Program Status

Background

There are three compelling reasons why skills development of India's young population is critical:

• India's skills shortage is a critical gap in its present growth trajectory
• India, with its young population, can help alleviate the global shortage of skilled manpower and become the Skill Capital of the World
• Unskilled and untrained population not only create inefficiency and poor quality but can also become a demographic disaster for want of economic opportunity

PanIIT Global Conference 2006 gave a fillip to the idea of IITians for ITIs conceived by a group of IIT alumni. This program was included under the Knowledge Economy theme of Nation Building Initiatives launched by PanIIT Alumni India.

Strategy

This program has envisioned the idea of a sustainable ecosystem to be executed over a 15-year timeline that aims to transform India's Industrial Training Institutes, ITIs, to world class levels and keep them at that level sustainably.

Clearly this effort involves diverse stakeholders including India's central and state governments, industry associations, industries, academia, and professionals around the world.

IITians for ITIs has conceptualized a holistic concept that aims at bringing together all stakeholders for synergistic interaction towards the development of skilled technicians of high quality.

Highlights

• PanIIT-CII Partnership is aimed at empowering Institute Management Committees, IMCs, of ITIs sponsored by CII members. Some initiatives include:
  • A management framework has been developed and provided in the form of the Blue Book. This book was launched on Sep 17, 2008 at Global Skills Conference in New Delhi by Hon Minister of Labor, Govt of India, Mr Oscar Fernandes. Two other volumes are planned and under development currently.
  • Workshops are organized for the benefit of IMC members and ITI Principals to help them assess their current state, analyze opportunities and possibilities, plan for the future, and execute them with support from various quarters.
• PanIIT L&T MoU is a framework for leveraging the experiences, resources, and strengths of the industry for the benefit of ITIs
• Skills India 2020, http://skills2020.team-for-iti.org, is a collaboration hub that enables interactions among all stakeholders including governments, industries, industry associations, academics, and ITI administration. This provides a forum for ITIs to exchange their own successes and problems and learn from best practices across the board.
• Mentor programs leverage professionals around the world to mentor specific ITIs by assisting their IMCs and liaising with other players involved - governments, industries, and other specialists and resource providers
• Pilot programs at different ITIs have facilitated launch of new programs and innovative techniques for skills improvement. IITians to join as mentors to management of ITIs of their choice:
  http://paniit.team-for-iti.org/mentor.html. 24 IITians have already signed up
• Program Newsletters are published every quarter. Archives can be found
  http://paniit.team-for-iti.org/newsletter/News_July2008.pdf
  http://paniit.team-for-iti.org/newsletter/News_Jan2008.pdf
  http://paniit.team-for-iti.org/newsletter/News_Oct2007.pdf

Recent developments

• Mentoring program: IITians to join as mentors to management of ITIs of their choice
• Skills India 2020 Collaboration website for ITIs for providing individualized support
• Blue book: a reference document for upgrading and running an ITI deveopled jointly with CII. Volume I released
• Google map of ITIs: Find an ITI close to your hometown

Future

This program has been able to develop linkages and infrastructure for rapid growth and highly effective results.

Initiatives are proposed for institutes across the geography of India.

Simultaneously there are significant opportunities to work on strategic initiatives like:

• Curricula development and the creation of National Skills Catalog
• Development and deployment of innovative techniques for training and assessment
• Demand mapping and planning infrastructure for the industry and factoring them in planning process within ITIs
• Accreditation, benchmarking, and recognition programs
• Developing Brand ITI for the young to aspire to be an ITI graduate

We do look forward to active participation from professionals in our program. Please do visit us at PanIIT 2008 as well as at
http://skills2020.team-for-iti.org.