Bridging skill gap to fetch youth jobs

India is second populous country in the world with 60 per cent of working age population. But the sad part is the Industry still lacks skilled professionals.

Although the Government of India is trying to establish a bridge between academia and industry through national-level skill development programmes and schemes, not many are able to participate in these programmes due to lack of awareness or financial problems.

“In India only 30 per cent of the youth are able to complete the schooling, and the percentage drops further when it comes to junior college and college.

• IITT is a government aided skill training institute which trains individuals for free
• IITT has 7 centres across India
• Individuals can opt go get trained in Mechanical as well as Electrical industry
• Each training programme is for eight-week duration
• Mechanical training course will train an individual in one or three specialisations—fitting, machinist and quality maintenance of machines.
• Electrical training course will train an individual in one or three specialisations- electrician, electric board paneling, servicing and maintenance of electrical appliances

Such youth, unaware of the technological training programmes provided by the government and the deemed institutes settle for daily wage jobs,” says Bala Tripura Sundari, Founder, Involute Institute of Technological Training (IITT), Balanagar, Hyderabad.

“IITT is a technological training body aided by government aims to bridge the skill gap between Industry and academia. It works as a finishing school making people with basic technical education employable,” she adds.

“IITT trains and places every year more than 8,000 individuals, without any training fees who are tenth standard pass/fail, intermediate pass-outs and even graduates,” she notes.

“Every student will have hands on experience on latest machinery and is trained intensively to understand the machines”, she adds

The IITT trains individuals majorly in two sectors 1) Mechanical 2) Electrical. Mechanical training has divided into three specalisations- fitting, machinist and quality maintenance of machines.

While in electrical training students are trained in electrical work, electric board paneling, servicing and maintenance of electrical appliances.

Both machinist and electrical work do not need any qualification but the other two specialisations require completion of Intermediate or equivalent course.

Bala Tripura Sundari, who is listed as one of the most powerful women in Asia, is a B.Com graduate and an alumni from Indian School of Business (ISB). She is also trained by National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN).

She started Involute Automation institutions in 2011 to mobilise and train students with diploma/ITI /engineering backgrounds. The students are trained to meet client requirements in machining, assembly and maintenance primarily targeting the automotive industry.

Sharing her future plans, Bala Tripura Sundari said, “we are looking forward to enter into pharma industry too as Hyderabad is India’s largest pharma hub and has a lot of job oppurtunities”.

“We are also in talks with Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) to authorise us to certify the students with diploma which will help them growing in their career,” she concludes.

By: Vaishnavi Girish