Practical learning pays

Narendra Shyamsukha, founder, ICA Edu Skills, talks about his journey from being a chartered accountant to providing vocational training.

Narendra Shyamsukha

ICA Edu Skills, a Chartered Accountancy coaching institute founded by Narendra Shyamsukha, has its presence in about 100 cities and focuses on making people ready for the industrial and job environment. Within a year-and-a-half of completing his chartered accountancy from a Kolkata-based firm, Mr. Shyamsukha set up his own chartered accountancy company — Shyamsukha & Co, in Kolkata. However, he ventured into vocational training in 1999 and hasn’t looked back since.

A chartered accountant by profession, how did you enter the world of coaching?

While selecting staff for myself and my clients, I realised colleges offered only theoretical knowledge whereas clients expected practical skills. On the one side, students were unable to find jobs and on the other, employers were not getting trained manpower. Hence, I established ICA.

You have been teaching for 15 years. How has your experience been handling ICA?

When I started ICA, I was unfamiliar with running institutions. I now enjoy training and placing students and have expanded from 200-sqft-office to more than 300 centres in over 100 cities. We have faced three recessions in between but we did not give up. I am a firm believer in learning by doing and taking calculative risks. We have turned more than 100 employees into entrepreneurs. 1

What kind of changes has ICA witnessed?

I support the revision and change of curriculum every year, as, not only are the demands of industries changing, but technology, aspirations and the skill-set gap are also changing. We have come a long way from being just an accounts and taxation training institute to a skill training institute. We also train youth in various other sector such as BFSI, IT/ITES, retail, healthcare, hospitality, automobile, logistic and plumbing. We also expand our reach to two new sectors every year.

Skilled labour is much talked about today. ICA has conducted skill development programmes. What are your views on it?

In India, the rate of school dropout is 39 per cent. High school pass-outs are 30 million, but only six million out of these 30 million graduate every year. Of these six million, 80 per cent are unemployed. Skilling should be compulsory from Class X. A three-month skill development programme should be part of the curriculum. In graduation, one out of six semesters should have a skills course and another semester should be for internship. If this pattern is followed, the problem of unemployment can be diminished.

Please elaborate on your Anytime Job (ATJ) Card facility.

The main problem is not the lack of jobs but simply that applicants lack the right sets of skills. Once a student successfully completes our course, we issue him/her an ATJ card, and the student can get a job within two weeks from any of the 30 placement offices we have established in India.

How does EduLift, a portal for a better communication between the big companies and their clients, function?

Many good products are developed by startups, however India is a diverse country. Therefore, startups fail to reach every corner of the country. However, there are schools, colleges in every corner of our country. So, we have developed a sales network to connect these tech products to improve the overall education and skill development eco-system in India.

You also established STEM World School. Please elaborate.

I believe in ‘learning by doing’. I started STEM World School to fulfil this objectives. At STEM, students get a chance to conduct experienced and quality learning in various streams such as science, technology, engineering and maths.

What are your future plans for ICA?

At present, we are training 70,000 candidates annually and we plan to train and place two lakh candidates by 2020. We will be setting up 250 new skill development centres in the coming year under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna schemes. This is with respect to the ‘Skill India’ mission of the Government of India. Approximately 50 centres will be mega centres in more than 10,000 sqft space. From providing skill training at 490 schools and colleges, we have planned to expand it to 5,000 schools and colleges by 2020.

We have set up incubation centres for Edtech products to improve the education system and have also planned to roll out at least four products every year. For EduLift, from its presence into 32 cities, we will expand to more than 100 cities to connect these good Edtech products with more than 10,000 schools and colleges.