JCB organises training programmes for its dealers who employ over 4500 service engineers. "There are regular training programmes to ensure that they are abreast with latest technological innovations in our products. JCB has a full-fledged Parts and Training centre at Pune. We also have dealer engineer assessments. We had over 1000 training days in 2015 for 350 different courses," adds Singh.
Youth—Tomorrow's employees
Strengthening academia-industry partnership seems be another important factor for companies for the mere reason of today's students are employees of tomorrow. "Therefore, we reach out to external youth through our employability initiative, called Disha, wherein we have taken an ambitious growth target of skilling two lac Indian youth in vocational skills. Here, we have collaborated with various vocational training providers in the country and helped them set out the infrastructure, frame the curriculum and train the trainers, conduct assessment and certification and eventually, assist in the placement wherever possible, through our network of associates and service providers," discloses Menezes.
JCB also has been at the forefront with its skilling initiatives. "We train and
develop talent across India to promote entrepreneurship and employability. Many of our initiatives are aligned with the government's initiative to build the right skill across industries. The company has 15 Operator Training Centres across India. Till date, we have trained around 25,000 operators who are now trained operators; many have also become proud owners of our machines," Singh adds. In addition to this, JCB also has an in-house welding training school at Jaipur where a 16 week detailed training program is organised for fresh diploma graduates. Omron also conducts training programs for students and faculty at various engineering institutes. "We are working on the concept of creating Automation Training Channel Partners in order to extend the training facilities. These interventions help in strengthening the technology connect between academia and industry people. Another notable initiative is our one-of-its kind Automation Centre at Mumbai, which showcases our complete technology prowess and also act as a learning centre for all key stakeholders in the automation industry," informs Gandhi.
Conclusion
Undertaking training is just not enough. "Clarity of ownership on talent development and timely reviews are as critical as training infrastructure to continually enhance employee skills. We, at Henkel, encourage development in a well-rounded manner leveraging a mix of e-learning, on the job learning and classroom training to achieve this. Regular development conversations are encouraged and documented. Development materials are constantly reviewed to assure contemporary relevance. In conclusion, we have adopted an integrated approach on development involving product technology, individual competencies and soft skills," concludes Ali.
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