FICCI recognizes that skill development is imperative for achieving India's ambitious growth target of becoming a $5 trillion economy. "Skill Development" is the key to promote employability, competitiveness, and economic growth. As Indian industry and services grow and compete internationally, they realize that the availability of requisite skills - in terms of relevance, quality, and quantity, has become an urgent need. The swiftness with which this skill deficit is bridged will be critical in determining India's competitiveness in global market.
Keeping this context in mind, FICCI formulated the Skill Division in 2007 way before National Skill Development Corporation and the National Policy on Skill Development were announced. The division was then called the Skill Development Forum and was chaired by Mr RCM Reddy, MD & CEO, IL&FS Education and Skills (2007- 2015) and co-chaired by Mr. Sanjeev Duggal, CEO & Director, Centum Learning Limited and Mr. T Muralidharan, Founder and Chairman, TMI Group. Thereafter, the SDC has been chaired by Mr Mohandas Pai, Chairman, Manipal Global Education (2016-18), Mr. Bijay Sahoo, President-HR, Reliance Industries (2019), Ms Nivruti Rai, Country Head, Intel India (2020), Mr Manish Sabharwal, Chairman & Co-Founder, Teamlease Services Ltd (2021 & 2022), Mr K Ramakrishnan, Chief Executive -Skill Development Mission Office of the Group Chairman , Larsen & Toubro Limited (2023) and Mr. Amit Kalyani, Vice-Chairman, Kalyani Group & Joint Managing Director, Bharat Forge Limited (2024)
The division is committed to working with the stakeholders, especially the industry, government, TVET institutions, Skill Universities, International development organizations and academia to create sustainable and scalable skills propositions which will benefit the youth of the country from all sections of society. The Skill Development Committee (SDC) has been broadly focusing on the following five areas:
- Policy Advocacy
- Industry Engagements
- International Collaborations
- Thought Leadership
- Projects /Events
Key Players:
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Education, NITI Aayog, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Department of Economic Affairs, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry , National Council for Vocational Education & Training (NCVET), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and State Skill Development Missions
Some key issues being addressed currently are:
- Revision of the National Skills Policy
- Making Apprenticeships Aspirational – Promoting NAPS and NATS
- Development of Traditional Clusters through entrepreneurship training
- Skill Gap Analysis – Knowledge Reports
- Enabling Career Guidance and Counselling framework
- Supporting MSDE in implementation of Flexi MoUs and Dual System of Training
- Develop/Improvise curriculum on Digital/Industry 4.0. courses
- Promote ITI Adoption/ engagement by Industry
- Promotion of Skill India Digital Hub and Job X platform amongst employers
- Support Government in formulating effective schemes to implement the Employment Linked Incentive Schemes.
Team Leader
Rajesh Pankaj
Senior Director
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