The first-panel discussion of CEO Unplugged 2020 organized by Glocal Pvt. Ltd. was Fore Sighting and Forecasting the supply of skilled Workforce.
The main objective of the panel was to discuss the traditional skills as well as the fourth industrial revolution skills. The discussion was mainly about the evolution of skills in the labour market at the heart of major changes in employment outlook and ways to increase the demand for skilled labour in the competitive market.
CEO Unplugged 2020 is a yearly forum organized by Glocal Pvt. Ltd. comprising series of panel discussion to establish a forum to discuss contemporary business challenges, opportunities and futuristic view with a sight of experiential learning to the newcomers in the business and students with an objective “Today Meets Tomorrow”.
The first-panel discussion comprised of panelist; Mr.Abhishek Singh, the Country Sales Manager of Bottlers Nepal Limited; Mr.Arun Chaudhary, the Chairman and Managing Director of CG Holdings; Dr.LoknathBhusal, Under Secretary, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security) MOLESS where Prof. Ujjwal K. Chowdhury, Pro Vice Chancellor of Adamas University, India were moderated the panel.
The panel discussion started with the questions by the moderator Prof. Ujjwal K. Chowdhury about the policy and global prospective to labour, skills, social security and employment. He warmed up the discussion by adding the concept of fourth industrial revolution skills, future needs of skills and the needs to be skilled centric. He added the importance of soft skills and fundamental basic skills, also called as foundation skills.
Dr.LoknathBhushal, Under Secretary, MOLESS
Human capital is the building block of economic development. Without the development of human capital, a country cannot realize its goal of higher economic growth and overall development. The National Planning Commission and the government of Nepal has taken specific policies in all sectors including health, education, nutrition and other sectors where policies are formulated regarding the development human capital and the specific skill development.
Within inert to materialize these policies and produce specific results, we have the Ministry of Labor Employment and Social Security. This Ministry is interested in the duty of responsibilities for providing employment regulation of employment industrial relation then coming to the right of the labour that is social security. So, labour relation is very important element because the industrial development very much depends on the industrial relation of the country.
Now, in terms of employment, the scenario is changing. Every year in this country 5 lakhs people enter into the labour market but only 1 lakh get some domestic employment opportunities. 4 lakhs must have gone to foreign countries or they may have to remain unemployed. So, out of these 4 lakhs going for current employment nearly 85% are unskilled and other remaining 15% are also the same, not fully skilled. This shows that there is a huge market for skill development in this country.
So, realizing this scenario, the Ministry has itself initiated different training programs under the ministry as well as in collaboration with the private sector. So, this is a very good beginning and this year we have a target to train about 30 thousand people including for those going for employment and working here. The scenario in terms of skilled labour is very limited. As a result, most of the industries are deprived of skilled human resources. Because of this, many industries have to depend on foreign skilled manpower.
Economy determines the skill needs that are to be determined by the nature of the economy itself. Many of the functions and works that earlier people used to do, now they are done by artificial intelligence, but this artificial intelligence again has to be developed and created by human beings. We need to add the skills of ability and knowledge to build artificial intelligence. I request all of you, especially the young generation to equip yourself to fit in the labour market that supplies the required knowledge and skills that the new economy demands from you. I would like to appeal to re-skill the educated manpower into the modern fourth revolution types of skills.
Mr.Arun Chaudhary, the Chairman and Managing Director of CG Holdings
CG holdings is involved in hospitality, education, real estate and the reason behind me mentioning the involvement is to let you know that I am very passionate about this. The most important thing is- “All of you should be skilled” and the question comes how? the question follows where? About my suggestion, first of all, do your soul searching, figure out what you are good at because two human beings can’t be good at the same phase.”
People used to say you can’t be the jack of all, you have to be master of something but now I feel skill and success is like a pyramid. Anybody skilled in one area of life can’t hit that term. I can guarantee so what we need to be is “jack of all”. The people who are jack of all are going to get the pyramid term. The first point is I always look for a people who are jack of all i.e. good at everything, but it is rare to find.
The second point is there is a fact going on start-up. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, but people can be a great professional as well. If you want to do well in life and have a personal life as well, my suggestion would be trying to be professional. The best thing in life is being a professional. Professional means obviously skilled and highly skilled that is what Nepal wants. Therefore, Skills must be developed.
Looking at the present context, 55% contribution is coming to the GDP from services where the global benchmark is 63%. The US has got about 80%, the UK has about 70% and Nepal has got 59% and that is because we have unskilled human resources more than the skilled human resource.
Mr.Abhishek Singh, the Country Sales Manager for Bottlers Nepal Limited for Coca-Cola
Everybody understands there is a need for skilled labour and the demand for skilled labour is increasing. One of the reasons is Artificial Intelligence and the other is Industrialization. Let’s talk about the fourth industrialization revolution starting right now and specifically for a country like Nepal where we have around 3 crores people, 65% of the propagation is in the working group.
There are so many other people so do we have enough jobs for them? For the available jobs, are they qualified people to fill those jobs? Let’s talk about my team. Most of them are very qualified, very skilled but does everybody have the same energy, passion, attitude to move ahead? I don’t think everybody has. My advice to you is have that passion and attitude to move ahead. Life is good and it is important. So, you need to have a balanced life and have more interaction.
Moderator: How do you look at the skilling from the education and academies here?
Dr.LoknathBhusal: As already presented the data on the skill, so inert to fulfil the gaps we suddenly need both academic institutions as well as specific skill academics to fulfil those gaps. Regarding this, the Government of Nepal after 1990 has gradually liberalized almost all the sectors of the economy including the education sector. As a result, different private schools, as well as a private educational institution, have started to deliver more skill-oriented as well as more market demanding type of academic degrees.
This year we are partnering with international development partners to carry out the skill gap in the market so that we better understand the skill shortage in the economic. After we know that skill gap, we will certainly come up with a new type of skill-specific academics. We encourage the private sector to come up to fill the skill gap in the country.
Moderator: How do you do skilling of people working with you? What type of initiatives should be done to re-skill them?
Mr.Arun Chaudhary: The people working at my team are exposed to the situation and they have to solve the problem. They got their series from whom they learned, how the problem is to be handle. You have to expose to the problem and depends where the person will handle it or not. Problem-Solving skill is really necessary.
Moderator: How do you develop skills for newcomers or people already working with you develop skills to solve the organization better? What sorts of skills are necessary?
Mr.Abhishek Singh: There are a few things that we need to have when we are hiring the people. The first thing that we look at is the person who is coming for work has the right attitude or is believed to put that effort. Then there is a match that we do with the organization culture whether the culture organization matches or not. If it does not match, then even if you are very skilled, it will not work for a very long time. Once you are there obviously there is an unloading process as every company are different and has a different processing system. So one should ensure the full knowledge of system processes and products and everything which is required for them to understand.
You can decide the skill that you need to have and there are lots of soft skills that need to be learnt and it depends on practice. If you have the passion to learn, the internet is always there. Most of the skills that you want is available. My suggestion to all would be to work hard, believe on yourself and see how much more you can contribute.
Audience Questions:
Question 1: We can see the plenty of skill-oriented programs happening in the developing city like Kathmandu but in the other hand in the rural areas beyond Kathmandu, the people are still struggling for life because they could not acquire the required skills to grow for life. How the Ministry plans to start the mission and vision to solve this kind of problems?
Dr.LoknathBhusal: The government has penetrated almost all government services now. So, providing training is also a part of government service. So earlier we used to have 14 training centers across the country under the Ministry of Labor, employment and social security. We have restructured those training centers now and only 3 training centers are kept with the federal government and rest other 11 centers are handed over the provisional government.
I agree with you that training facilities are not available in rural areas, but the training centers depends on the demand for skill also. If we establish a training center in remote rural areas, people will not come, so there is no use. However, we can allow the private sector to open the training centre if people demand skills. The provincial government will provide training facilities for the people coming from rural areas as well.
Question 2: As you said in the higher course people based on the jack of all. I just wanted to know that if you also hire the people who are centric with self-development or not?
Mr.Arun Chaudhary: I meant the jack of all is if you want to be a team leader. A team leader has to be jack of all; a team has to be master of something. So, first, we do hire a lot of people who have got specific skills and we train them as well. We are always looking to reach such people.
Question 3: If the youths are getting the platform, where can we express our skills so what does the government have to see about this? And what kind of platforms do companies like Bottler’s Nepal and CG provide where we can express our skills?
Mr.Abhishek Singh: There is a program about women empowerment, and we have trained women from the community and a lot of works and efforts goes there. There is a separate department in every company which looks after this thing about sustainability. As of now what I can say is there is no set standard platform, but we go to colleges, there are events that do in colleges.
If you are searching for any opportunities, you can reach out Bottler’s Nepal and the team via phone or email. You can send us your queries and we can also provide you with many opportunities. You guys are free to apply but you should go with a process in which you can apply.
Mr.Arun Chaudhary: Chaudhary Group hires several people but surely can’t cater to the whole country. Whenever we ask for the people, we get numbers of applications. Many people apply, but who gets selected? It’s the ones who run, who can confidentially stand out, but not the ones who are silent. First of all, set that thing right in your way. So, start asking the question, be demanding and I can sure you will reach somewhere. You need to have that vision to achieve your dreams.
Conclusion
The panel discussion vocalized the importance skills, issue of skilling, future skills and employment in a global perspective. The discussion also had ways to improve skill gaps and the need for the modern fourth revolution skills in today’s world.
