LPU organised HR Summit with top Corporate Houses of India

Jalandhar, January 16, 2015: Touching the strong Human Resource issues engrossing academia and industry alike, Lovely Professional University organized HR Summit with top Corporate Houses of India today. Agenda of the day was panel discussion on “Skilling Indian Workforce”. A broad platform was created for top HR community to discuss and present key-views. Expert views were forwarded on how corporate houses and current education system can collaborate to address academia-industry gap. Industry leaders Deepak Jalan- Head (RMG) Tech Mahindra;   Abhay Kapoor- Associate Vice President (HR & ER) Escorts; and, Arun David-Vice President (HR)  VE Commercial Vehicles presented their views. Search Value Consultant Ms Poonam Bhatia was the moderator for the summit. LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal welcomed key speakers, participants and presented opening address for HR Conclave.

 

Chancellor Mittal expressed: “I am happy to share that there has never been a better time in India’s history to have discussion about skilling Indian workforce as this. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mission ‘Make in India’ will also be successful when academia and industry in India come together. Through this meet, we aim to have an insight into the skilling issues from the perspectives of the corporate and the current Indian education system. Our country has the largest potential human capital in the world and through it India is poised to take over economy of even top countries China & America.”

 

Quoting the names of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadela, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, Mittal continued: “Indians hold the potential to change the course of the fields they enter into. However, the biggest concern before us all is how to shape India’s largest workforce as qualified and skilled. It is a known fact that there is wide skills gap of 75-80%, and this gap is to widen more as newer technologies will make present skill- sets obsolete. Presently, universities are able to supply only 3 million students, whereas industry needs 10 million.” 

 

Mittal assured: “At LPU, we are trying our level best to prepare skilled human capital without relying on age-old teaching techniques. Commissioning a mobile app, we are trying to bring the classroom to the mobile phone. We anticipate that quality content delivered through scalable medium can radically transform the way the workforce is educated and skilled. For such efforts, we need industry collaborations to understand the mutual expectations. I believe, only 20% of Indian companies currently offer on-job training in comparison to over 87% of the Chinese companies. I would like to extend that companies dedicate a significant portion of the 2% CSR contributions to skill development.”

 

Opening the panel discussion moderator Bhatia put forth questions to the key speakers in relation to tremendous youth energy available in India and the skills required of them. She wanted key solutions from the HR experts for the gap existing between industry and institutions or other responsible factors.  Jalan (Tech Mahindra) said: “The Western countries have complete echo system of education right from schooling.  Students go on job training for a year compulsorily. There should be collaboration among schools, institutions, government boards/councils, employers to complete all dots and cycles. Students should also have passion for the sector they want to join.”   David (V E Commercial Vehicles) desired that Industry, Institutions, Government, Faculty and Students also have to play their individual roles sincerely for what is being taught is exactly required by the industry. Kapoor (Escorts) viewed: “Things are moving fast and innovation is the only survival. Present wants skilled persons to work by their own hands and not as mere supervisors.”

 

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