The Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIIF) has rolled out its own training programme Yogyata Vikas aimed at improving the skill levels of shopfloor workers at foundry units across the country.

The first training session for a batch of 25 workers was launched on August 4 at Hinduja Foundries’ unit in Sriperumbudur.

“Our aim is to train at least 1,000 workers during 2016 and over 5,000 by 2018,” K Samaraj, President, IIIF, told. IIIF is the apex body for Indian foundry industry (metal castings industry), founded in 1950 with headquarters in Kolkata.

“At present, most of the people on the shopfloor get trained on-the-job and there is no formal training. IIIF’s training programme has been designed to address some shortfalls, increase productivity by 15-20 per cent and reduce rejection rates by 4-5 per cent,” he added.

Elaborating, he said there was a need to grow the foundry capacity three-fold in the next 10 years to support manufacturing in the country. While capital and technology are no longer issues, availability of skilled manpower is likely to be a major challenge.

At present, the foundry sector employs 5 lakh people directly and 1.5 million indirectly. Given the growth projections, manpower strength will grow at least two times in the next 10 years.

With an annual capacity of 10 million tonnes, Indian foundry industry is third largest in the world after China (45 million tonnes) and the US (11-12 million tonnes).

Source: Business Line