Rustomjee Academy for Global Careers, Mumbai

Promoted by the Rustomjee Irani Foundation, in a short span of three years RAGC has built itself a sound reputation for offering hands-on vocational education and training, and has certified over 2,500 students

After being inexplicably neglected for over half a century, vocational education and training (VET) is getting the attention it deserves. Subsequent to prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh announcing a major drive to disseminate and upgrade VET across the country in 2006, a slew of initiatives have been announced to build and expand VET infrastructure nationwide. Among them: 1,500 industrial training institutes/centres and 50,000 skill centres in PPP (public-private partnership) mode by 2012; introduction of a National Vocational Educational Framework by March this year; promotion of a separate exam board under Central Board of Secondary Education to certify stud-ents trained in vocational skills; and the launch of the National Skills Develop-ment Corporation in 2009 which aims to cataylse the skilling of 150 million youth countrywide by 2022. Moreover in the Union Budget 2010-11 the Central government provided Rs.1,167 crore for skills and technical development.

Against this backdrop it’s unsur-prising that private sector entrepreneurs are also investing money, time and expertise to promote VET institutes and churn out trained workers to meet the estimated shortage of 500 million skilled personnel countrywide. Among these new genre private sector VET institutes is the Mumbai-based Rustomjee Academy for Global Careers (RAGC, estb. 2008), which offers short-term study programmes for the infrastructure, aviation, automobile, information techn-ology, and hospitality industries, and nursing. Promoted by the Rustomjee Irani Foundation (estb. 1998), in a short span of three years RAGC has built itself a sound reputation for offering hands-on VET, and has certified over 2,500 students. On August 19 last year, it was conferred Best Vocational Training Provider 2010 certification by the UK-India Skills Forum.

“Provision of high-quality vocational education and training has been continuously neglected over the past six decades by government and the private sector. The outcome is that Indian industry is facing a huge shortage of skilled manpower. Therefore the primary objective of RAGC is to address this shortage by providing well-designed, contemporary VET programmes to prepare youth for employment in the infrastructure, hospitality, aviation, automobile and IT industries,” says Percy Chowdhry, an alumnus of Mumbai University and Harvard Business School, director of Mumbai-based real estate firm Keystone Realtors Group aka the Rustomjee Group, and co-promoter of the Rustomjee Irani Foundation (RIJ) together with Bollywood actor Boman Irani. Today RIJ comprises seven educational institutions including the Rustomjee International School and Rustomjee Teachers Training Institute, and boasts an aggregate enrolment of 6,500 students.

Currently ragc offers certificate courses of 30 days to 24 months duration in the construction, electrical, hospitality and other technical trades to 1,500 students instructed by 45 faculty, including 20 visiting faculty. Instruction and training is provided in extant RIJ educational institutions spread across the city after school hours, three government polytechnics in Mumbai, one in Pune and in three government-promoted Industrial Train-ing Institutes sited in Karjat, Gadhchiroli and Mumbai and adopted by RAGC.  Moreover training for the 30-days skill development programmes is conducted on the  project sites of the Rustomjee Group and/or partner companies. All RAGC managed VET centres are equipped with modern workshops and laboratories where students are delivered hands-on training by industry experts.

“RAGC is committed to disseminating quality VET to meet Indian industry’s demand for trained employees. Therefore curriculums have been designed and developed in close consultation with industry to ensure they are relevant, contemporary and make our graduates industry ready. The common thread of all our programmes is the special emphasis on practical learning in modern workshops, field trips to familiarise students with industry shopfloors and internships. In fact during evaluation, theoretical learning is given only 30 percent weightage with internship performance given 70 percent,” says Kavi Luthra, a commerce graduate of Mumbai University with an MBA from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai and currently vice president (strategic alliances), RAGC.

Given its symbiotic relationship with the parent Rustomjee Group, RAGC implicitly has the mandate to train students for employ-ment in group companies. “With 4.5 million sq. ft of construction projects curr-ently under execution, Rustomjee Group itself needs a large number of well-trained supervisors and technicians. Therefore we have designed excellent VET programmes in infrastructure and construction to meet this industry’s demand. We have also signed up with other companies such as Kalpatru Constructions, D.B Realty, Wadhwa Builders, among others who offer inter-nship and employment opportunities to RAGC students,” says Luthra who adds that the academy’s graduates find ready employment at starting salaries of Rs.6,500-7,500 per month.

Enthused by rising demand for its job-oriented VET programmes and ready acceptance of RAGC graduates by industry, the foundation has drawn up plans to transform RAGC into a fully-fledged VET institute with a dedicated, well-equipped campus. “The Rustomjee Group is finalising plans to build a state-of-the-art campus on a 5-acre plot in Kasara, near Nasik. Meanwhile, our current focus is to train and certify at least 2,000 students in 2011. RAGC wants to make India the skills centre of the world by producing productive employees to service all sectors of the economy,” says Chowdhry.

It can’t happen too soon!

Swati Roy (Mumbai)