Workers executing govt. contracts must have official certification

All staff executing authorities contracts must have official certification for his or her abilities, the federal government has determined. Only 2.4% of India’s workforce is formally educated as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey of 2018-19.

The Skills Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry has requested all authorities departments to mandate this requirement for all contracts issued underneath their watch, citing contractors’ desire to make use of casual staff on decrease wages in distinction to the federal government’s push to coach and certify expert staff.

“If the above provision cannot be applied in toto immediately, then a phase-wise application can be thought of… it can be mandated that up to 10% of the strength of skilled workers utilised in 2021-22 will be certified skilled workers, which shall be progressively increased to 100% by 2026-27,” Pradeep Kumar, Secretary, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has written in a communiqué to all Ministries.

Government contractors particularly, want to depend on casual staff with low salaries for assembly their labour wants, Mr. Kumar has confused, making a dichotomy the place the federal government is attempting to advertise skilling within the workforce with out insisting on using expert manpower for its personal tasks.

“Perhaps, the time has come for mandating the engagement of certified skilled workers by Government contractors. Besides higher productivity and output quality in government contract works, a beneficial impact would be the improvement in wages for the skilled manpower hired,” the Secretary identified.

India’s talent regulator, the National Council for Vocational Education and Training, has standardised talent certification techniques for 4,000-odd job roles, as a part of an effort to vary the labour market construction from a largely unskilled one to a predominantly formally expert workforce. Stipulating engagement of licensed expert staff would make extra folks search certification and affect business rent practices as properly, the Ministry has reasoned.

“Given the quantum of manpower engaged in government and government contract works, this would help in making skilling aspirational for our youth and spread the culture of certified skilling. And demand for skilling would start coming from the industry and labour force itself, which will prefer to pay for skilling itself, doing away with the present system of the Government trying to drive skilling through funding,” Mr. Kumar famous.