Among the many buzzwords that the government has made viral, including 'start-up' and 'smart cities', 'skill' is one of the words which resonates with today's youth the most. And why shouldn't it? "India will be the largest contributor to the global workforce in the coming two decades," establishes Sanjay Bahl, MD and CEO of Centum Learning. Not only did the National Skill Development Council (NSDC) form its first joint venture with this learning and development organisation, Centum is also into corporate training.
So, who better that Bahl to get insights into the training and skill development landscape? While Bahl appreciates the relevance and efforts behind skilling, for the future, he envisages more livelihood programmes. "Vocational progammes have really changed the scenario in countries like Australia and Germany significantly," he points out. And what about India? "Our framework is also fairly robust, especially after the Ministry of Skill Development And Entrepreneurship was launched," he commends.
Talking about their work in the corporate sector, Bahl mentions how companies are continuing to focus on training those at entry levels. Also, in many cases, it becomes indispensable for a company to upskill their employees. Bahl elucidates with an example of the automobile industry and how with the advent of a new vehicle model, employees need to be taught about comparing price models and other nuances while, "Of course, the basics like customer and service skills remain the same," he adds. While Centum’s entry-level programmes are 90% face-to-face and 10% virtual, Bahl informs that as and when the employee moves up the corporate ladder, the programme starts incorporating more e-learning modules. They have partnered with more than 350 corporate partners, including Bharti Airtel, Genpact and more, and they ensure that they impart the required skill to employees.
As a conclusion, Bahl states that every training programme needs to ensure that the participant is self-employed or meaningfully employed. Talking about unemployment, we ask him what the solution to combat this problem is, which is another buzzword today. He replies, “It is fairly simple. We need to start walking the path across all progrmmes and schemes that the government is launching.”
Difference between educational and corporate training:
- While training for students is more holistic and encompasses several aspects of a particular field, corporate training is more focused as per the company's objective
- Small nuggets of information need to be shared post-training for corporates to help with retention levels, while for students, because most don't have clarity as to what they want to be, their retention level is low. In this case, continuous counselling needs to be offered
- It is difficult to get corporates at one place at a particular time as they are overloaded with work already, while for students it is relatively easier
For more on them, check out centumlearning.com
