Vocational training for 1 mn Indians with Swiss help

Switzerland will help the Indian government and corporate sector run a joint programme to provide vocational training to one million Indians by 2022, the Swiss embassy said on Monday.

Announcing the successful completion of a pilot programme of giving industry-oriented skill training to locals in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the embassy said that the programme will now be extended to other states.

The pilot programme picked up apprentices from local Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and attached them with industries to provide vocational on-job training.

“The approach that is used is to deliver the skill training is structured on the Swiss model and envisages a three-way partnership between company (which has hired the apprentice), the local ITI, and the project office,” Franz Probst, project head from the Swiss Skills Vocational Education and Training Initiative, said.

The apprentices are provided three to four days practical training in the industry he is attached to, and one or two day of theory classes.

So far, 150 youth are enrolled with the programme. The training includes on job skills, vocational skill as well as training in soft skills. Upon completion of the training the apprentices are given a diploma which is endorsed by Swiss vocational training organisation Swissmem.

G.P. Chandra Kumar from Skillsonics, an Indian firm assisting in the programme, said the focus is also on introducing new models of training, which may include a three-year programme after class X.

“The students will be taken for a three year programme after class X. They will be given a diploma, and it will have great value in the industry,” Chandra Kumar said.