Skilling need of the Hour

Underscoring the immense opportunities that the defence sector and in particular HSL has to offer in ship repair and shipbuilding HSL’s C&MD, Cmde Hemant Khatri, IN, (Retd.) stated that there is a dearth of skilled and productive manpower who can execute quality jobs.

The CMD pointed out that despite HSL working with plethora of contractors they are short of quality manpower. ‘We work with 100+ contractors and most of them are unable to bring in blue collar workers who are adequately skilled, productive and do a quality job’ noted the C&MD speaking at the second regional defence MSME conclave in Visakhapatnam organized by CII&SIDM.

Identifying some of their in demand job roles he informed that there is an acute shortage of fitters such as welders, electrical fitters, engine fitters, instrumentation fitters etc.

Cmde Khatri thus called upon contractors to invest in skilling and training their workers so that they can better execute jobs in a timely and efficient manner.

‘Unfortunately many contractors don’t invest in skilling and training thereby leading to a huge void in job readiness said the CMD.

He similarly urged the government and ITIs to focus on this aspect and make efforts in getting the youth of today aptly trained and skilled for the desired jobs. HSL last year bagged its biggest order from the Indian Navy of building 5 FSS valued at over Rs 21000 crores.

‘Very soon we are going to have orders in our submarine business too and we thus need to have ample supply of experienced professionals who are job ready and are more productive’ pointed HSL’s chief.

HSL currently has a workforce of 3800 people out of which 1000 are on their payrolls.

The CMD also emphasised on the need for MSMEs to scale up their product profile, quality and standard of their products and the need for timely delivery when catering to the needs of the defence industry.

‘Delivery on time is crucial and very important in this sector’ reiterated Cmde Hemant Khatri, IN, (Retd.)