‘Skill approach’ in Northeast different, needs matching plan

Dimapur, Sep. 4 (EMN): The concept of skills, including soft skills, and their levels in the Northeast is different as is the educational levels in the region. This is why a ‘specific plan’ is required to match their consistency, skill development managers say.

A workshop to promote skill development was conducted September 3 in the capital convention centre in Kohima. The department of Employment & Skill Development organised the workshop, updates stated.

The government publicity agency the department of Information and Public Relations (IPR) gave on Wednesday updates about the programme.

Manish Kumar, the chief executive officer of the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC), spoke at the event. He highlighted the activities of the NSDC, and called for promotion and participation of the private sector in skill development, and giving funds in the form of soft loans, equity and grants to assist private entities in enhancing their ‘employability.’

Kumar said that the Northeast requires a different approach to skills because the educational level in some ways is ‘different’ as also are the soft skills in the region. What the states need is a specific plan that matches their consistency, he said.

Kumar informed that counselling on a bigger scale is required to make the local youths aware of the opportunity and what to expect in the future.

‘Nagaland has a lot of opportunities which will link to opening markets in South East Asia and for which they are looking forward to chalk out the requirements and also to link young people who wants to work abroad,’ he said.

The chief secretary of Nagaland Temjen Toy also spoke at the event. When it comes to skill development, he said, Naga youths have ‘talent’ not only in service sector, and hospitality but in arts such as music which is something to be proud of and to be appreciated.

The problem is, he said, for instance musicians do not have the right market where they can make music into a career. Therefore, he appealed to the policy makers to have various programmes as part of the ministry of Skill Development & Employment ‘where our youths can further be empowered,’ the IPR reported.

‘Besides having various schemes and programmes it is very important to have objectives whether the expected outcome has taken place or not. To make it happen, we need to have certain guidelines which need to be customised to suit the needs of local youths in each state,’ Toy was quoted as having said. He urged the government of India to assist in ‘modelling the guidelines to the requirements of Nagaland.’

The secretary for the ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, KP Krishan also spoke at the event. The IPR stated that he spoke about ‘the idea of long duration system, the short duration skill development programmes, and the entrepreneurship which focuses on self employment.’

The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship at Guwahati created exclusively to focus on the Northeast essentially looks at self employment and entrepreneurship, he said. There are number of schemes that the organisation runs but the most prominent one is the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY), he said.

Krishan spoke about ‘three main weaknesses’ of the programme. One is that the schemes are still ‘Delhi-driven’ with uniformity being treated as a virtue. Often, he said, it is ‘administratively easy’ for the central ministry to develop a scheme which is central-oriented.

Secondly, skill development schemes are also driven by training they provide which often results in uniformity, he said. Thirdly, there is inadequate connection with the livelihoods of different states, the official said.

‘Once PMKVY ends, they have come up with ways to address this situation by moving the focus from the Centre (although the Centre will be the primary agency for funding) and have programmes which are more state and district-driven,’ he said. ‘It will also be more demand-driven and not driven by training providers and, focus will be more on self employment.’

The official proposed identification and mobilisation of school dropouts and adults who will undergo skill development programmes.

“They will also provide counselling to assess the attitude and aptitude of children which will help the children find their prospects for their future. Further, he added that they will also be focusing on capacity creation in the district levels through NSDC,” the IPR reported.

The minister for Planning for Nagaland Neiba Kronu also spoke at the event. In his address to the gathering, he pointed out that the Northeast was in ‘need for skill development’ to compete with other ‘small neighbouring countries,’ the IPR reported.

He was stated to have suggested that besides ‘other skill development’ the Northeast needs to focus on the agriculture sector ‘as this sector is important for the livelihood of the people.’