Development Initiatives: The Pathway to ‘Skill India’

Dr. Haresh Tank, Director, Station-e Language Labs & Vice Chairman, CII, Western Gujarat Zonal Council

Dr. HareshIndia stands at a profoundly significant juncture which can define its future and accelerate its growth, unlike any other phase in history we have seen so far. In view of unprecedented possibilities, we also face the same old issues which plague us, as usual. For a country embarking on growth juggernaut, based primarily on the idea that the largest part of our population is constituted of youth, it is challenging enough to equally and adequately skill the young population in such large numbers. On the one hand, it is a documented fact that 10% of our general graduates and 15% of our technical graduates are readily employable. On the other hand, it is found in survey after survey that 48% employers find it difficult to recruit in India. There is a large skills deficit staring at us while we bask in the glory of changed circumstances.

Appreciating the scenario a decade earlier, Station-e was envisioned to provide complete skilling solution for India. As against the conventional education system that privileges marks and grades, we had decided to focus on actual learning because it is tangible learning that translates into tangible skills. In order to ensure that the youth of the country becomes readily employable, Station-e conceptualized training programs ranging from Communicative English to Call Centre Training, from Vedic Mathematics to Computing Skills, from Interview Skills to Leadership. After the launch of Station-e a decade ago, we have implemented salient and wide-ranging training programs to address the diverse needs of the country.

In the attempts to upskill India, we have made ample use of the differentiator of the present age- technology. It is the deft use of technology and its blend with human intelligence that determine the success of any and every project today. Statione’s campaign to skill India has served its purpose due a considerable extent to the integration of cutting-edge educational technology in the training and learning of the aforementioned courses. Station-e Skills Development Centre (SDC) is the next generation lab in which skills development is defined and redefined with the use of technology. Every activity and every process is powered by the harmonious integration of technological prowess and human excellence. Each learner is empowered and armed by sophisticated tech tools to learn and deepen the learning that takes place with complete and total customization, unheard of so far in the space of education and training in India.

Where India lacks in digital space is in imagination. We have simply not been able to imagine how innovatively and creatively we can apply and integrate technology in education and training. Our conventional structures and processes have lost all the charm because the world went digital decades ago and we still continue to languish in the 20th century practices. India definitely lacks in infrastructure but India does not lack in talent to find a solution around the difficult situation that the country usually offers when it comes to implementation. We have been skeptical in making a drastic break from the past in terms of full-blooded integration of digital tools in education and training. If Station-e has been relatively effective and successful in skilling India in the decade-long run across education institutions – schools, colleges, universities etc, it is primarily because we chose to break new ground using digital means.

How we wish to see the program go forward is that Station-e becomes instrumental in upskilling India with an accelerative thrust not witnessed in the recent past and the scale of which should put us past competing economies in terms of ‘Scale, Speed and Skill’. The growth of this breath-taking society and exemplary democracy lies in the skilled hands and trained minds of the youth. We see the Station-e skilling campaign and its initiatives going forward to reach its culmination in the next decade and enable the fulfillment of the aspirations of its people.

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