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India has best trainers. We must use them to bridge the gap between the industry demand and manpower supply. We impart Indianised version of skill development to ensure relevant training based on required employment, says Lt. Gen. Dr SP Kochhar, CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), in an exclusive conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).

How Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) is contributing to Government of India’s skill development initiative?

We are trying to bridge the gap between the industry demand and manpower supply. For initiating this, we are churning out two categories of people — employee and the entrepreneur. We, at our end, are trying to create required skills manually for the industry. We do third party assessment, but the technology way. According to the industrial sources, India will require more than 8 million skilled personnel across various verticals to match the growth of 15 per cent per annum of telecom sector — the bedrock of digital economy.

We have 563 technical colleges with active on social media presence .We have already created three skill centres in Chandigarh, Guwahati and Ambala. In these centresm we are into public private partnership. Here industries provide equipments and we provide training materials. Our training capacity today is 8 Lakh. In my view, we only lack trainers and researchers in our system.Under the current programme, TSSC will also train 24,000 trainers; collaborate with 500 training organisations and over 200 industry partners to cover the whole country progressively in next decade.

As per the recent updates Taiwan has approached you to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with them, what is it all about?

It delights me to inform you that we have already signed the MoU. They are interested in working with us because they want Indian trainers. I feel Indians are the best trainers in the world. They have come to us specifically for communication and electronics.

How do you see Indian telecom sector market in alignment with Urban employment?

The job market is gradually picking up for telecom sector. There is some concern for certain sections in telecom sector because service providers are upgrading very frequently. I believe, despite the scarcity, minimum 10 to 20 % employment is generated in every section of telecom section. Telecom service market alone is projected to grow $103.9 billion by 2020. Mobile economy is also projected to contribute anywhere between 6-10 per cent of India’s GDP by 2022. For us the major concern is the lack of infrastructure in the inaccessible regions.

Also Read | Focus on Employment – Lt Gen SP Kochhar, CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council

Manufacture and ancillary services are the sector where telecom has less employment but in sectors like information security which includes analytics, Internet of Things (IOT), telecom has a future and acceptance. We are also developing a centre of excellence soon. It would be first centre of excellence based on Internet of Things (IOT).

What are your plans for skill development in rural areas?

We use a complete Indianised version of skill development. We are planning to set up studios in metros where initially the trainer from remote areas ,having a grip on local lan, will join us, impart teaching and leave. Then we will take all the teaching content to the contact centre, not necessarily a stationed building but a moving vehicle. This vehicle will then travel to remote areas and students will be given practical training. After proper tests and assessments, the students are then sent for recruitments to the r e l e v a n t industries.

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