CURRENT AFFAIRS

Description

Watch video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQkl9_sD1s

Introduction

India is at the cusp of demographic transition wherein 65 percent of the population is in the working-age 15- 59.

More than 54% of the total population is below 25 years of age.

This offers a unique opportunity to become the skill capital of the world to meet the skilled manpower requirements of aging economies by appropriate skilling in consonance with the standards accepted across countries.

However, India’s formally skilled workforce is approximately 2% - which is dismally low compared to China (47%), Japan (80%) or South Korea (96%).

What is Skill and Skill Development?

A skill is an ability to perform an activity in a competent manner. Skill development is the method of detecting skill gaps and improving these skills. 

Knowledge-based skills development denotes having a Knowledge of specific subjects, procedures, and information necessary to perform particular tasks. It is acquired through education, training, and on-the-job experience.

Need for Skill development

On the supply side, India is failing to create enough job opportunities; and on the demand side, professionals entering the job market is lacking in skill sets. This is resulting in a scenario of rising unemployment rates along with low employability. Hence:

·         Skill development is an important driver to address poverty reduction by improving employability, productivity and helping sustainable enterprise development and inclusive growth.

·         It facilitates a cycle of high productivity, increased employment opportunities, income growth and development.

·        It is important to understand that knowledge doesn’t guarantee skill, practice does. Theory knowledge can give an imaginative structure but only practical knowledge can give a real exposure. Hence skill training or vocational training is a must.

·         The Indian the economy needs to accelerate its transition to a technology-led, knowledge and innovation economy, if per capita incomes are to rise rather than stagnate at current levels. There is need for skilling, reskilling and upskilling of persons to participate in the global knowledge economy driven by emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and data analytics.

Skill Development Initiatives in India

For the Government of India Minister has announced the Skill India campaign on 15 July 2015 with an aim to train over 40 crore (400 million) people in India in different skills by 2022 for which GoI has launched a bunch of skill development initiatives aimed at skilling unemployed youth to make India the Skill Capital of the world. Some of the initiatives in this regard are:

· Ministry for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has been formed for the first time to focus on enhancing the employability of the youth through skill development.

· The National Skill Development Corporation India (NSDC) was setup as a Public-Private Partnership Company with the primary mandate of catalyzing the skills landscape in India.

· Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) aims to enable a large number of Indian youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood.

· Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) of the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India aims to train rural youth who are poor and provide them with jobs having regular monthly wages or above the minimum wages.

· The first Indian Institute of Skills is being established at Kanpur by the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in partnership with Institute of Technical Education, Singapore.

· National Apprentice Promotion Schemes and Drivers’ Training Institutes helps in apprenticeship training as it is an important tool for addressing skill mismatches.

· Sector Skill Councils have been set up as autonomous industry-led bodies by NSDC. They create Occupational Standards and Qualification bodies, develop competency framework, conduct Train the Trainer Programs, conduct skill gap studies and Assess and Certify trainees on the curriculum aligned to National Occupational Standards developed by them.

· SANKALP (Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion launched by MSDE): The main objectives of the project include strengthening institutional mechanisms at both national and state levels, building a pool of quality trainers and assessors, creating convergence among all skill training activities at the state level, establishing robust monitoring and evaluation system for skill training programs.

Challenges faced in skill development scenario in India

1.      Education system and Business need mismatch: The education system and syllabus haven't kept up with the fast-changing business needs, especially those that are interlinked to soft skills, advanced technology adoption, and even the flexibility to re-skill for emerging opportunities. Skilling needs to be an integral part of the education system. This has been best demonstrated by European countries where they focus on skilling right at the early learning days of a child, thus building transversal skills which sets the foundation for quality education. 

2.      Low job opportunities: The OECD Survey highlights the complex labor laws, limited quality jobs, and restrictive employment protection legislation in the India market. Each of these factors act as a deterrent to the successful employment of India's labor force.

3.      Skill vs. Job Requirement mismatch: The employment landscape is rapidly changing and new jobs are emerging with fast disruption in business models around the globe. Skills required today as well as job markets are markedly different from those 10 or even 5 years ago. Therefore, the need of the hour is to build a skilling system which would enable the workforce to adapt and match the new requirements, a system that responds well to business needs and also provides new opportunities for all.

4.      Low Women Participation rate: Labour force survey data suggests that of the country’s labour force of 395.2 million, only 91.6 million are women. Skilling initiatives – complemented by a wider push towards empowerment through gender sensitization, creation of economic opportunities and economic and social support – can be used to raise this number. 

5.    One-size-fits all challenge: India’s large geographical territory, difficult terrain and varying social economic conditions make the implementation of standardised, skill-based instruction a huge challenge. Further Different states having different demographic situations, hence different skilling needs and challenges. Further “Vocational Training” falls under the Concurrent list, which means State Governments have a key role and responsibility in realizing the objective of “Skill India”. Hence better coordination among centre and state is needed.

Steps needed/recommendations

In order to address the above mentioned gaps and to reap the benefit of demographic dividend resulting in increased productivity, employment and development of economy, the following measures are required to be taken care:

·         Connecting basic education to technical training, technical training to labour market entry and labour market entry to the workplace and continuous learning in the domain

·         Ensuring continuous communication between Industries and Training providers so that training meets the needs and aspirations of workers and enterprises.

·         Thrust for entrepreneurship development amount rural youths.

·         Vocational skills need to be aligned very closely with the education system and needs to begin in the early years of Education.

·       A national credit the mechanism can be put in place which will recognize the skilling education undergone by the students parallel to their formal education. Not only would this help in boosting confidence in receiving vocational skill but also increase the social signaling for the training.

·        Consolidation and recognition of all schemes and programs under one regulator as per NSQF is important as this will lead to the formalization of skilling, thus scaling up the numbers;  and ease of governance.

·         The corporate houses could participate actively in industry-led skill development programmes and by channelizing funds allocated for corporate social responsibility into funding and supporting the skills development initiatives by the government.

·         India must strategically increase technology penetration among its population A majority of "young India" continues to boom beyond the big cities, and that’s where technology must go. 

To conclude, the rapid economic changes and future job scenario offers both a challenge and opportunity to youth to enhance their employability for a better life. The enhanced employability would ensure job security and career progression thereby empowering youth to contribute to economic growth and be benefited from the growth as well. Various initiatives and programs together with best practices in the skill development space can be scaled up and replicated across states to achieve the desired objective of making youth the change agent.