SUMMARY
The govt is developing a specialised curriculum to meet the talent demands of the EV industry
Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has roped in stakeholder ministries, related-sector skill councils for the programme
India’s EV industry has been reportedly facing a talent crisis
The Indian government is planning to come up with solutions to the present challenges in the emobility sector. Besides trying to increase the charging infrastructure to support the rising number of electric vehicles in the country, now it has turned its head towards solving the issue of talent crunch in the sector.
The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is developing a programme to meet the workforce needs of electric vehicle segment in India.
Citing anonymous sources, an ET report said that the ministry is developing a specialised curriculum to meet the talent demands of the electric vehicle industry. The sources also added that the ministry will be responsible for creating this workforce in a targeted and time-bound manner.
In order to achieve this goal, the government has roped in all the stakeholder ministries, related-sector skill councils, including automotive, power and the director-general of training for the programme.
This initiative is being launched under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP). The plan was launched in 2013 to attain national fuel security by promoting hybrid and electric vehicles in the country. Under this scheme, the government is targeting to achieve sales of 6 Mn to 7 Mn hybrid and electric vehicles annually from 2020 onwards.
These steps are in line with the government’s goal to achieve 30% emobility by 2030. While India is bullish towards leading the emobility drive, the sector is still at a nascent stage in the country.
In September, reports said that there are not enough engineers with expertise in the electric vehicle industry.
In order to meet the industry needs, premier educational institutions in Idnaiare also coming up with electric vehicle courses to train the youth in this sector. Last year, it was reported that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are rolling out new courses relevant to electric vehicles to produce engineers in this domain.
IIT Delhi had rolled out a master’s degree programme on automotive and EVs. Meanwhile, automakers are also turning to the IITs for filling up their workforce. For instance, companies such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto have been recruiting students from IIT Roorkee for research and development work on EVs.
Electric vehicle online courses are also available at the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). NPTEL is an educational initiative by seven IITs (Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Roorkee) and IISc Bangalore to promote quality education through E-learning methods.
According to a March 2018 report by KPMG, the existing workforce also needs to be upskilled and revamped to cater to the demands of workforce requirements for electric vehicles. “ Overall, development of knowledge and its disbursement, gestation period for development of infrastructure and large scale implementation of the developed processes are impediments to realisation of electric mobility,” the report noted.
