The Sewells Group recently entered into a partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to promote skill development in the Indian automotive retail arena. Sewells Group India, a leading provider of automotive training solutions in India, has floated a 73:27 joint venture with NSDC that will focus on developing skilled manpower for auto dealerships. The JV, called SkillSource Learning and Technologies (SkillSource), will over the next 10 years, train tens of thousands of people to staff auto dealerships in the country.

The Melbourne-based Sewells Group is a leading provider of training solutions to automotive companies across Asia Pacific, Africa and Middle East regions and works closely with leading automotive brands.

NSDC is a first-of-its-kind Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in India that facilitates skill development and is not-for-profit company set up by the Ministry of Finance.

According to DilipChenoy, CEO of NSDC, “Looking at the significance of the auto industry in our economy, a skill development effort focussed on this industry will certainly provide rich dividends both from social and economic perspectives. We are excited about this project.”

As part of your partnership with NSDC, what areas of skillsets are you looking at? Was a survey conducted to determine the gap areas?

We are targeting skills required for retail-oriented jobs such as motor technicians, salespersons, back-office staff with a special focus on motor technicians. As the leading provider of automotive training solutions, we regularly track the demand and supply of skilled manpower in auto retail. Various governmental and multilateral organisations have also conducted multiple surveys to determine the skill gap in our country. All this data is widely available.

In which locations do you intend to set up the SkillSource training centres and will this be done with local auto OEMs?

We will set up these training centres at 40 locations across India and will train 400,000 people over the next 10 years. Wherever possible, we will collaborate with leading OEMs and their dealers at multiple levels such as knowledge and technology sharing and joint resource planning. At most locations, SkillSource will have its own facilities that are custom-equipped for our requirements of ‘World-Class Automotive Technical Training.’ At some locations we might partner with OEMs, dealers or other stakeholders to share the facilities.

As far as the imparting of instructions goes, how will the Sewell’s Group handle this? Where will the ‘faculty’ be drawn from?

Sewells Group is a leading global provider of automotive training. We invest in R&D and have developed unique and innovative methods for training. We will deploy the same to impart high impact and efficient skill development programmes.

Over and above this, we will also partner with leading automotive brands to train specialist manpower for their technology and to suit their needs. We develop our own trainers. We have rigorous ‘Trainer Development Programs’ which can identify and develop technicians, engineers and other professionals as trainers.

What are the requirements of auto dealers over the next 10 years in India and in which geographical location will it be most urgent? Are you also looking at catering to the North East?

The requirement for manpower for dealerships has a direct relationship with the growth of automotive industry. In fact, the demand of motor technicians grows as the vehicle parc grows. Our estimates suggest that auto dealerships in India will employ 25 lakh additional people over next 10 years. These centres will be spread across India in line with the vehicle population.

Automotive OEs have tie-ups with ITIs and also hire from designated educational institutes. How will the Sewell’s NSDC JV position itself in this market?

There is a huge demand- supply gap and therefore there is place for everyone. In fact, a mammoth task like skill development needs to be tackled by multiple players and stakeholders who must all come together and collaborate rather than compete. Not so much from a competitive point of view but from a value delivery point of view, we intend to be the premier institution for development of auto retail manpower in the country. Our graduates would be capable and committed and it is our hope that they would be the choice of employers in this industry.

BRIAN DE SOUZA