By IANS,
New Delhi : A CEOs forum was launched here Friday to plug the skills gap in India keeping in view its demographic potential.
Industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in assocoiation with skill development firm Centum launched the “CEO 4 Skills Development” on the concluding day of the two-day 5th Global Skills Summit 2012.
“Skilling (skill development) instead of being relegated to HR or other departments needs to move op to the CEOs level,” said Sanjeev Duggal, co-chairman of FICCI’s skill development forum, elaborating on the gap that is being
addressed in launching the CEO’s forum.
“This is a very timely initiative because from a macroeconomic viewpoint specially in the current economic scenario where all are trying to optimise on resources, skill development and productivity enhancement is topmost in everyone’s mind,” Pia Singh, Director DLF Ltd, the world’s largest construction firm, told IANS.
This CEOs forum for skills development seeks to provide answers to a question that has been nagging Indian industry about how to get CEOs involved in developing curricula for skill development.
Till now skill development has been limited to initiatives as part of companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR).
“CSR is good but will not solve the country’s problems,” said Dilip Chenoy, CEO of the state-run National Skill Development.
Chenoy was highliting the need to engage CEOs and take skill development beyond CSR and cited the DLF example as a pointer of the way ahead.
DLF has a strong tradition of CSR which has been active in skill development.
“Till now the catch has been how skill development becomes action and not just a vague idea. We at DLF are now staring a separate skill development company, ” said Singh who is currently heading the DLF entertainment business and is chairman DLF Retail Developers Ltd.