The modern day corporate training solutions to enhance the skills of banking professionals

Where there is a will, there is a way; and where there is a corporate training program, there are many professionals getting equipped with enhanced skills/knowledge to do better at what they do every day.

The Indian Banking Industry is currently worth Rs. 81 trillion (US $ 1.31 trillion), and has the potential to become the fifth largest banking industry in the world by 2020; both public and private banks have begun to leverage on the latest technologies like internet and mobile devices to reach masses and make life simple for their customers. However, just like opportunities, the sector is also facing many hurdles to growth, the major ones being the lack of communication and customer handling skills in the banking staff.

To tackle the grave situation, banks continuously invest in their people and keep them updated so they can manage customers’ queries effectively, and build more fruitful relationships with the customers they come across every single day in their professional life. Many smart banks engage with highly professional and experienced corporate training companies to help their employees explore ways to understand a customer psyche and make him/her a walking advertising for the bank.


Whether a bank wishes to hold a corporate training in Mumbai or Delhi or some other city where it has its branches, or arrange a long term training program series for its employees, the modern day training companies have it all up on their sleeve. Many even customize their programs – say a customer relationship management training program - to make them highly effective for their audience. Banks just need to choose their training partner for corporate training programs in India wisely so their people can learn the best practices from the best in the training industry.

Kenya’s agriculture sector up on government’s priority list

In the words of Wikipedia, Agriculture is, “the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi, and other life forms for food, fiber, biofuel, medicines and other products used to sustain and enhance human life.”

Of late, many developed as well as developing economics have come to realize the potential that their agriculture sectors hold. And with this realization, the governments have started strengthening their agriculture policies and opening ways to make their people skilled enough to enter the sector and capitalize on the opportunities that the sector has to offer.

Kenya is one such fine example of a country that has been putting tremendous focus on its agriculture sector’s development.

In a bit to train its people for various agriculture related roles, Kenyan government is introducing agriculture friendly policies and schemes. The key stakeholders, such as corporates, are also partnering with training specialists who can conduct agriculture sales training in Kenya to add value to the entire agriculture value chain.
   
It is to be noted that a standard agriculture sales training in Kenya program can be customized to improve the productivity of farm agents and seed distributors. Many other training programs can be designed and developed to cater to the specific needs of key stakeholders of the sector.

Agriculture already makes a significant portion of Kenya’s annual revenues. And with these new initiatives, Kenya’s government has shown its commitment towards a wholesome agricultural development. It just needs to introduce more polices and schemes to boost the sector and engage with the right partners for successful implementation and execution of those schemes.

Why do profitable businesses (which shell out large amounts of money on CSR) need learning and skills development specialists on board?

In the words of a leading learning and skills development company in India, “Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives, launched in isolation, not only amount to overhead expenses, but also make it difficult to quantify impact of the CSR programmes, thus promoting distrust amongst stakeholders and further eroding the brand value of the organization.”

It’s therefore important that corporate social responsibility is gelled well with the business imperatives of the corporates. Many corporates find it difficult and look for some specialists. This is exactly where corporate social responsibility companies come into the scene!

A professional corporate social responsibility company in India helps corporates to understand the inside out of the CSR and how they can easily and effectively integrate CSR into their business imperatives and thus make the most out of their CSR spending.

Whether you are a telecom giant or an insurance provider, or an automobile company, you can leverage the expertise of a learning and skills development partner to spend wisely on CSR programmes and quantify the impact of those programmes.

Corporate social responsibility companies will help you throughout the process: from the formation of the CSR strategy to its integration into the business imperatives, to its successful execution. From global brands to PSUs, many companies have got into strategic partnerships with leading learning and skills development companies.

Under these programmes, these corporate social responsibility companies train youth from the unprivileged and economically weaker sections of the society; apart from this, they also invest in education, skill development, gender equality, women empowerment and employment creation.

Now if you too feel like giving edge to your CSR initiatives, partner with a leading learning and skills development company that has good experience in CSR implementation, monitoring and execution.

Agriculture holds the key to a Transformed Africa

Agriculture had been one of the most neglected sectors in Africa. For long, it struggled on account of absence of supportive policies and frameworks, and lack of skilled manpower. Though it is the major earning source for over 65 percent of labour force in Africa, the sector really couldn’t grow to its potential. However, the overall scenario has now begun to improve.

African governments have come to realize the mammoth potential that the sector holds and are partnering with the private players to uplift the sector through various programs and schemes. Agriculture sales training in Kenya is one fine example of training programs that have been developed to boost the productivity of farm agents and seed distributors, and thus will impact the entire value chain of agriculture sector.

The agriculture training in Africa is provided by several end-to-end learning providers, which possess the inside out knowledge of the sector and have the infrastructure to reach out to those working directly and indirectly for the agriculture sector.

As per the figures available:
Africa holds 50 per cent of the world’s remaining uncultivated land in the world
By 2030, the size of the agriculture sector in Africa would reach $1 trillion (as per the World Bank’s estimates)

Agriculture is the 3rd fastest growing sector in Africa, followed by Resources, Wholesale & Retail
To ensure a sustained development in the sector, the governments of African countries must stick to agriculture friendly policies and engage with the training specialists who develop programs, such as agriculture sales training in Kenya, which can impact the entire value chain of Agriculture sector.

For more on Africa’s agriculture sector or vocational education in Africa, read our other blog posts.

Mission 12 Million!

By 2022, India’s economic engine may require over 500 million skilled people. Now getting to this figure may not be possible. What is possible as of now is to take little steps, one after another.

NSDC – National Skill Development Corporation – has been taking these little steps in association with some leading training organisations, such as Centum Learning. And together – through the Joint Venture created by NSDC and Centum Learning - they have set the target of skilling and placing over 12 million youth across sectors, which include auto and auto components, building and construction materials, healthcare, textiles, real estate services, electronics and IT hardware, organised retail, and tourism & hospitality.

With their eyes set on ‘skilling and placing 12 million youth’, these organisations offer various employability programs that in turn create corporate ready workforce.

In all these decades, we have grown in numbers, but we still have miles to go to when it comes to having the right skills for the right job. Despite availability of millions of jobs across sectors, industries are facing an acute short of skilled workforce. And this shortage can be overcome only when companies, like Centum Learning (which is a highly reputed NSDC partner), keep on rolling out employability programs and take them to the remotest corners of India.

True, little steps are what we need; the good thing is we have started taking them.

PSUs are gradually changing their outlook towards customer service

When Wal-Mart Founder Sam Walton said “the goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary,” he stated the golden rule of running a profitmaking business in a highly competitive scenario. In the globalised world, competition is just a click away for the consumers and has changed the way companies have functioned so far. Of course, it has been particularly challenging for the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to deal with this transformation. Since these government owned entities had followed the principles of bureaucratic administration from the time of independence when they were set up to further economic development, liberalisation in 1991 struck them hard.

Privatisation gave birth to a volatile market brimming with cut-throat struggle as consumers became aware of better quality and services especially in banking, health care and aviation sectors. Intensifying demands, archaic products, lack of human resource and poor facilities led to the downfall of these public corporations with huge losses in market share. The worst hit were definitely the public sector banks (PSBs) as advanced technology and customer relationship management (CRM) driven private banks started ruling the roost in the post-liberalisation era. In the wake of the plummeting public banking sector, the government set up the Narsimham Committee (1991) that recommended focusing on enhancing the quality of customer relations and improving transparency along with instituting the Banking Ombudsman Scheme and Customer Protection Act.

This paradigm shift required expanding the customer base through increased efficiency, financial inclusion, innovation and CRM. However, the main challenge was enticing the high net worth individual (HNWI), who had also evolved with the changing times. Being serviced at a bank was now considered a right by HNWIs rather than getting something extra while carrying out the financial operations. They became more analytical and comparative in terms of products and would settle for nothing but the best in each segment of transaction or savings. Thus, major PSBs in the country underwent a modification process to remodel themselves as a people-oriented organisation to stay ahead of the private players.

Tailoring products as per customer expectations and recent progressive technology like ATMs, phone banking, internet banking along with expansion to remote areas of the country and a performance propelled working environment have all contributed to the growth of PSBs in the current times. One such revolutionary example is Punjab National Bank’s ‘Pragati’ initiative that aims at preferential treatment to loyal and prospective customers at each level of banking through modernisation, answerability, governance, better infrastructure, incentive etc.

Another important aspect of this transformation among the public sector banks involved increasing the number of branches and improving the quality of staff to develop more and more touch points and maintain a healthy relationship. This led to the much required product differentiation and market segmentation for easy identification and gratification of individual needs. Since personal interaction is the most significant characteristic of service sector, PSBs have realised its prominence and are now building new ways of enhancing customer experience.

In addition, data warehouses due to computerisation have also helped in offering superior financial planning and wealth management related services to consumers. Special relationship managers have been appointed to adhere to the grievances and streamline the processes, making banking effortless for the customers. Apart from upgrading, PSBs have also been effectively communicating about their products and services through various multi-media channels for widespread awareness and engagement. Consequently, the stature of PSBs has seen a meteoric rise in the past few years, gaining an edge over the private entrants, by changing the outlook towards customer satisfaction. Similarly equipped with contemporary information technology architecture, impeccable services, trained staff, customisation policies and customer-friendly approach, other government controlled enterprises are now making their presence felt and will continue to grow in the future.     

The future of India is Vocational!

India would require over 500 million skilled people by 2022. Building such a large base of skilled manpower is a distant dream for the country. But, the policymakers and those working at the grass root levels are trying their best.

Auto and auto components, building and construction materials, real estate services, electronics and IT hardware, food processing, gems & jewellery, organised retail, and tourism & hospitality are amongst the sectors that are already feeling starved of skilled manpower; and their demand for skilled youth would only rise in the coming years.

To bridge the huge gap between demand and supply of skilled manpower, several reputed vocational skills training companies have started reaching out to government, their agencies, and NGOs to skill India so that it doesn’t lag behind in the global race for economic development and sustainability. 

Centum Learning is a fine example of the training companies that are truly dedicated for promoting vocational training in India; these companies also ensure that the participants, once they are finished with their vocational training programme, are duly placed with leading organisations across sectors.

Vocational training programme providers keep introducing more and more innovative skill building programs – such as Certificate Course in Mobile Repairing, Certificate Course in Spoken English, Livelihood Training Course, etc., - to enhance the employability quotient of the urban as well as rural youth of the country. And this skilled manpower would ensure that India’s economic engine does not stop, even for a minute.

What makes experiential learning training an instant hit with the participants?

Experiential Training can be best understood as ‘training that is based on experience and observation’. The concept has been around for long; as a matter of fact, the theory was proposed by psychologist David Kolb who was influenced by the work of other theorists including John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget.

Whether you are into heavy earth moving equipment manufacturing or a global pharmaceutical company, you can promote cohesiveness, collaborative effort, and creativity in your teams by exposing them to corporate training programs, which are conducted by incorporating experiential learning training methodology.

A typical training program is made simple yet highly effective by including activities like Flag Hoisting, Egg Drop Exercise, Australian Walk, and Municipal Blues; direct interactions, effective sharing of the best practices and innovative ideas form the core of such corporate training programs. The participants enjoy themselves thoroughly yet gain substantial from the experiential learning training program.

Different corporate training programs providers come up with different techniques/activities for their clients. And they all are intended to help businesses achieve their goals and gain competitive edge in the market.

You too can boost your team performance with these corporate training programs. And there are many training companies around that would help you in this.

Now for more on experiential learning training and learning process outsourcing, follow us/subscribe to our blog.

How to create an extraordinary and highly effective training program?

Training Programs were always considered significant for enhancing the productivity of the employees. The importance, however, has risen sharply in the last couple of years due to economic recovery and because corporates are now seeing huge gaps in the skills of their employees. Although most corporations are fully aware of the incredible outcomes of the training programs, they often have trouble getting their employees excited about these programs. It is because most employees see trainings sessions as a waste of time or extra work pile on their desks. However, with a little homework you can make your training programs extraordinary and highly effective so that your employees develop a whole new perspective on training programs.


1. The fun element
The moment employees hear the word ‘training’, they start thinking about long, dull presentations that take up hours at a stretch and give little that they can use in their daily office life. So, first and foremost, you need to make the training fun, interesting, and engaging. Whether you are conducting customer service training programs or sales & distribution programs, plan the training content in advance. Thanks to technology, you can use some interesting training videos, set-up a quiz or plan a debate around interesting issues.

Look around for ideas (both online and offline) to add the fun element to the training programs that you wish to conduce in the near future.

2. The focused training

Your employees are not going to like the program if they feel the training would not help them in the slightest. Often, it’s the employees who know what would help them in performing their jobs effectively and efficiently. So, you better speak to your employees and design the training program in such a way that it truly aims to strengthen the skills of the participants that they can put to use the very next day. Keep your training focused on what would help your employees do their work better and faster. A training specialist can help you develop customer service training programs or other training programs in such a way that it primarily focuses on the individual needs of the training attendees.

3. Recognizing and rewarding your employees

Human-beings – whether they are school kids or grown-ups working in corporations - love to be rewarded and recognized. Take a clue from this insight and find innovative ways to reward the participants. The reward could be as simple as a certificate or a cash prize. There can be many other ways to recognize and reward the attendees so that they always come back enthusiastically when other training programs are conducted by the company.

Last, but not the least, your employees should know well in advance what they are expected to learn from the programs and how the learning would enable them do their office tasks faster and more effectively.

Sales training programs – sell more by doing less!

Remember the day when you’d joined this company? You were young, and full of doubts and dreams. You learnt the trade the hard way, but in the end you made it. And today, you are heading the sales force of the same company that you’d joined as a trainee many years ago. You are doing your best to update and motivate your sales people, but somehow you are not happy with their performance. And you want a solution, a real solution, for this; well, we have that solution.

Corporate sales training programs are the solution that we’re talking about. Okay, you’ve done it already, but still are not happy with the outcomes. See, the outcome of a training program would always depend on things like who gave the training, the methodologies that were used, and the support that was given after the completion of the program. To put it simply, you need the best inputs for the best outputs; and this is where an experienced corporate sales training company, such as Centum, comes into the scene!

These training specialists conduct in-depth analysis of the training needs of the selected group, and accordingly prepare training content and decide on the most-appropriate training methodology. These specialists go beyond the traditional ‘class room teaching’ and provide on-the-job training for better outcomes.

Thousands of organisations have witnessed the growth that comes with these training programs. It’s time you try it.

Vocational education and training holds the key to unleash the hidden talent that lies dormant in this country’s youth

The education system in India is doing pretty well. There is no doubt about it. But, at the same time we have to acknowledge the threat that the rising unemployment among youth is posing to the future of the country. The issue of unemployment can be categorized into two parts: in the first part it is the youth that could not get education because of one reason or another such as poverty; most of these youngsters are school drop-outs.

The second part consists of the youngsters who completed their education but couldn’t find a suitable job; above all, they weren’t taught any skill that could help them make a living.

Though the significance of mainstream education can’t be undermined, youth would benefit much more if the school and college education is taught along with vocational skills.

The good thing is that educational authorities of school and colleges have started partnering with leading vocational education and training companies to empower today’s youth by giving them exposure to new skills; by the time this youth would graduate from their colleges, they would be job-ready.

The government is doing its bit to promote vocational education in the country. Now it’s our turn – schools, colleges, business houses, etc. – to seriously do our part. To begin with, schools can arrange vocational education workshops/classes for their students; the same can be done by the colleges in the country. The industry players have to start giving due credit and recognition to the workforce that comes from the vocational route.

It’s high time we map the vocational courses with Industry requirement and make the programs a part of the curriculum as well.

Find out how an automobile company aligned its sales force to increase its institutional sales

Institutional sales are critical to the success of an automobile company (or, for that matter, it plays a crucial role in the overall performance of almost all companies out there). After all, it plays a key role in enhancing the top line for companies because of the sheer volume of business they rake in.

This automobile company felt a strong need to train its sales staff; to be precise the company wanted a training program that could hone the skills of their sales staff around appropriate profiling, and approaching the prospects in a planned manner and finally ensuring effective closure. The desired outcomes looked insurmountable at first. But, the automobile major wanted these outcomes at any cost; so it chose to hire services from a training specialist.

This training company has spent many years in devising and delivering effective training programs for employees, and therefore didn’t take much time to come out with training content that was specifically customized to meet the specific needs of its client (the automobile company).

In a nutshell, the training company designed a learning intervention that would focus on grooming (of the sales staff) and enhancing their selling skills. The participants included sales officers, sales executives, team leaders, and sales managers. The major topics that were covered under this programme included process adherence, developing communication skills for interfacing with the customers, understanding of customers' needs, developing pre-sales plan and finally, adherence to the organizations' 'ways of working'.


The training program proved a huge success; the automobile company saw higher conversion ratios that made remarkable difference to its overall sales performance.


Now you too can ensure a boost in your institutional sales; all you have to do is look for a training specialist that has been offering training programs for employees for pretty long time. 

Find out how tailored training programs can do wonders for sales and distribution management personnel

When was the last time you called for a training program for your sales and distribution management personnel?

Are you of the view that they are working fine and that conducting trainings do no good?

How about if I tell you that training programs are no longer what they once used to be, and that the modern-age programs really boost the knowledge, understanding, and efficiency of participants?! And once they get the training, they do things faster, in a more effective way, and without needing constant supervision. Don’t you want all these benefits?

Sales and distribution management has always been a core part of management; and it caught all the more eye-balls in the recent era which is often characterized by cut-throat competition and penetration into competitors’ markets. To survive this level of competition and make customers loyal to your brand, you better strengthen your sales and distribution management (considering all other factors constant).

A corporate training company, which has conducted trainings in the area of sales and distribution management, can prove to be a great asset. You just need to make sure that the trainers are made well aware of what goes into your sales and distribution operations, and what exactly is needed to be focused upon.

Customer Relationship Management – Take your business to next level

If you run a business, only you know how difficult it is to keep it running successfully and making profits in today’s competitive business environment when your rival is leaving no stone unturned to out throw you. I would say the secret to success lies in the level of relationship you maintain with your clients and stakeholders. A large number of businesses today implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms worldwide to help standardize and track sales growth and productivity. There should be a customized approach towards CRM implantation and only a renowned player can help companies implement it in the most desired way.

The best way is to consult a leading skills development partner, who can identify the gaps, provide customized customer relationship management training solutions to improve business productivity. These customized programs aim at delivering right set of skills from new recruits to seasoned professionals at the client organizations and their outsourced partner locations.

Not only good CRM practices help you maintain a healthy customer relationship but they also allow you to keep a history of all your records. CRM is found to be a great repository for business intelligence (BI) analysts to analyze and report on trends that are occurring in an organization.

With the changing dynamics of business processes, CRM is joining hands with social platforms. There are more than one billion people using social media to communicate these days. With social media integration, employees can view a timeline of activities that are happening throughout the company and comment on each other’s actions for collaboration.

Alike the user adoption of any other new system, there are numerous challenges that emerge out in CRM. With rigorous design, planning and proper training, Customer Relationship Management gains trust with users. Once it becomes fully integrated, there will be a considerable rise in business productivity which further leads to business growth.

Initiatives taken by NSDC partners to build a skilled and employable India

It’s through employability linked training & skills interventions that NSDC – National Skill Development Corporation – and its partners are doing their bit towards bridging the huge gap between demand and supply of skilled workforce in India.

Centum Learning, an NSDC partner, has undertaken a series of initiatives to reach to the disadvantaged youth of the country and train them on technical courses such as Telecom Tower Equipment Operations & Maintenance and Gems & Jewellery. Regular classroom training is offered for a selected number of days, that too, by the domain specialists; after successful completion, the participants are provided adequate support in placement with different organisations so that they can live their lives with dignity.

Apart from the technical courses, NSDC partners offer a fine selection of courses such as customer service training programmes, sales & distribution solutions, behavioural training solutions, e-learning solutions, school management & leadership training, vocational courses for school and college students, and many other courses.

The mission to build a skilled and employable India is quite a huge challenge; the earlier we start, the better it’ll be. Government of India, NSDC, partners of NSDC, they all are doing their best; it’s high time we play our part and incorporate youth skills development in our company’s CSR strategies. An NSDC partner, like Centum Learning, can help you get the most out of your CSR strategy and make a real difference.

Content Development: Backbone of a power-packed training programme

For one company, content development for training materials can be a cost, while the other one may see it as an investment, as a tool to enhance the productivity of its people.

There are companies that think they can do without developing content to train their people. They like to believe that they can tell their people when they go wrong. How wrong these companies themselves are!

Other companies believe they can limp along without developing quality content for training. Such companies may lose the battle anytime.

The last category belongs to the smart or forward thinking companies, which value quality content development and how the same can be used to better train their people and make them more productive and accountable.

Smart companies look at content development as a strategic tool to:

• Cut down on the support costs as they get more work out of fewer “better trained” people
• Boost their sales and market share by the team members with the knowledge and skills necessary to differentiate their product and/or service in an increasingly competitive marketplace
• Reduce time to market by accelerating the acquisition of critical skills and knowledge 

The marketplace out there is getting more and more competitive with each passing day. And smart companies know the value that customized content development adds to their workforce; that’s why these companies believe that ‘first-rate content’ doesn’t cost, but pays.  And that’s why they partner with the top-rated content development companies. 

5 reasons why companies are sourcing more of their training activities with external suppliers

Banks, educational institutions, BPOs, government agencies, public sector banks, everybody seems to realize the importance of training programmes for expanding their customer base and increase their sales and revenue figures. But, not many are willing to do all this on their own. More and more companies across countries are sourcing their training activities with external suppliers. Here are the top reasons:

1.The cost element

In the end, it all boils down to the cost. And nobody wants to increase it, when there is a solution at hand in the form of training outsourcing.

It’s quite clear that when a company – for which training is not a core business – tries to do it on its own, costs soar. The wisdom in such a situation lies in picking an ideal training partner.

2.Sometimes, it’s necessary

No company can claim that it has all knowledge internally to be successful. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to hire an outsider – the best training companies in India – to teach the internal employees how to do something that is new to their company.

3.Improved results

When an outsider – often a training specialist – comes to train the internal staff, the effects of the programmes last long. The same results might not be achieved with the internal managers or training staff. Moreover, a training specialist would come with customized content and specific objectives, which would further add value to their programmes.

4.Speed to market

Brining a new product and/or service to the market may be dependent on getting the resellers trained on how to sell or market your product and/or service to your customers. Training outsourcing is a wonderful idea to get your offering into your customers’ hands much faster; and you don’t even need to scale up your internal resources for this.

5.Revenue generation

Training is a revenue generation activity. More and more organisations are waking up to this truth and hiring training companies in India that know how to market, sell, and deliver training to a mass or targeted audience to create new revenues streams.

Banks hiring seasoned companies for soft skills to ensure excellence in customer service

When was the last time you saw an ATM or make a transaction there? When was the last time you paid for a product and/or service using Internet Banking?

A typical answer to both of these questions would be, “just an hour back,” or “yesterday only,” or in some cases, “in the last 2-3 days.” The point that I’m making here is that banking is now all over us. No matter where you work, what you do, how much you earn, banking seems to be everywhere with a host of world-class services.

Now banks are even offering account opening services right at your doorstep! The consumer seems to be in the best phase of his life! But…

Customers, it seems, have forgotten the need of being loyal to their banks. What I mean is, if a typical bank customer goes to his bank and isn’t attended and taken care of as per his/her expectations, he/she won’t mind changing his bank.

When a customer enters a bank premise, he is expecting a world of goodies to be conferred on him. And when he feels he is being dejected or not answered properly, he moves to the competitors.

Public Sector Banks experienced this behaviour first hand, but soon realized the gaps in their services, and went out for the best solutions in sight. Customer Service Training Programs came to rescue the banks that were rapidly losing their customer base and finding it hard to get new customers.

Training companies soon spotted the reasons why public sector banks were losing their grip over the market. The top reason was the lack of soft skills in their staff that would directly and indirectly come in contact with the banks’ customers.

Front-staff, bank managers, customer care, everybody needed a dose of soft skills, and how to answer customers effectively. Customer service training programs were being customized in order to empower the bank staff in communicating better and maintaining relationships with the customers.

Public as well as private sector banks are aggressively hiring services of training companies. And why wouldn’t they? They are seeing impressive results, and happy customers.

Think Success, Think Vocational!

Vocational Training Programs seem to gain steam in the last few years. Now, even schools and colleges are partnering with training companies in India to provide their students with vocational education. This is great news for a country, which is on its way to make a sizeable presence in the global working population in the coming decades.

Now with the introduction of National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF), skill based training programs will be offered right at the school level, which means demand for vocational education programs is going to soar across all levels!

Be it teacher training programs, or spoken English programs, or selling & communication programs, vocational training programs, if utilized properly, can change the very face of this economy. What is need the most now is the co-operation by industries. As of now, skilled manpower doesn’t get their due recognition from the industry players. They need to change their whole approach towards skilled manpower and give them what they rightfully deserve.

Even youngsters need to look at vocational education from a fresh angle. Only when they would start looking at vocational courses as a mainstream career option, a big change would come, for a large number of youth who are still unemployable and for the Indian economy that wants to emerge as a the next big thing in the global arena.

Vocational Space – its challenges and solutions

Vocational skills training providers may consider working backwards, taking cues from the industry, and accordingly develop a pool of skilled talent that can be readily absorbed by the industry players. The industry also needs to work on its existing frame of mind towards skilled workforce; for example, it can contribute by differential pay and reward the skilled workforce; this single step will create a world of difference in the field of vocational education & training.

The good thing is that India is finally waking up to the need for skilled workforce; tremendous focus is now being shifted towards generating awareness about the skills development and vocational training field, and making the field attractive and aspirational for the young so that they look at it as a preferred option. The need of the hour, therefore, is to make vocational training mainstream.

Some companies, like Centum Learning, are doing a phenomenal job in this field; their vocational training programme assist participants find job opportunities in sectors like Auto and Auto Components, Building and Construction Materials, Building and Construction, Real Estate Services, Electronics and IT Hardware, Education and Skill Development Services, Food Processing, Gems and Jewellery, Healthcare, Textiles, Leather and Leather Goods, Organised Retail, and Tourism and Hospitality.

Only if we can provide vocational education to more and more people, India – as a country – can take on the world in the next one or two decades. But for that we really need to fasten our efforts.