DFII Geotechnical Characterisation for Foundations Committee – Progress Report 1
05th March 2020
We are pleased to inform all that DFII team steady efforts in development of 3-month lab technician’s training program over last one and half year period fructifying into tangible results. The collective efforts of industry leaders provide hope to all stake holders Indian construction/deep foundation industry to take up more such programs in future that will benefit total construction fraternity. Following is the update as on date:
- 10 member DFII Committee for Geotechnical Investigation for Foundation has been formed during Sept’18 to promote good practices in geotechnical investigation jobs and skill programs catering to this scope.
- An agreement has been reached on course materials to be covered in 3-month program by the committee members and individual chapters totaling to 10 have already prepared by the committee members and the course content has been reviewed by Dr. Sastry Putcha from DFI US team.
- Mr. Anirudhen has kindly agreed to compile all these chapters along with the other general chapters like basic mathematics, soft skill per NSDC norms and prepare it in the shape of a book and expected to be made ready by May’20.
- 5-year MOU has been signed during July’19 with National Academy of Construction (NAC) for implementation of 3-month training programs. DFII will be knowledge partner and NAC will provide necessary infrastructure/finance to implement the programs.
- Model Curriculum for ‘Soil Investigation Lab Technician’ program was developed by DFI, checked/modified by NAC in Aug-Sept’19.
- NAC sent it to National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) & Construction Skill Development Council (CSDC), Govt. of India bodies for skill training, for including it in approved Job Role Programs of NSDC in mid Sept’19.
- CSDC sought few clarifications regarding career progression for DFII developed programs and employment potential for the said course for qualifying the said course for getting necessary approvals by CSDC. These inputs are being provided.
- Several other documents (Qualification Pack-QP, National Occupational Standards-NOS) are prepared and sent to CSDC.
- We were also asked to get validation done from 30 small, medium major organizations in India about the need of the lab technician’s program as per approved format and letters have been sent to more than 40 organizations for seeking the response.
- Space has been identified for setting up the soil lab in NAC campus and quotations have been obtained for procurement of lab equipment. Suppliers are being approached for sponsoring lab equipment and depending upon the response, NAC may consider funding the purchase of balance equipment from their internal sources.
- Upon obtaining necessary approvals from CSDC/NSDC, NAC gets necessary grants from concerned government organization for training unemployed youth free of cost and will take the responsibility of providing placement facilities.
- At time, 30 trainees can be covered for 3-month program and in a year, it is possible to cover 120 candidates.
- These approved programs certified by NSDC are valid across India and any other institution and organization with requisite infrastructure/facilities can provide training to a greater number of candidates.
- Required mechanism will be build in stage 2 to assess the competencies of already employed technicians and provide short term training program, conduct test and issue certificate. Course materials suiting this category will be developed in next stage.
- It is assessed that there will be requirement of around 10,000 technicians employed by different soil investigation agencies and engineering colleges across India and necessary efforts will be put to cover this total requirement in the future with the help of other forward-looking organizations.
- DFII is thankful to Prof V S Raju and other committee members including Mr Bikshapati/Mr Radhakrishna from NAC for providing phenomenal support for this initiative at every stage of the implementation.
- It is required to post DFII staff Mr. Pranav at NAC for a period of 3 months to closely coordinate with NAC officials and CSDC/NSDC officials in accomplishment of above tasks and this is giving desired results due to pursued efforts of him.