Civil aviation sector can create 6 mn jobs in 10 years with right skilling: Jayant Sinha

The civil aviation sector has the potential to create about 1 million direct jobs in the next ten years. Given a six- fold multiplier effect that jobs in this sector have, this can lead to the creation of about 6 million jobs – direct and indirect - in the next ten years, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha has said.

Since most of the jobs in the civil aviation sector tend to be of high value, this would go a long way in improving the economic condition of a large number of young people, he said.

He said  the civil aviation sector can reasonably be expected to grow at an average rate of about 10-12 per cent over the next ten years. However, to achieve this, India needs to fill the gap between the demand for skilled manpower for a huge variety of trades in the sector.

Stressing on the need for world class training and skilling, he said, this can raise the employability of our people across the world. Sinha also flagged the issue of non-availability of land to build airports as another constraint for growth of the sector.

The minister was speaking at a workshop on `Building Awareness on Aligning Skill Development in the Civil Aviation Sector' with the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) in New Delhi today. The event was also attended by the minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy and senior officers of both ministries.

Speaking on the occasion, Rudy informed that his ministry has developed about 1,500 course curricula for training in various skills across ministries. The biggest challenges, he said, have been to define the various kinds of skills and the ecosystem of each and define job roles and tailor the training programme accordingly.

In this context, he said, that aligning a training programme to the National Skill Qualification Framework was very important as the framework provides for standardised, consistent, nationally acceptable outcomes of training across the country.

The event also saw the signing of an MoU between the ministry of civil aviation and the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship for training of people in the various trades associated with the civil aviation sector. Sinha hailed the memorandum of understanding as a momentous one.

Speaking on the occasion, civil aviation secretary Rajiv Nayan Choubey said the aim of the civil aviation ministry's policy is to raise domestic ticketing from the present about 80 million to about 300 million. ''But, for this to happen, we need to fill the existing gap in availability of skilled manpower,'' he said.

Rohit Nandan, secretary, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship, emphasised on the need for world class training across trades and levels as the civil aviation industry is international in nature. He also stressed on the need for training to be uniform.

Officials of the two ministries held day-long discussions on issues like NSQF, setting up of skill development centres and centres of excellence, training of trainers, identifying job roles, National Occupational Standards and other training related matters.