1-       Dr Franziska Schwarz, Director-International Relations, Swiss Federal Office for Professional Education and Training, said The dual track education system of Switzerland with Vocational Education and Training (VET) has worked very well as it has been sustained by the co-operation of industrial associations, government and educational institutions. ``VET is a very solid foundation for lifelong learning and its features make the VET pathway highly attractive for young people’’. She also  said ``in Switzerland after the compulsory school education the young people can chose from 240 occupations and at a later stage there are 400 professional education training possibilities at tertiary level that support successful careers and have effects in terms of employability and wage level’’.

2-     Mr S Mahalingam, Chairman, CII Council on Skill Development and CFO and Executive Director, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said, that to engage the large number of workforce to capitalize on the demographic dividend, there should be long-term sustainable skill delivery programmes. He said the gap between the demand for skilled labour and the available supply has been large and rising further

3-      Mr Dilip Chenoy, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, NSDC, said The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has so far approved funding worth $230 million (Rs 1150 crore) for 42 proposals for the setting up of vocational training organizations and for 10 sector skill councils (SSCs). In addition to the 10 SSCs already approved, NSDC has approved the setting up such councils for rubber and leather industries

4-         Mr J P Rai, Executive Director, National Council for Skill Development said, in the skill development efforts ``we need to involve the people who need to be skilled’’. Their aspirational level was very important, and this could be inculcated by highlighting the lucrative opportunities available in the blue collar system, he said. Mr Rai said there was need to ramp up numbers as the people to be trained were so large. The latest technologies could be harnessed to train the large numbers and to increase the velocity of training, he said.

In seeking to determine what the 21st century may look like, India matters arguably more than any other nation. The first reason being that it will be the most populous nation, with apopulation expected to reach 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.6 billion two decades later.

The global workforce is expected to be overtly dominated by Indians in the next couple of decades. A study by the Boston Consulting Group shows that, while the world is expected to encounter a shortage of 47 million working people by 2020, India will have a surplus of 56 million working people.

India’s demographic dividend and prominence will depend in great measure on the country’s ability to foster an enabling environment not only to create jobs but also to train the new workforce, encourage global trade, improve the existing education system, attract investment to support innovation, and implement policies that engender confidence in the economy.

New realities like globalization, competitiveness and the need to move to a skilled economy are what India needs to deal with. Its competitive edge will be determined by its people’s ability to innovate through knowledge and technology transfer. In a globalized economy, a large pool of skilled workers is indispensable for attracting foreign direct investment. The new economy that India needs is one with skilled and knowledge workers as the driving force for creating sustainable and scalable models to ensure long term growth.

The concept of employability is gaining momentum in the labour market literature. It indicates the person’s capability of attaining initial employment, maintaining and moving to new employment by choice.

The onus of ensuring the country with an employable workforce is on the evolving vocational training system and the industry. At the moment all the pieces of the puzzle are not in place. A key issue, then, is what reforms/interventions are needed to improve the effectiveness of the system. Answering that question is far from easy and there is a general consensus that we will have to learn from the global world.

Objective of the summit was to:

• Challenge conventional wisdom and enable skill development fraternity to think differently about skills for the future -in India
• Get clear views and opinions from multinational and Indian companies on their skill agendas
• Compare what works and what needs to be improved by sharing good national and international practice, and learning from experience and evaluation
• Align the national framework with the international best practices
• Link national and international research and policy to help inform future decision making;
• Enable national and international networking to increase connections and collaborations and;
• Provide opportunities for professional development and learning

Topics for deliberation at the Summit:

• Nurturing Sustainable approaches to workforce development
• Relevance of Swiss Model of Vocational Education in India
• Experience Sharing – The MNC Style
• The role of Multilateral Agencies in the skill development landscape in India
• Learning’s from Successful International Markets
• Branding the skilled worker through skill competitions
• Sector Skill Councils
• Reinforcing skill Development through collaborations in ICT

The Summit was well attended by a focused audience of Senior Leaders & representatives of Industry, Governments, National and International Training provider, Training Institutions, Awarding bodies, Companies providing Manpower solutions & potential investors in Skills Development, Financial institutions, Industry Associations from across sectors, Multi-lateral organization like ILO, World Bank; Civil Society Organizations including National & International NGOs, Corporate Foundations & Sustainability functionaries etc.