By Sangeeta Saxena
New Delhi. 08 June 2016. Airport Authority of India (AAI), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and National Skill Development Fund (NSDF) have signed a tri-partite MoU where AAI has committed to contribute an amount of 5.25 crore of its CSR funds to NSDF along with land and premises for setting up skill development centres in the country.
The MoU was signed by Rajesh Agarwal, CEO, NSDF, Rajiv Goel, Director India Aviation Academy, Airport Authority of India and Jayant Krishna, CEO, NSDC in the presence of Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
MOCA Ashok Gajapati Raju said, “As we gear up for a new civil aviation policy, for new avenues that aviation will open up for economic growth of the country, for more new airports, and existing ones becoming active; there has to be a large part of our strategy towards sourcing skilled workforce to make all our plans successful. Our plans can be the most well thought out plans, but we need trained and certified people to execute those plans. Any vibrant program needs a skilled workforce.”
Recently a draft report prepared by ICRA Management Consultancy Services Ltd. (IMaCS) has identified possible skill requirements across aviation segments like Airport, Airline, MRO, Cargo and Ground Handling. It has recommended building a robust training and skill building ecosystem through institutional strengthening, infrastructure and capacity planning, training process reengineering, strengthening funding mechanism and monitoring and evaluation. It has recommended, among other things, the setting up of a National Civil Aviation Training Authority and Cargo and Ground Handling Sector Skill Council.
The Skills Development minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said, “The Aviation Sector has seen some good traction in the skill ecosystem. It is estimated that by 2035, the Indian Civil Aviation sector would employ 8 to 10 lakh personnel directly and another 3 lakh indirectly. To cater to this requirement, we introduced a new Sector Skill Council exclusively for preparing a job ready workforce for the Aerospace & Aviation Sector, last year.”
Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. It’s no surprise that governments across the world are waking up to the significant role vocational education and training (VET) plays in their countries’ futures.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his pet project Skill India Campaign in New Delhi on the occasion of the first ever World Youth Skills Day ,he also launched the National Skill Development Mission and unveiled the new National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015.The Prime Minister said that each poor, underprivileged youth was a soldier in this war.
He also called for constant updating of training programmes and syllabi to ensure that the youth are exposed to the latest technology and industry environment. Linking the necessity to promote both apprenticeship and entrepreneurs, the prime minister said that it was important to predict the possibilities of the future and prepare for them today itself.
