A number of start-ups, through their training programmes and workshops, are adding value to the unskilled workforce, helping them enhance the quality of their work and earn higher remuneration.
“We have training programmes for medical services, soft skills, consumer behaviour, among others,” said Vipin Pathak, Co-Founder of Care24.
“We only exist because of our training programmes.”
The SAIF partners-backed company has allotted 20% of its funds towards training and skilling programmes, and expects to train over 5,000 employees in the next two years. They are also in talks with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for a possible collaboration to create a curriculum and certification around the training.
On the other hand, services marketplace UrbanClap does their bit for the skilling industry by providing customer access to the 50,000 skilled workers across 90 services on their platform ranging from carpenters and beauticians to electricians and plumbers.
“We have partnered with the NSDC and the government that as they will train workers, we will provide them access to potential customers by onboarding them to the UrbanClap platform,” said UrbanClap Co-Founder Varun Khaitan. The company, however, takes special interest in providing inhouse training in beauty services and soft skills.
Similarly, start-ups like Logistics Junction, Timesaverz and Easyfix are also providing development courses and training programmes to drivers, carpenters, plumbers and others to improve the quality of work for their customers and add skilled workforce to the industry.
India witnesses a shortage of well-trained, skilled workers with only 2.3% of the workforce who have undergone formal training, according to data provided in National Skill Development Mission. This is in contrast with countries like the USA and UK, where trained workforce constitutes 52% and 68%, respectively.
With such glaring numbers showing a disparity, experts think irrespective of start-ups providing in-house training sessions or outsource the job to skilling institutes, as long as it adds to the skilled workforce, we are moving in the right direction.
“This kind of skilling addresses people at the bottom of the pyramid. Around 74% of them don’t even go to college,” said Ananth Rao, Chairman of the training institute Focus SkillPro. “The purpose is to train them and provide them a livelihood.”
Source: The Economic Times