With the country’s construction sector facing a shortage of skilled manpower, the Federation of Contractors Association Nepal (FCAN) has taken the initiative for capacity building of the construction sector’s workforce.

FCAN on Friday joined hands with the government, the CEMECA Human Resource Academy, the Construction Industry Training Centre (CITC), National Business Initiative and the Employment Fund for capacity building of the workers.

According to FCAN president Yaksha Dhwoj Karki, it will facilitate the supply of skilled workers according to the needs of the contractors. “FCAN will link contractors with the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) and the CITC to promote the supply of skilled manpower in this sector,” said Karki. According to FCAN, there is an expected supply of only 300,000-400,000 skilled workers against the annual demand for 1.1 million workers in this sector.

Housing and realty entrepreneurs said that mainly big housing projects that need a large number of workers had been hit by a manpower shortage. Due to the shortage of skilled manpower at the local level, contractors have been compelled to hire manpower from India.

According to them, Kolkata and Orissa are the major sources of workers for Nepal’s housing developers. “We have been using labour contractors to hire such workers mainly from India,” said Amar Bahadur Shrestha, first vice president of FCAN.

These workers are generally used for finishing work—plumbing, painting, parqueting, furnishing and decoration. Around 20-30 percent of the total workers required in the housing sector are hired from India. “We are ever facing a shortage of such workers as many of them are going for foreign employment,” said Karki.

As of now, 85,000 people have applied to the National Skill Testing Board for skill certification, the council for providing certification to workers. Among them, only 51,000 have passed the skill test.

According to government records, of the annual production of 450,000 workers in the local market, a majority of them are unskilled who work in the construction sector.

Institutes like the CTEVT and the CITC have been helping in the capacity building of such workers in the country. However, they have been unable to meet the demand of the market. Shrestha said that the outcomes of these institutes should match the needs of the sector.

source: The Kathmandu Post(2011),"Capacity of construction workforce to be enhanced" The Kathmandu Post, 5 March 2011