Lack of traditional skills in India causes alarm

SKILLS DEVELOPMENT: The government has proposed a Rs 30,000 crore plan called the National Skills Development Mission.

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New Delhi: Jobseekers are opting for booming sectors and there seems to be a hoard of software developers.

However, India is facing a shortage of traditional skills, as there are no nurses, no good plumbers, not even good crane operators.

Meanwhile, as the government recognises the problem, the National Skills Development mission is aiming at solving the problem.

Nursing, for 31-year-old Punnu, is a family tradition as her three sisters too are all nurses. But her only regret is that her demanding job doesn't pay well.

“Salaries are very low and that's why most nurses go abroad, to Dubai, Australia and Germany. I also wanted to go but then I got married here,” says Punnu Nassi.

“There is an urgent need for nurses, especially the ones trained to work in intensive care units and surgical wards,” says Paediatric Nephrologist, Dr Vinay Aggarwal

The Planning Commission says that our requirement of nurses will touch the one million mark by 2012.

And it isn't just nurses, the economy desperately needs more new age professionals like health care technicians, retail salespersons, automobile workers, crane operators, computer service staff, gaming designers and even hotel bellboys.

To solve the problem, the government has proposed a Rs 30,000 crore plan called the National Skills Development Mission, which will train people to do 21st century jobs.

“The origin of the idea is that we are running into a very serious skill development constraints. And by skills here, I do not mean people who go to IITs and universities. We need the development of a very wide range of skills based on short-term courses, which are very employability oriented, and which respond to specific types of demands,” says Deputy Chairman

Planning Commission, Montek Singh Alhuwalia.

As part of the skills development mission the government is to set up 1,600 new industrial training institutes and Polytechnics, 10,000 vocational schools and 50,000 skill development centres across the country

However, it is clear that what the country needs right now are short-term courses that last three to six months.

The need of the hour is to have an education system that goes hand in hand with job requirements.