CII holds conference on ‘Linking Education to Employability’

Add Review

MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
July 25, 2016
With its vibrant young population, world is looking towards India for its human resources, as a solution to their ageing populations. But is India ready for supplying the entrepreneurs, and knowledge workers to fulfill the domestic and international deman

Addressing the various challenges and opportunities in the education and employability domain, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) held its national conference on the theme of ‘Linking Education to Employability’ on April 21.
 
Addressing the conference, Mr Vijay Thadani, Chairman, CII Education Committee and CEO, NIIT Ltd. said: “The backbone of a country’s growth story is the education system, which is responsible for equipping the human capital of the country. India should be able to consistently produce the finest and most creative work force. Education becomes relevant only when the knowledge acquired is applied and absorbed into the mainstream. The link between education and employability needs to be strengthened. India needs to create a futuristic vision to provide the link and also vision ambassadors to reach out to grass root levels.”
 
The first Session of the summit was focused on the theme of ‘Ensuring Global Relevance’.
The session was chaired by Prof Deepak Pental, Vice Chancellor, University of Delhi. Speakers on this panel were Mrs Danièle SMADJA, Ambassador and Head of Delegation of the European Commission to India, Bhutan and Nepal; Mr Jim Wheeler, ASG/ JJA Architects; Dr Amit Kapoor, Honorary Chairman of Institute of Competitiveness, India & Professor of Strategy & Industrial Economics MDI, Gurgaon; Ms Krista Knopper, Maastricht University, Netherlands; and Mr Rajeev Katyal, Director- Education, Microsoft.
 
The second session was focused on ‘Literacy vs. Employability’ issue. Prof VN Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University chaired the session. Panelists included Mr G Ravindran, Managing Director, Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM); Mr Anshul Sonak, South Asia Head, Intel technologies India Limited; Ms Kelly Raj, Councellor, Education, Department of Education, Employment & Workplace Relations, Australia.
 
Said Dr Pillai, “Education is intended to develop basic learning skills as well as life skills of students. Some statistics reveal that a large percentage of school going children can barely read or do simple arithmetic. As per the current definition, the literacy rate in India is at 71%. However, there is no specific measure for ‘functional literacy’. Do we need multiple ways of looking at literacy, giving different dimensions to functional literacy? Is there a case to define “functional literacy” that links to “Employability”? How do we measure functional literacy? What structural changes are required to link education to employability?”
 
The third Session focused on ‘Promoting Excellence: Setting up Sector Skills Councils.’ The session was chaired by Dr Sudhir Kapur, MD & CEO, Country Strategy Business Consultants Panelist included Mr Ravi Pillai, Director, City & Guilds (South Asia); Mr Harminder Sahni, Managing Director, Technopak Advisors Pvt Ltd; Mr Navin Bhatia, COO, Bharti Learning Systems; Prof IK Bhat, Director NIT, Hamirpur
 
Final session on ‘Promoting Excellence: Setting up Independent Accreditation System’ was chaired by Dr Subas Pani, Secretary, Planning Commission. The panelists included Prof H A Ranganath, Director, National Assessment and Accreditation Council; Dr MP Ravindra, Advisor, Infosys Technologies Limited; Dr Nirupama Soundarajan, Research Associate, ICRIER; Dr Sandhya Chintala, Director Education, NASSCOM; Mr Pradeep Gupta, Chairman & MD, Cyber Media (India) Ltd
 
The conference held special plenary addresses by Ms Sudha Pillai, Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India and Mr Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Bureau of School Education, Dept of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development Government of India
 
CII – NASSCOM – ICRIER Study Report on Independent Accreditation System was released on the occasion. CII Study Report on “Case for Setting up Sector Councils in India” was also released.
 
MBAUniverse.com was the Official Media Partner of this CII Summit.