COVID-19 impact | NSDC chief says e-learning course enrollments grew 162% in April over March

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has not only forced Indians to study and work from home, but also to upskill to stay relevant in the job market.

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the implementing body of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, talked about how it is dealing with the pandemic and the growing need for skills.

Excerpts:

Q. Amidst COVID-19, do you see a need to rejig the skill-sets under the sector skill council list of skills?

A: COVID-19 has caused demand- and supply-side disruptions which are bound to adversely affect the economy. World Bank, in its South Asia Economic Focus report of April 2020), indicates that the real GDP growth (at current market prices) for India is predicted to fall to 2.8 percent in 2020-21 from an estimated level of 5 percent in 2019-20.

Although there are certain job roles that may see a downturn, newer ones are expected to come up in response to the crisis, for example, various job roles under the healthcare sector. Here, the sector skill councils (SSCs) will play a critical role in navigating through these shifts and identifying newer skill that are in demand. We are trying to map these competencies to new and emerging jobs with the help of SSCs.

Manish Kumar, MD & CEO, NSDC

Q. Has the Skill India Mission been able to ramp up capacity?

A. Skill India Mission has seen significant progress through the years. The union government through its budget for FY21 has renewed its commitment towards skill development. The country has developed the capacity for skilling upwards of 10 million individual every year.

The job market in India has become dynamic and technological advances play a critical role. This has impacted job requirements and has made it imperative for the workers and job seekers to upskill themselves to stay relevant in the current environment.

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SSC-NASSCOM has identified emerging technologies influencing the future of work in India, such as cybersecurity, AI, big data analytics among others. To respond to the skill gap across these, NSDC has supported SSC-NASSCOM to develop the FutureSkills platform.

Q. Will this initiative be able to reach 40 crore people by FY22? Where do the numbers stand now?

A. The working-age population in India is nearly 830 million of which 440 million approximate are in the labour market. About 410 million of this 440 million are employed, a large chunk of it in the informal sector.

Of those already employed in the labour market, about 40 million have reported having acquired skills, through traditional and non-traditional means while the remaining 370 million are likely to have informally acquired skills on the job.

The country, therefore, now needs massive efforts at Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to assess and certify for competence those already working and having acquired skills informally. Prime Minister’s Kaushal Vikas Yojana has a significant focus on RPL, encouraging employers to take initiatives in this regard.

Over time, skilling competencies and pedagogy methodology has been prepared for more than 2,400 job roles across 37 sectoral verticals of economy, covering a wide range of jobs, which will provide the backbone for quality teaching and learning to those interested.

Q. Have partnership additions continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic?

A. To add to its course catalogue, eSkillIndia (NSDC’s e-learning aggregator) recently partnered with UpGrad, British Council and Saylor Academy with the aim of providing online skill development courses to skill youths in areas such as data analytics, customer relationship management, and entrepreneurship.

Through our partnership with the British Council’s English Score application, we are providing English language skills to 100,000 students, along with free assessment and certification. Already, 24,000 students have taken the English score assessments and redeemed their certificates. With Britannia, we will provide digital and entrepreneurial skills to 10,000 homemakers through e-SkillIndia. So far, we have received entries from more than 1.5 million homemakers.

NSDC and Amazon India have partnered to drive COVID-19 related awareness. We have also added a COVID-related section on e-Skill India, including courses such as a COVID awareness course by Apollo MedVarsity and courses for healthcare professionals and sensitization modules by FICCI.

Q. How has COVID-19 impacted training, especially at the Kaushal Kendras?

A. Currently, all in-person training activities across all our training centres, including Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras (PMKKs) have been halted due to the lockdown. They are expected to resume post the lockdown.

Further, NSDC is encouraging skill seekers to acquire new skills through our eLearning aggregator portal called eSkillIndia. the portal offers more than 400 courses, and 60 percent of these are available free of cost, curated from best-in-class knowledge providers such as BSE, Apollo, TCS and SAS.

We have seen a tremendous increase in uptake during the lockdown, about 225 percent growth in course enrollments during March 2020 as compared to February 2020, and 162 percent growth during April 2020 as compared to March 2020.

Currently, there are more than 150,000 course enrollments across 120,000 learners in eSkill India portal.

Q. Even though there are incentives being provided, youth in India is still disinterested to pursue vocational skills. What steps is NSDC taking to counter this mindset?

A. Over the past few years, NSDC has been working to make skilling aspirational for the youth. With the help of skill competitions, we have been able to build significant interest among the youth to pursue vocational skills. These competitions are held at the regional, zonal and national level to help identify the best, who then go on to participate in the biennial IndiaSkills competition. Winning candidates and those who exhibit exemplary performance get the opportunity to represent India at the WorldSkills International competitions.

We are also working on the integration of school education and skills to drive up the aspirational value of vocational training at an early age. For instance, underwater welding is one of the highest-paid jobs in the world, yet welding has low aspirational value. So far, we have worked in over 10,000 schools, impacting about 10,00,000 students and their parents.

Q. Will COVID-19 also change the way skilling programmes are rolled-out in India?

A. The Coronavirus outbreak is set to bring about the adoption of technology-based skill delivery and blended learning models across India. Conventional brick and mortar model of training may need to evolve keeping in mind the practical nature of vocational programmes.

Training providers may need to embed online components into existing training programmes and develop systems wherein trainees can study remotely, in addition to classroom training.

Q. Would online training replace classroom programmes?

A. There will certainly be increased adoption of online learning, however, digital training or learning may not completely replace classroom programmes across all sectors and job roles. In some sectors, such as manufacturing, due to the inherently practical nature of training, a component of in-classroom training will exist. Nevertheless, even in such sectors, digital transformations are expected to occur with blended models and technology-assisted classrooms.

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