Shaping Cooperative Training In India

Giving Shape to Cooperative Training in India

Professor Paramjit Sharma [email protected]

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Giving Shape to Cooperative Training in India ‘Cooperative training is not merely a prerequisite but it is a

permanent condition of Cooperative activities’ said Vaikunthbhai

Mehta, one of the most respected cooperators in our country. The visionary, as he was called, must have assessed the utility of training for the development of cooperative movement in India. But despite its size coupled with its contribution to rural development, it has not gained the respect expected for a system, which claims to be one of the largest in Asia. Cooperative training, initiated in India with the recommendation of Saraiya Committee on Cooperative Planning in 1945, is imparted by over two hundred training institutions in India. All put together, may be annually organising around four thousand training programmes of different duration and training around a lakh of personnel out of over 13.8 million employed by cooperative in India. In a way leaving a wide gap between people employed and trained in the cooperative sector. Besides training inadequately, it has also not been entirely possible for the training structure to achieve the objectives for which it was conceived. No doubt, it may not be justifiable to compare training with a production function, where output can be conveniently measured at regular intervals. It may be assumed as an investment, where payback period invariably depends upon the capacity and need of the users and ability of the organizers. In fact, it is difficult for the training institutions to provide a training ‘blue print’ which perfectly fits into the diverse training needs arising from field level situations. But it may be worth trying to visualise training which is realistic, practical, participative and ongoing. Training, unlike education, does not always have set curriculum. The inputs tend to change with the level of expectations. If the inputs are not changed, modified or adjusted according to felt needs the output of such training may spell disaster. Such approach shows high amount of divergence between the training imparted and training requirements at field level. As a result, cooperative training has been, invariably, charged with labels like ‘too theoretical’, ‘far away from field level situations’, ‘teaching not training’, ‘knowledge enhancement rather than skill oriented’, etc. All said may not be true, but if at all we wish to make training effective, it may be desirable to give a cutting edge to the structure by putting teeth into the system otherwise its condition can be compared with a toothless person who can only swallow but can’t chew to eat. *by Paramjit Sharma, Professor, VAMNICOM, Pune 2

Except few cooperative training institutions, others depend upon some sort of grants, subsidies or contributions from external agencies. Financially dependent institutes often become complacent as the budgeted amount tends to come to them irrespective of their contribution to the movement. Swedish Cooperative Centre, despite getting its finance from well developed cooperatives in Sweden, including K.F., slashed its training activities once the grants from financing agencies stopped. In future, technical support including training may no more be funded by the government. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a system for the provision of technical support services by some specialised NGO’s, or by the movement itself so that the training institutions need not justify their achievements through projecting excellent statistical figures without mentioning the direct impact of training on the cooperative development. Cooperative training system has employed trainers in a large number, who are expected to facilitate fulfilling the condition which Vaikunthbhai expected from cooperative training. The experience shows, while these trainers are equipped with reasonable qualifications but their ability to train has remained questionable. If the quality of the trainers is a suspect and not in conformity with the requirements of the system, the outcome of training provided by them may necessarily serve the interest of the movement. They need to not only excel in the area of their specialisation but also continuously make themselves conversant with the field level realities. A trainer is expected to be equipped with techniques like curriculum development, assessing training needs, preparing training materials, have knowledge of field level realities, using multimedia and other participative techniques and so on. If one out of these arsenals in trainers is missing, it looses the sharpness, focus and the purpose essential for training in-service adults. The success of training and development strategies to a large extent depends upon the knowledge, the skill, the commitment and the dedication of the trainers. Unfortunately, in cooperative training too, as in other activities, the emphasis is more on other things than on competence of trainers, whether hired or owned. Adult by nature, find it difficult to concentrate in a class room for more than 15-20 minutes at a stretch. The switch off can be minimised through their active participation in the learning process. Training through multimedia, and other simulation techniques can enhance their learning in a much shorter period then compelling them to sit through the lectures in which their interest depends upon the skill of the trainers. During a course of cooperatives in Africa, the instructor began a session by reading from the text book. One of the students raised a hand to intervene,”Sir”, he said, 3

“We know how to read. What we want to know is what to do and how to do it?" Cooperatives in the right earnest, should devise curricula, which is problem oriented and manages to put across the cooperative message to the participants. The effective use of training materials designed to bring interaction between theoretical and practical knowledge of the participants may be the right choice together with use of desired technology. Training based on such technology, in certain cases, can be imparted without the movement of learners from their working places. It may not only create enthusiasm amongst the participants but also saves their time and help training institutions to even earn revenue through production and marketing of such training materials. In the past, due to their over enthusiasm in adopting the latest technology many institutions have made huge investments without assessing in advance the cost, usage, speed of change and obsolescence in technology, adaptability to local conditions etc. and later repenting when change in environment and technology required huge cost for its replacements. Unless otherwise necessary, it may be advisable to hire the custom based technology and consultants, rather than owning these inputs, the replacement cost of which, for training institutions, could be quite discouraging. Cooperative training structure was originally planned for agricultural credit. But with the influx of the time cooperatives spread their wings into sugar, spinning, housing, consumers, labour, dairy, fishing, etc. and the demand for training also took a shift from the traditional requirements. The training programme’s contents too took a change from unitary to multisector and training demand for management functions also increased. With the result the composition of the participants in the training programmes changed from one sector to multi sectors. Unfortunately, majority of the trainers who were drawn from credit sector to handle a group belonging to only credit sector found themselves at sea training heterogeneous group. Moreover, invariably, they were required to handle functional areas without having adequate background and experience in different cooperative sectors. Paradoxically, the trainers and the trainees were through into a process without knowing ‘what is expected from a programme’. Training, where the participants come with a purpose ‘to visit new places for excursion’ ‘enjoy decent hospitality’ and what not, can be labeled not better than being called ‘Paid Holidays’.On being enquired, the secret of his success in organising training programmes, one of the trainer boisterously informed that while organising a programme he concentrate on providing ‘good bag’, 4

‘good food’ and arranging ‘good field visit’. While it may not be true with all the programmes or all type of participants, but such practices may do more harm to the organisations than any ‘good’ to the cooperative movement. Therefore, cooperative organisations should seriously prepare job description for each post of their employees to assess the performance gaps so that training helps in improving productivity rather than sponsoring excursions at the institutional cost. This process may take time but the result may prove beneficial to the movement in the long run. ICFAI, Hyderabad in early 90’s, over a period of two years, had spent over a crore rupees to establish linkages with the faculty and management of business schools through organising seminars, workshops, consultations etc. Once the relations were established, ICFAI managed to market their programme CFA by combining it with their MBA’s. Thus marketing their product, which not only saved lot of cost but facilitated them to create unending demand of their product amongst students? Cooperative training institutes market their programmes by sending brochures to cooperatives, cooperative departments and certain parastatel organisations, believing the existence of demand in the market. In a strategy of hit and miss, many programmes collapsed like house of cards due to unscientific methods followed in assessing demand both at the level of users as well as training institutions. Many alternatives were devised to attract participants, such as taking the people out to resorts, health clubs, organising events in star hotels etc. These alternatives, no doubt, did attract the participants but the quality and effectiveness of such events may or not serve the desired interest of the movement. Deployment of surplus funds(kerela), non productive assets(banks), business development plan(pacs), income tex(suger&banks),structural reforms, formulation of cooperative policy, changes in cooperative legislations, debate on cooperative companies etc. were the markets created by cooperatives for training institutions. It was for the training structure to grab the opportunities or miss them. Users and trainers should, therefore, collectively find out what is desired otherwise the market may be captured by some other players in the market. Cooperatives involve huge manpower in shape of members, leaders, employees, etc. While cooperative training institutes have been structured to train or educate particular type of manpower, no scientific method has been applied in assessing training needs of the movement and deputing them for training. With the result the physical and other facilities created for cooperative education or training are not optimally utilised. While preparing a report on ‘Cooperative Training Facilities’ in a particular state, where five training institutes, controlled by different organisations were 5

complaining to the ‘cooperative department’ to impose restrictions to prevent entry into each other’s areas of operation. After study, it was found that they trained only one tenth of the manpower with the cooperatives in the state. Thus, underutilizing the facilities to a great extent. Therefore, some HRD or coordination committee should periodically conduct a survey of manpower available, their training requirements and channeling the participants by having an informatics centre in a state or a region, without interfering into their routine affairs, so as to ensure optimal utilization of physical and other training facilities created for cooperatives and assist them in drawing comprehensive HRD policies which may be the basis for training and education programmes . Estimating cost involved in imparting training could be a good topic of research. The components of cost, interalia, may include annual budget of training institutions, annual fee or fund paid by the users, travelling cost of the participants including the cost of their absence and opportunity cost of return on investments in creating physical assets etc. It may be equally interesting to include cost of attending training programmes abroad. No doubt calculating such cost may be a gigantic task and equally baffling would be to find out the benefits or impact of such training programmes to the movement. But it may be important to study how much training cost to the movement. Therefore, it may be important to make the training cost effective so that large number of people can take benefit of the facilities. Some alternatives like, one day seminars with longer working hours, inhouse training, video conferencing, programmed training, computer based self learning, hiring trainers and technology than owning, are some of the measures which can be applied to make the training cost effective. It is commonly believed that a trainer should have ‘one leg’ in the class and ‘another’ in the field to keep himself update with the field realities. Besides their class room work they should be encouraged to take up projects, case studies, consultancies, etc. even at the cost of incurring extra on such work. The absence of field experience in the trainers, do not inspire a training programme and their involvement in such activities may help them to gain first hand experience in socio, economic and political realities. The participants can also take advantage of their research work by applying it in their working conditions. While sharing their experiences, it was mentioned by one of the officer, who had undergone training at one of the premier training institution in India that after joining at his job, ‘he found the job realities totally different than what he was equipped to handle during training’.

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Cooperatives can’t do every thing on this earth. They have performed magnificently in certain areas and failed in some, as it happens with institutions formed to achieve socio-economic objectives. While it may be advisable to them to refrain from entering into every field, but they should not hesitate to play an effective balancing agent in an area which concerns the community at large. A.F.Laidlaw in his report, ‘Preparing Cooperatives for 21st Century’ has observed, ‘in age of terrifying corporate power, the cooperative way is the only means by which great masses of people can exercise and enjoy corporate rights’. Therefore, it may be right time for cooperatives to diversify their efforts in the area of tourism, rural electrification, healthcare, insurance, protection of environment as has been experienced in few countries. In North Dakota, New Generation Cooperatives have achieved tremendous success since 1995.One of the reason of success was attributed to their formation after conducting feasibility report through experts. With the diversification of cooperatives, training institutions should take lead in providing them adequate expertise to not only compete but also ability to succeed. Therefore, it may be imperative for the training system to learn and improve according to field realities, diversify into activities opened for cooperatives due to changed economic scenario, make optimum utilization of physical and human assets, participate in cooperative policy formulation as referred in the draft national policy document, develop training inputs as per requirements of the system and how the skills in cooperative management and entrepreneurship be developed as a result of structural reforms and stronger competition, giving emphasis on value based management and practices, helping the manpower including leaders in their attitudinal changes, if workable or possible affiliate to universities or form their own as Wisconsin or California Universities are having affiliated centers for cooperatives because cooperative system that are affiliated to educational institutions and programmes of continuing education may have advantage over those that don’t, and imparting training which is realistic, practical, participative and ongoing so that it not only train but enhance the competence of huge manpower with cooperatives. All India Rural Credit Survey Committee in their report has observed, ”on few things the success of the cooperative movement depends so much as on finding the right men and giving them the right training”.While the job of finding ‘right men’ can be best left on the users, giving ‘right training’ is the job of training institutions.It may therefore, be important for the management of these training institutions to remember, if cooperatives continues to fail, they may also be blamed for failing to perform their job with responsibility. 7