Link large and small industries, undertake skilling efforts: Experts

Professor Suresh Babu, Director of the Madras Institute of Development Studies exhorted the need for upskilling through the conventional Industrial Training Institutes across the country to get youngsters future ready.

Chennai: As Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face acute labour shortages and fresh challenges in the form of automation, entrepreneurs and experts point to the need to link up small firms with big companies. They stress the need for massive skilling efforts, for which the government and industry should come together.

Despite several schemes floated by the Union and state governments to skill the existing workforce and make students future-ready, firms continue to spend significant capital on imparting skills.

Since technologies are changing fast and automation is catching up in every sector, the capabilities of MSMEs to adapt and adopt such advancements should also be made easy. Else, they will be easily thrown out, Professor Suresh Babu, director of the Madras Institute of Development Studies, told DH.

“The MSMEs need handholding here. They should be told how to be successful despite challenges,” he said.

Ultimately, according to the development economist, small firms have to be linked up with big companies as the former cannot survive without the help of the latter. “Geographical proximity to bigger companies will help MSMEs march forward,” Babu added.

The professor exhorted the need for upskilling through the conventional Industrial Training Institutes across the country to get youngsters future-ready. This is particularly important as India continues to be one of the key destinations for companies, in sunrise sectors like electronics and EVs, that plan to diversify from China.

“We should emphasise training women in industrial sectors. Since women are also willing to take up these jobs, they should be skilled. Right now, the training is provided by the companies after recruiting. If they are future-ready through ITI skilling, firms can save a lot of money,” Suresh Babu added.

M Karthikeyan, president of the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, said the way forward was to move ahead with technology, innovation, skilled workforce and marketing, with financing as the centrepiece.

“We are asking our members to focus more on getting international and domestic certification to boost their business. When a product has a certification, people tend to believe them more. Certification adds value and as an association, we are also ensuring that workers are skilled and continue to run programmes in colleges to make students industry-ready,” Karthikeyan said.