World Youth Skills Day 2022: How India can upscale huge talent pool of electricians to be micro-entrepreneurs

India is at the cusp of global economic growth with the country’s over 50 per cent population, comprising of youth, at the core of this pursuit. The country is expected to address the need-gap analysis on various fronts such as deep-tech driven cyber security domain to utility services including plumbing and electrical work. And it is the latter namely electrical work that calls for attention by stakeholders as dealing with it involves requires utmost care and attention.

Also the pandemic has further brought into prominence the citizens need to have quick access to electricians on account of multiple considerations such as WFH, online school, increased electricity consumption and likewise.

This trend is not confined just to urban areas. The penetration of electricity in smaller towns and villages has compounded the need for every village to have at least one properly trained electrician.

It is under this context that a focussed approach to address the upliftment of electricians as a community is required to be embraced as a priority. One critical element of this focus should be latest training and skillsets exposure to be provided to electricians.

However, the present situation leaves a lot to be desired. Reports suggest that the existing vocational training is yet to reach deep penetration within the country and largely access to these courses is limited only to urban areas. The involved agencies have picked the right place and direction particularly under the Skill India Mission with regional training institutes such as ITI continuing with their good work and support. However considering the thriving start-up ecosystem in the country, one can extend the scope of vocational training for electricians to equip them with taking their self-sustained business reach newer heights under micro-entrepreneurship while maintaining optimum level of safety and quality in delivering work.

Towards this the three Es framework appears to be the savior. Let us understand it in detail.

The Three Es framework: The training of electricians should rather be pursued with the mindset of orientating them to be comprehensively equipped and self-sustained. This orientation should be fundamentally based over the three critical elements of education, environment and empowerment. In an era where the only constant is change and the pace of change being rapid, the training module has to be flexible and agile enough to factor in any modification in the course module. Also easy and open access should be made available so that interested electricians can make the most of it.

Moreover, with the pandemic bringing into highlight the edtech revolution in the country, the same concept can be leveraged for the use of electricians as well so that they can pursue upskilling at their convenience and pace without disturbing their business work hours. Also such a measure which help the benefits of vocational training reach a larger audience deep into remote areas as all one would need is a stable connectivity and smartphone access.

On the environment front, the need of the hour is to make the electricians realise their potential contribution towards the environment correction cause. Towards this they need to be given hands-on training on emerging concepts such as green wire and also on energy-conserving mechanisms such as smart home devices. Also with the EV revolution expected to take shape in the country, proactive exposure on technology know-how on these frontiers too will help the country build a larger talent pool of equipped skillsets. This can also help position India as not only leading the EV domain in terms of technology innovation but also an unexplored area of being able to cater to customer support for adopters of energy efficient vehicles.

Lastly the approach should be to empower electricians in a holistic sense. One of the biggest takeaways from the new-age data economy in India is the rise of gig economy and young electricians are expected to play a prime role here. With utility services apps mushrooming in the country, it is the ideal time to have an inclusive approach and let electricians reap the benefits of the vibrant start-up ecosystem.

Under this context, the three Es framework indeed looks promising enough and the first objective should be scale up young electricians from the largely unorganized ecosystem to a more organized segment under the micro-entrepreneurship purview.

The author is President and Chief Marketing Officer of Polycab India Ltd. Views are personal.

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Nilesh Malani