INTRODUCTION:

Being the fastest growing industry, Indian Construction sector grew at a CAGR of 9.42% between 2003-04 and 2012-13.A highly unorganized sector which contributes annual GDP of 670,778 cr.(almost 8%).Statistics reveal that by 2025, it is estimated that 70 % of the Indian population will be of working age. This ‘Demographic dividend’ could give India an edge over the developed countries where a larger segment of the population would by than be past retirement[1]. India being a conventional economy moves progressively towards becoming a ‘knowledge based economy’ by recognizing the attainable resources of human being. Yet Government‘s Initiative to provide of education at all levels and Its support and encouragement is still falling short.[2]

According to the 11th five-year plan, only 10% of the Indian workforce has formal training in the form of higher education, technical education or vocational training. India currently has an annual training capacity of 4.3 million, which is less than 20% of the industry requirement of 22 million skilled workers a year. This is breathtakingly paltry in the context of the central government’s target of creating a skilled workforce of 500 million by 2022 so there is a huge gap between demand and supply[2]. Skill building can be viewed as an instrument to improve the effectiveness and contribution of labor to the overall production which is an important ingredient to push the production possibility frontier outward and to take the growth rate of the economy to a higher trajectory.

By 2030, the country is expected to have 68 cities with a population of more than one millions, 13 cities with more than 4 million people and 6 megacities with population of 10 million or more , with Mumbai and Delhi among the biggest cities worldwide. (source: Ministry of urban development). Skill development is the need of the hour and it forms one of the essential ingredients of India’s future economic growth if the country is foreseeing its future as a diversified and internationally – competitive economy. Therefore, skill development should consider as a national priority for today and also for the generation to come for improving quality, economy and productivity of the construction industry but also to secure a decent standard of living for them. [3]

Skills and Skill Development in Construction Sector

Skill Development industry in India has seen a rapid growth due to investments and demand for physical activity in Indian construction industry. Manpower is one such resources (both “Skilled” and “Unskilled”) that is sought in various construction activity – be it real estate development or infrastructure development, and the demand for it has only been growing. Table 1 shows the % growth of the worker class in the construction industry.

Table 1 : Employment Growth Rate Construction Trade workers -(Source –DGET)[1]

Occupation	No. employed in 1995 (in ‘000s)	No. employed in 2005 (in ‘000s)	% of work force	Nos. (000’s) 2011	% of workforce	% growth
Engineers	687	822	2.65%	1050	2.56%	28%
Technicians/Foremen	359	573	1.85%	1120	2.74%	95%
Clerical	646	738	2.38%	930	2.26%	26%
Skilled Workers	2241	3267	10.57%	3730	9.10%	14%
Unskilled Workers	10,670	25,600	82.45%	34200	83.30%	34%

Only a meagre 9.8 million construction workers of the total 32 million workers are registered in the country. Interestingly, significant number of female workforce forms a part of unorganized construction. In terms of employment, technicians/foremen have had the maximum growth of 95% between 2005 and 2011 followed by unskilled workforce (34%). (Source: RajyaSabha Unstarred Question NO. 4603, 2013). With a rapid growth in construction industry, Construction involves complex stages of various activities , where the requirement of better quality, time & cost constraints, and mass production have increased, resulting in the need for higher skill in almost all tracks of the industry. With the Skill formation and upgradation not only the quality of human skill would increase which ultimately effect the living status and employability of the Skill worker as well as the quality of execution of the construction activity also.[1]

Training Infrastructure

In India, There are different educational institute which provides training at educational level as well as vocational training and producing 3.5 million trained workers per year where current pace should be 12 million per year.

There are different types of training models currently prevailing in the country viz.

a) Sponsored/Funded (Corporate adopted) Model,

b) Industrial Captive Training Centers,

c) PPP model for training,

d) For-Profit Model

e) External/ Out-sourced Training Provider Model.

They differ in terms of their sizes, operating structure, industry associations, revenue model etc.

Construction Skills Training Institute ( CSTI)

· Founded by L&T in 1995, CSTI promotes construction vocational training in India in a professional manner

· CSTI has been set up in an area of 5 acres land in Chennai and Panvel near Mumbai with permanent infrastructure and training facilities.

· CSTI branches have been established in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

· CSTI has entered into an MOU with Henry Boot Training Limited and the Construction Industry Training Board of UK for the development of modular training.

· At present, basic training is imparted in seven trades - Formwork Carpentry, Masonry (brick work), Bar Bending and Steel Fixing, Plumbing & Sanitary, General Assistant, Construction Electrician, Welding, Pre-stressing and Transmission Line and Tower Erection.

Construction Industry Development Council (CIDC)

· Set up jointly by the Planning Commission, Government of India and the Indian construction industry.

· In order to improve the work performance of construction industry CIDC had initiated a country wide Human Resource Development initiative focused on developing a formidable work force to fructify various Infrastructure Development Projects in the Nation and also abroad.

· Over the last 13 years CIDC has made substantial achievements in the area of HRD especially for construction workers, Artisans and Supervisory cadre personnel. The programme is now spread over 19 states and supported extensively by various State Governments.

· The support from the State Government has come by way of provision of physical infrastructure, 29 ITIs, nomination of learners under various central and state schemes such as NREGS, Chhattisgarh Raj Mistry Yojana, Vocational Training for candidates belonging to SC/ST categories and training of Jail inmates.

· Over 250,000 personnel trained, tested and certified by CIDC for their skills. Almost 100% have found value added appropriate employment with leading industry organizations. Provides training for a list of 47 trades. Courses are certified by CIDC/Ministry of Labor

· The course cycle is 3 months per batch

National Academy of Construction

· Set up in 1998 by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and is registered as a Society and incorporated as Public Charitable institution.

· Has emerged as a distinctive institution and one of its kind for providing training and development of all types of construction resources, technologies and methodologies for fast track completion of projects.

· Presently has 138 centers throughout Andhra Pradesh and 21 trades today with target of training 1,00,000 technicians per annum.

· NAC has created six regional centres in Guntur, Kadapa, Vishakapatnam, Karimnagar, Rajahmundry and Hyderabad.

· NAC has presently 713 Employees on its rolls in different centres of Andhra Pradesh.

· Set up in September 1983 as an autonomous, non-government, non-profit academic body

National Institute of Construction Management and Research (NICMAR)

· Set up in September 1983 as an autonomous, non-government, non-profit academic body

· Objective - Promotion of education, training, research, professionalism and skill formation at all levels of the construction and other allied industries

· Provides post graduate education in construction, projects, real estate, infrastructure and allied areas in the country. Its educational programmes primarily involve imparting / acquiring particular knowledge and skills specifically needed for professionals in construction and allied industries such as real estate, projects and infrastructure

· Active in research and industrial problem solving in these areas.

· Faculty has developed case development activity, in which they have so far studied 121 cases related to road highways, buildings and aviation from the Indian context.

· Recognized as “Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO)” by Dept of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science and Technology

· Boasts a near 100% placement record including overseas placements. On an average, around 20-25% of the students secure overseas placements.

Literature Review

In “Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry skill report by Ernst and Young (2012)”, its research paper on “Skill development in construction industry in India” discuss the experience on Skill development is one of the priority agendas of the government for the Twelfth Five Year Plan. (2012-2017). Government plans to set up sector skill councils to prepare standards required for training programs. The industries are also proactively taking steps to partner with the government and reduce the skill gap. Establishment of 600 rural development and self-employment training institutes (RUDSETI). Skills training have been made more affordable by exempting vocational education institution from paying service tax. [4]

Paper also discussed about women participation in vocational education and their training is especially low as compared to men. There are a few reasons for this, such as constraining interest/participation may be social and cultural norms and family responsibilities. Women also tend to become discouraged due to such family and social pressures, especially in rural areas. Therefore, in order to increase enrolments, the combined efforts with local NGOs and panchayats on informing women and their families on the advantages of vocational education, which may lead to employability, is very important. Specifically, women should be targeted by explaining how inculcating income-generating skills and activities within them would subsequently lead to improving their social and economic status

As per the Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council, Report of the Working Group on Construction for the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012), the size of Construction Industry in terms of annual monetary values is estimated at Rs.310,000 crores (includes Public & Private Investments), with an employment status of 31 million man-years/year. Out of which 82.45 per cent fall in the unskilled category. [1]

The industry also strongly believes that the country has sufficient laborers to work for construction but they need to be trained in construction skills, which is not happening. Even those who come out of ITI institutes are not trained specifically in construction areas and industry has to train them on the job.

Germany’s dual system of vocational education integrates work-based and school-based learning to prepare apprentices for a successful transition to full-time employment. Each week, trainees spend one or two days in a vocational school and three or four days in their company. Progress is evaluated through final examinations in which trainees must show that they have acquired the necessary skills, and practical and theoretical knowledge from their companies and that they have mastered the course material.

The experience of South Korea also provides a neat illustration of a developing economy reaping the benefits of a concerted strategy. South Korea’s job skill development programme, under the framework of the employment insurance system, expanded the existing levy-grant system, where employers received a rebate for training existing employees. This led to an increase of over 27% in training participation by employees and the number of employees trained by employers increased by almost 13 times. Closer to home, the Chinese government has launched specific initiatives at the local government-level to train unskilled and uneducated migrant labour for sectors like construction, while such initiatives are missing in India.[5]

Back to the Indian context, it is clear that the domestic skill development policy needs to be urgently overhauled. The institutional structure needs simplification with greater investment in training infrastructure and an emphasis on supporting a casual labour force. That needs to be accompanied with incentives for private sector participation too.

Put simply, equipping India’s youthful millions with the right skills to compete in a global race for jobs and prosperity has a fundamental socio-economic urgency that can no longer be ignored. [5]

Literature Gap:-

As so far all the Literature reviewed, there have been research on why skill training it is needed, its conceptual framework, successful implementation and need for up-gradation of workers and also on basis of experience of investing in skills development, accelerating the growth of investment and productivity and translating those gains into higher income and sustainable job creation, also problems of Construction sector, future needs, etc. have been discussed.

For Upgrading the skill competency level to the desired extent, Govt. of India is collaborating with so many Centre institutes those provide vocational training on a fast track scale. Till now nobody has studied whether those workers who did upskilling training program undergone these Vocational training institute, have gained their skill competency up to an extent level that could help them to be able to get gainful employment growth. So our objective of study is mainly concern about to track the growth of construction trade worker who undergone training in NAC’s skilled up gradation program.

Evolution of Impact of Training of Construction Trade Worker

Given the important role played by the NAC in the skill building of unorganized and unskilled people and given the experience of running such training activity for a long time, for this purpose, a sample of 30 participants, who are based nation wise was drawn through purposive-random sampling method. The survey was carried out to understand the impact of the NAC training programmes on the overall development of the trained worker and to evaluate the effectiveness of such training programmes from the Employer perspective. The basic research hypothesis tested under the research study can be stated as:

H0: Training and Skill development at NAC lead to overall development of construction trade worker

H1: Training and Skill development at NAC do not lead to overall development of construction trade worker.

The actual survey was done by selecting a sample of employer of the NAC with the help of Telephonic interview as well as convenient random sampling .The survey participants were first asked about their details, the impact of training on overall development and they were then asked to give an evaluation of the effectiveness of the NAC trained workers using a set of 10 questions. The following sections give details of the participants of survey, their responses and major findings from the survey.

To measure the effectiveness of the training of the various trade worker undergone through NAC Programed, Response are collected on the Likert scale from the employers on the performance of the recruited NAC ‘s trained Skill trade workers , where the response is analyzed with the chi square test

Table 2- Chi Square Calculation (O=Observe

	O	E	*(O-E)(O-E)**	*((O-E)(O-E))/E**
1.	13	11.7	1.69	0.14
2.		11.7	0.09	0.01
3.	9	11.7	7.29	0.62
4.	7	11.7	22.09	1.89
5.	13	11.7	1.69	0.14
6.	14	11.7	5.29	0.45
7.	16	11.7	18.49	1.58
8.	12	11.7	0.09	0.01
9.	9	11.7	7.29	0.62
10.	12	11.7	0.09	0.01
11.	16	15.1	0.81	0.05
12.	16	15.1	0.81	0.05
13.	20	15.1	24.01	1.59
14.	19	15.1	15.21	1.01
15.	12	15.1	9.61	0.64
16.	11	15.1	16.81	1.11
17.	15	15.1	0.01	0.00
18.	14	15.1	1.21	0.08
19.	15	15.1	0.01	0.00
20.	13	15.1	4.41	0.29
21.	0	2.5	6.25	2.50
22.	2	2.5	0.25	0.10
23.	2	2.5	0.25	0.10
24.	4	2.5	2.25	0.90
25.	4	2.5	2.25	0.90
26.	5	2.5	6.25	2.50
27.	0	2.5	6.25	2.50
28.	2	2.5	0.25	0.10
29.	3	2.5	0.25	0.10
30.	3	2.5	0.25	0.10
			TOTAL	20.11

Values, E=expected Therotical Values

Figure 5- Response table of Chi Square test

Degree of Freedom	α= 0.05	α =0.1	α =0.25
18	28.9	26	21.6

CONCLUSIONS:

Analysis satisfied the null hypothesis indicates the effectiveness of the training of construction trade workers under NAC training programme which upgrade the Significance level of skills like higher practical efficiency, good team work, quality of workmanship, higher retention rate into their working culture which shows that Skill formation Skill upgradation Training leads to the overall development of the Construction trade worker.. Therefore, it can be concluded that bridging the gap through various skill initiatives Could make India the Global hub for skilled manpower and also result in a surplus of skilled manpower as well as the higher living standard of various trade workers. Even government is investing a lot on training and Infrastructure, creation of robust workforce still needs up scaling in the initiatives. Besides white and blue collar, India also needs Grey collar- knowledge workers which include ICT skills, problem solving, analytical and effective communication skills and rust collar-skilled workers at the grass root level in currently unorganized sector and un-benchmarked sectors like construction, which can be achieved through mandatory Monitoring quality certification to ensure the high standard training programs with prime focus of employability and skill building and up gradation.

REFERENCE:

1. Human Resource and Skill requirements in the Building construction and Real estate Sector (213-17,2017-22)- Volume 5(Available at :http://www.skilldevelopment.gov.in/skill%20reports.html)

2. Anju Kakkar “Training Construction Workers for Sustainable Environment” International Journal of Environmental Research and Development. 4,1 (2014),21-26

3. Sonali Kanchan, Skashi Varshney “Skill Development Initiatives and strategies” Asian journal of Management Research 5(4) ( 2015)

4. “Skill development in construction industry in India” Federation of Indian chamber of commerce and industry skill report by Ernst and Young (2012)

5. Article by Rishabh Bhandhari “Need to reboot the skill development policy in India” (Avilable at :http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/LCpv8ZRlEqn0pPNZOiE42J/Need-to-reboot-the-skill-development-policy-in-India.html)

Received on 18.12.2013 Accepted on 25.12.2015

Int. J. Tech. 5(2): July-Dec., 2015; Page 311-316

DOI: 10.5958/2231-3915.2015.00041.3