A Promising Future for Skill Development & Training Franchises
In today’s competitive world, it has become a back-breaking task to find a job. Employers nowadays don’t hire someone only on the basis of a degree; they require relevant skills in a prospective employee.
Our education system focused more on rote learning and less on developing skills. This has resulted in a lower percentage of people who are formally trained in India—a mere 4.69% of the total workforce. Moreover, the gap between formal education and industry expectation has led to a huge skill gap.
In order to bridge this industry-academia gap, the government of India is focusing on skill development. This has resulted in an emergence of various skill development & training institute franchises.
One such brand is the Council of Education & Development Programmes Skill Institute. Started with the aim to bridge the gap in training being provided and the requirement by the industry verticals, CEDP skill began its operation in 2010. From a small 350sq. ft. flat to a sprawling modern state-of-the-art campus (12,000 sqft) at Thane, CEDP has expanded its presence over to multiple locations (Kurla, Bandra, Borivali, Vasai, Pune) via franchising.
In conversation with Franchise India, Shaheen Khan, founder & CEO, CEDP skill institute, talks about the skill development and training market, emerging trends and future growth opportunities.
Standing out from the Competition
With various institutes offering skill training in the market, it is essential to differentiate yourself from the crowd.
Shaheen, said, “The curriculum of all our courses is developed to meet the diversified demands of industries. On-job-training, classroom practical and theory, industrial visits, and educations tours ensure developing required competency which is mandatory for career planning. The on-job-training and 100% placement rate makes us different from our competitors.”
The brand also takes efforts toward re-skilling and skill enhancement of their trainers so that they can be abreast with technological advancements, thus, improving productivity and competency of their students through specific outcome-based learning.
Factors Driving the Growth
As per the latest statistics by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 109.73 million additional skilled manpower will be required across 24 skilled sectors by 2022.
Key trends arising from the current wave of technological advancements have impacted the way we work and live. To match the pace of globalisation, skill development is a key component for improving potential, productivity and efficiency of the workforce across industries. To tap more labour market outcomes, it is important to engage in skill development in India.
Higher Potential in Smaller Cities
According to Shaheen, the population in smaller cities is the key to success for skill development. We are living in an era of Industry 4.0, where it is important to hone this asset and utilise it best. ?
“As the workforce migrates from small cities to other developed cities, there is a need for a well planned and executed strategy to provide a new set of skills through vocational training in order to effectively absorb this additional workforce and sustain economic growth as well reskill the existing workforce. Hence, skill development is of increasing importance in rural cities as well,” stated, Shaheen.
Emerging Trends in the Market
The business environment in which organisations operate today is extremely different from what it was a few decades ago. Learning is a continuous process throughout the employee lifecycle, for sustaining business momentum and to remain industry relevant. Embracing this change creates an emerging trend of ongoing skill development. In the present scenario, courses like foreign languages, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Robotics, Data Analysis etc. are in demand for upskilling oneself and becoming future ready.
Promising Growth Opportunities
The present skilled workforce in India is only 2 %, much lower than developing nations like Korea (96%), Japan (80%), Germany (75%), UK (68%) and China (40%) as reported by Labor Bureau report.
The SKILL INDIA MISSION was launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 15 July 2015, which aims to train over 40 crore people in India in different skills by 2022 for better livelihoods. Government support in increasing the skill set of the youth in India is pivotal to future growth for skill training institutes.
“The establishment of skill development and training institutes will play a vital role in equipping people with the requisite job skills and make them employable. But, it must be ensured that all skilling and re-skilling initiatives must be industry-led. Hence, the skill market in India is expected to grow with a rising trend,” said, Shaheen.
The Best Medium for Expansion
Shaheen asserted, “We believe that franchising is the best medium to achieve our goal of bringing experienced entrepreneurs from the education industry under the banner of Council of Education & Development Programmes (CEDP) Skill Institute. Franchising will help us to increase our contribution to increasing skills of the youth in India.”
Major Challenges
10 years ago when the Council of Education & Development Programmes (CEDP) Skill Institute was established, there was limited social acceptability and awareness about the programmes. But when the Skill India Campaign was launched by our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, people gradually realised the importance of getting skilled. “The campaign played a vital role in helping me overcome these challenges and motivate students to enrol for skill development courses for a safe and secure livelihood. The Skill India Campaign has helped us to overcome challenges and has helped us to reach the right audience,” added Shaheen.
Future Expansion Plans
CEDP aims to establish a chain of Council of Education & Development Programmes (CEDP) Skill Institute incubation centres across 50 pan India locations. This would increase opportunities for employment in several cities and across several industries in India.
