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GUWAHATI, India (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): Bartending is not just about making the perfect drink, Anup Kalita, 36, tells his students who are dressed in sharp black suits and seated around dinner tables at a mock bar taking notes.
"It is also about the art of making and presenting the drinks to your guests," the trainer adds. Kalita then picks up a teardrop bar spoon and puts it in a tall glass to demonstrate how one must mix drinks. "Stir gently and always along the rim."
Picking up these skills is part of a practical class for food and beverage service students at the North East Skill Centre (NESC) in Guwahati, the largest city in the north-eastern state of Assam.
A joint initiative of Singapore's ITE Education Services (Itees) and the Assam Skill Development Mission, the centre provides affordable and quality skills training for young people aged between 17 and 25.
It was set up in March 2019 with support from the Singapore Government, which paid Itees for its services that include curriculum design and training the trainers at NESC.
The centre offers a one-year certificate course in four disciplines - retail, beauty and wellness, housekeeping, and food and beverage. One of five skills training centres set up in India with support from Itees, it was formally handed over last month.
In an e-mailed statement, Itees said its involvement is motivated by a desire to enhance its international branding and help the country upgrade its skills development system.
With its focus on practical training, NESC has placed "more than 95 per cent" of its students in establishments across the country, including top hotel and retail chains.
Apart from the bar, the centre has multiple in situ training facilities such as a mock restaurant and hotel room, a dummy fashion store as well as two spas and a beauty clinic.
“Our students are practically trained in everything that is required by the industry. So once they join an organisation, they don’t need additional training from the employer,” said Mr Indrajit Singha, NESC’s principal.
“And the best part is the industry is so happy with their performance that within six months or so, our students are promoted,” he told The Straits Times.
Skills training centres are popular among India's youth keen to get an edge in the competitive job market. Mr Partha Pratim Deka, 23, from Assam's Udalguri district joined the housekeeping course at NESC after unsuccessful attempts to secure a government job.
"I want to join a good five-star property as a room attendant and then get promoted to a supervisor," he said. "Ultimately I want to become a successful businessman."
According to India's Periodic Labour Force Survey, the unemployment rate from January to March this year for those aged between 15 and 29 was 20.2 per cent. It has remained above 20 per cent since the first quarter in 2020.
The lack of job opportunities is not the only problem. Many among those who enter the Indian workforce are not skilled enough. According to India Skills Report 2022, less than half (48.7 per cent) of the 300,000 students assessed were "employable".
Much of the university-level education in India imparts theory-based knowledge that is out of sync with market realities.
Not surprisingly, around 80 per cent of students at NESC are graduates even though the admission criteria require them to have only finished school education.
Among its alumni is Pranita Changmai, a 23-year-old from Betbari village in Assam's Sivasagar district. Until she joined NESC, she had studied only in Assamese-medium institutions and lacked the confidence to speak in English.
"We all have a dream of securing a good job and standing on one's own feet, and this course has really helped youth like us realise these dreams," she told ST on the phone from Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra. She is currently employed there as a guest service associate at Courtyard by Marriott hotel.
She earns around 15,000 rupees (S$261) each month and is provided with food and lodging by her employer. A student of the NESC housekeeping course, she landed her first job at Radisson Hotel in Gwalior, a city in Madhya Pradesh, in 2021 through a campus placement interview.
"Studying outside my village, I met so many new friends and experienced new cultures. It was like entering another world altogether," she added, noting that she benefited not just from the core curriculum but also essential skills training such as conversing in English.
The annual tuition fee is around 16,000 rupees, affordable enough for lower-middle class families. Challenges remain though for NESC, including the lower-than-expected intake of students.
The enrolment this year was 120 - the highest among the last three batches - against a capacity of 400 students. "Skills education is still considered not part of formal education," rued Singha.
But he hopes this will change with the inclusion of NESC under the Assam Skill University from 2024 and also a greater acceptance of the New Education Policy approved in 2020. It stipulates that by 2025 at least 50 per cent of students in schools and higher education establishments will have exposure to vocational education.
"This (the intake) is one thing that will surely change, and our alumni will be the brand ambassadors to bring that change," added Singha.
