‘Auto industry will have a major role in achieving PM's vision of $5 trillion economy'

The Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC), the first Sector Skill Council of India, organised the ASDC Annual Conclave 2019 in New Delhi on July 24. The conclave focused on bringing industry experts on-board to provide key insights for building a skilling ecosystem by partnering with the industry and making skills aspirational. The program consisted of knowledge sharing panel discussions to provide credible and quality training opportunities in the automotive sector.

- Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey

The day-long event focused on various panel discussions on industry expectations from the skilling ecosystem, vocational skills institutions and industry training centres’ perspective on challenges and opportunities associated with skilling, and thirdly, the role of the state to mobilize and make skills aspirational in the automotive skilling ecosystem.

In the special keynote sessions by the Chief Guest on the occasion, Dr. Mahendra Nath Pandey, Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Government of India, and Mr. Nikunj Sanghi, Chairman, ASDC, they welcomed the guests and updated the gathering on the progress made by ASDC.

Then the Skill Gap Study Report was launched by Dr. Pandey, which highlighted the skill gap which persists in the automotive industry at various levels. The TCS portal was also launched, which is a step in the direction of digitising the automotive skill learning and assessment processes to provide wider access. The portal will help to enable outcome based skilling, provide job listings, affiliation management and standardised learning delivery through the Automotive Skill Hub.

The first panel discussion elucidated on the expectations of automotive industry to get the desired skilled manpower and the current challenges around it, which include aspirational, location and quality gaps. The panel comprised of various automotive associations like SIAM, ACMA and FADA.

In the second panel discussion, representatives from the industry and vocational skills institutions presented their viewpoints on the challenges and opportunities associated with the automotive industry. Members of the panel were from the Automotive Research Association of India, Hella India Lighting Ltd., Mahindra Rise, NTTF and Mangalam University.