The SELF Project - Skills for Employment in Leather Fabrication

Mike Mirams is proud to be taking part in the SELF Project in conjunction with the Scandinavian Business Academy. It is being run by Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) of India on behalf of the Indian Government Department of Rural Affairs.

Training of Trainers in ChennaiEssentially the project is designed to lift young people from rural communities of India out of poverty by giving them training to enable them to be employed as semi-skilled workers in the leather industry, which currently has severe manpower shortages. The candidates develop their skills in month long training courses run continuously in a number of training centres throughout India, located in leather goods production factories run by the Industry Partners who take part in the scheme. In addition to the technical training (which is biased towards the nature of the industry partner’s production), the candidates receive training in essential “soft” skills, such as teamwork, social skills, conflict management, financial management, etc.

Mike discusses the training programme with a young man who recently completed the courseThe Scandinavian Business Academy’s role in the project as a Technical Partner is to advise on the educational and training aspects of the programme, ensuring that the programme is designed and delivered to the highest possible standards and in line with best international practice. Mike’s role has been to develop the quality standards by which the programme is operated, and continues to advise on and approve the programme documentation including the standards of performance and assessment methods, and monitor the delivery of the programme by review and audit against the defined quality standards.

Trainees hard at work in a training centre in KanpurPaul McElheron of the Sandinavian Business Academy (based in Skærbæk, Denmark) and Mike were privileged to attend and take part in the first “Training of Trainers” course in Chennai, India in April 2009, delivering sessions on understanding leather and quality issues, and participating in the valedictory ceremony. Mike has revisited India three times in 2010 and 2011 to carry out training and conduct intensive audits of the programme and its delivery at many of the training centres throughout the country. He has also met with some of the industry partners to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme. By the time the project it has run its course after three years, is expected to have helped over 23,000 young people out of poverty and into employment through about 40 training centres.

Similar such programmes are being planned for engineering and service industries. In addition, Mike Mirams is working with the Scandinavian Business Academy on other vocational and academic programmes specifically for the Indian Market.