SEMI India, the Indian arm of the global industry organization, SEMI, recently launched a solar PV work force development initiative, with a three day short-term course on "Off-grid Solar PV Components and Systems" at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi. 'Skill Development' was identified as a priority action area by SEMI India's PV Advisory Committee, comprising key executives from India's solar PV industry. This shortterm course will be the first in a series of courses that SEMI will organize in 2012 in technical collaboration with the National Centre for Photovoltaic Research and Education, IIT Bombay (NCPRE) and offer in different centers across the country.

SEMI India's workforce development initiative aims to address the needs of SEMI member companies and of the wider solar PV industry in India by offering high quality training programmes delivered by leading academic and industry experts and expanding awareness about state of the art solar/PV technologies, applications and practices among engineers and technical personnel.

Globally, the solar and renewable energy industries are seen as major engines of job growth. For those eyeing the energy sector for jobs, solar companies could just be their next big destination. For every 10 jobs created in solar factories, there will be 15 jobs created downstream, in installation, financing, project development, and distribution. So, to fulfill our target of 20,000 mw of installed solar power capacity under the National Solar Mission (NSM), the Indian solar sector would need an estimated 3 lakh people by 2022 across all domains, profiles and levels. If we consider the potential employment generation by state solar policies, the cumulative figure would be much higher, a release by SEMI India noted.

Globally around 800,000 people are employed in the solar industry, with 300,000 people in Europe alone. Currently, the US solar industry employs about 150,000 people, and approximately 6,000 people are employed in the Indian solar industry. In India, the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) has estimated that there will be close to 100,000 jobs in PV by 2020. Industry sources suggest that if all job linkages are considered, PV jobs in India could far exceed this figure.