill development through ITI is limited.
- No industry involvement in training programs and course design, in most Engineering & Technical courses.
- The management of the vocational system is fragmented and lacks a coherent and efficient organizational structure.
- Lack of match between skills required by industries and skills developed by existing vocational programes.
- Publicly funded vocational training institutes lack the flexibility to respond to labour market demands and to offer adequate curriculum/pedagogy accordingly.
- Vocational education enjoys unfavourable comparisons to academic qualifications.
- Fixed eligibility criteria like class 8th, 10th or 12th to enter the formal vocational training program restrict a major percentage of population.
- The Delivery model use English as language which restricts most of the rural population to join it.
- The quality of the training imparted is also a matter of concern as the tool kits, faculty and curriculum are reportedly sub-standard.
- Qualifications and training donot provide the necessary soft / employability skills needed by industry.
SHARDA GROUP’S INITIATIVE
SHARDA took its first step forward in this direction to tap the need for Vocational Training, to provide opportunities for skill based training and development in the rural areas, as well as for its own engineering & professional level students requiring higher level skills.
- Establishing efficient cost effective system to provide vocational training in rural areas /higher educational institutes.
- Facilitating remote villages and especially the unemployed rural youth with vocational training program for self employment.
- Developing trained and skilled manpower to fulfill local Human Resource requirements as well as industry ready professional manpower.
- Increasing the mobility of qualification by certifying trained and skilled manpower with additional government and university certificates recognized.
- Fostering entrepreneurship by empowering rural people /professional students with current business scenarios and technologies.
- Transferring people centric technologies from research labs to rural /student entrepreneurs.
- Turning “Balance of Trade” in favor of villages/ small towns by increasing contribution of rural/ small town economy in national GDP.
- Preserving the historical craftsmanship by transferring knowledge from rural world and making market available to them.
- Creating Awareness Regarding Health, Sanitation and government rural development programs as well as professional ethics & good interpersonal behavior in professional students.
- Village survey near Agra and Mathura regions where our group colleges are situated.(Villages covered: Pingri, Meghpur, Begampura, Bheemnagar, Singhana, Keetham and Shahajadpur).
- Advertisements in local newspapers inviting application for Multi skill development training.
- Aptitude test to all applicants followed by Personal Interview based selection.
- Industry linked curriculum for pragmatic application based learning.(both for village youth /our students)
- Audio-Video based easy to understand the curriculum.(both for village youth /our students).
HIGHLIGHTS OF TRAINING METHODOLOGY
– “Unique Curriculum” to make students’ industry ready.
– Training for Trainers.
– More emphasis on the hands on training.
– Regular monitoring & Exhibition of live projects by the trainees.
– Industrial Tie Ups: For post (for placement) and pre (content development, trainee grooming, on site hands on training etc.) training support were established.
REWARDING RESULTS
– More than 700 students enrolled in 5 batches for the above (SDTE) program for the skills like Electrician, Wireman, Carpentry, Plumbing and other courses, have been trained.
– Out of this 600 students in 4 batches passed out and got employed in nearby companies/industries in the Agra-Mathura regions. A small percentage also opted for self employment based on the skill sets acquired out of these workshops and programs.
– The Placement percentage of our own students is steadily going up & even mid-level & lower-level talent is getting hired raising % placement to 85% consistently from amongst interested & eligible students.