Skill Development

According to its report:

• Only 17% children in the community complete matriculation
• Only 8% Muslims in urban areas are employed in the organized sector
• Only 4.6% of the total loans given by banks go to the Muslim Community

Challenges faced by the Muslim Community in India

• Poor education and high levels of illiteracy
• Lack of appetite/resources to acquire skills to gain employment
• Little government representation and influence
• Existing charities ineffective in terms of Empowerment and Development
• Inability to access government programs due to lack of knowledge and complexity
• Massive underutilisation of budgets allocated for Muslims
• Lack of access to banking services resulting in reliance on extortionate money lenders

At the outset, I would state that there has been no better opportunity than now for likeminded individuals to come together with a view to creating a well thought out long term strategy to skill, re-skill and up skill the youth of our community. This is primarily because:

• Both the State and Central governments are providing a number of opportunities and incentives both financial and otherwise for skill development.
• There is a huge demand from the industry for individuals possessing the right skills and ability to perform.
• There is an urgent requirement for the community to get engaged and acquire the right skills and get economic benefits.
• Women, who have been left behind, can benefit immensely from the opportunities that skill development provides. Any community that leaves 50% of its population behind will not be able to succeed. In this regard, we have been working with a leading trainer in India and a well known hospital to come up with a practical nursing proposal for the Ministry of Health and NSDC and I attach the proposal for your review on a confidential basis. This is still work in progress, but is a good example of how we can work with potential employers.

There are numbers of ways we can get involved in Skill building for the Community:

• We can create our own chain of Skill building centres which are approved and certified by NSDC. There are obviously certain strict requirements to meet which I will not go through at this stage. Suffice to say that we would need around 6,000 sq ft of building space for each centre. We would then run the various NSDC approved courses.
• We could enter into Skill Development as a business, any existing company which has a annual turnover of Rs 15 crores or more will be eligible to apply for a trainer licence from NSDC. As an example, a dear friend of mine who has got a very successful business in India wanted to enter into Skill business. An experienced consultant was engaged and he analysed my friends company and stated that his company will be able to claim grants up to the value of Rs 80 crores from the government to deliver skill training.
• We could counsel and mobilise a number of young boys and girls to take up skill training. To ensure that well trained candidates are made available to the industry, counselling for prospective candidates should be made mandatory. This could include introduction of an orientation course that can help gauge the ability of a candidate and recommend courses best suited to his/her ability. Counselling for candidates is a must for skilling to become a choice, rather than a situation.
• We could partner good certified trainers in different states in India and provide candidates who have been mobilised and counselled by us.
• We could partner with a number of organisations in different industries and provide trained and skilled individuals based on their requirements.
• We should create an entrepreneurship culture within the community so that a large percentage of these job seekers become job creator.

It is really important that a very serious and informed discussion and analysis is carried out so that a road map is chalked out as soon as possible. However, as a starting shot I would recommend that any strategy that we develop needs to take into account the following points (which I have arrived at after doing some research over the last 12 months).

• The biggest challenge is to mobilise, counsel and motivate our community children. There is a great deal of apathy and negativity in respect of acquiring skills as a profession. A major drive needs to be carried out to educate the youth about the benefits of acquiring the right skills as parents and kids aspirations are always to be a doctor, engineer, IT professional, etc regardless of their capabilities both mentally and financially. Acquiring skills to gain employment or start a business are not high on the agenda – this need to change!
• In the short term, it is not necessary to reinvent the wheel, therefore, it is important to identify competent, well run and well managed skill centres in each of the State we are working in. These centres also need to have a excellent placement record. We can then prepare a short list of centres and send the candidates we have mobilised and counselled. However, as a long term strategy, we should look into setting our own skill centres.
• To start with, we need to work with all the organisations and businesses from our community (a directory of our businesses should be made), we need to actively engage with these businesses and closely understand their short term and long term personnel needs. Based on the their requirements, we need to skill our youth and groom them to join these businesses to which they will positively contribute. We could also ask the businesses to set up Apprenticeship programs which will allow the youths to benefit immensely from that experience. This experience could lead to full time employment.
• We need to create an entrepreneurship culture in the community where youth can be guided, mentored and actively encouraged through practical help from the entrepreneurs of our community. In the long run a investment fund could be created to provide start up capital to individuals who have new and innovative ideas which could pursued for economic benefit to all. Our s best bet would be to catalyse massive growth in entrepreneurial activity, so that a large percentage of these job seekers become job creator.
• The program intends to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country that will drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. The Government through this initiative aims to empower Startups to grow through innovation and design.
  There is a need to promote awareness and disseminate correct information about schemes such as Standup India to the targeted beneficiaries. Higher complexities and lack of awareness impedes implementation of Standup India.
• Finally, we need to engage paid professionals to carry out this work in order to get proper results. If we rely on volunteers to do this work, firstly they may not have the relevant experience and secondly, we may not get the full commitment which is required and finally, we will only progress up to a point after which specialised expertise will be required. So a combination of paid professionals and volunteers would be ideal