India is one of the youngest nations in the world with more than 54% of the total population below 25 years of age. India’s workforce is the second largest in the world after China’s. However, India’s formally skilled workforce is approximately 4.6% - which is dismally low compared to China (24%), U.S.A (52%), Germany(75%) Japan (80%) or South Korea (96%).To leverage our demographic dividend more substantially and meaningfully, the Government launched the “Skill India” campaign along with “Make in India”.
Below, we look at the need for Skill Development in India and what are the steps taken by current government to increase the skillsets of people.
Need for Skill Development
Livelihood opportunities are affected by supply and demand side issues. On the supply side, India is failing to create enough job opportunities and on the demand side, professionals entering the job market are lacking in skill sets. This is resulting in a scenario of rising unemployment rates along with low employability.
Youth Skilling:
While keeping pace with employment generation is one issue, employability and productivity of those entering the labor market is another issue. As per the India Skills report 2015, only 37.22% of surveyed people were found employable - 34.26% among male and 37.88% among female. A survey showed that only 10.1% of the labor force had received vocational training, with only 25.6% among them receiving a formal vocational training.
Demand for Skilled Workforce:
A report had projected Incremental Human Resource Requirement till 2022 at 201
million, making the total requirement of skilled work force by 2022 at 300 million. A major share of these jobs was to be added in the manufacturing sector, with the National Manufacturing Policy (2011)targeting 100million new jobs in manufacturing by 2022. The National Skill Development Policy (2009) had set a target of skilling 500 million people by
Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship
A Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship was created under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in July, 2014 and was subsequently upgraded to full-fledged ministry in November 2014.The role of the Ministry involves coordinating and evolving skill development frameworks, mapping of existing skills and certification, industry-institute linkages among others.
Human Resource and Skill Requirement reports across 24 sectors were prepared which serve as a baseline for all skill development initiatives.
Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY):
This is a flagship outcome-based skill training scheme aimed at benefiting 24 lakh youth. A monetary reward is provided to trainees on assessment and certification. The steering Committee for PMKVY is responsible for providing directions for implementation.
“Vocational Training” falls under the Concurrent list, which means State Governments have a key role and responsibility in realizing the objective of “Skill India”. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship however, will have a crucial role in coordination between a range of stakeholders – including skill training providers, governments at all levels, and the end beneficiaries.
Conclusion:
For a country like India to be an export hub, it should have skilled manpower in the first place. China became the export hub of the world as its government has designed policies from years to support its manpower in getting employment.
With a mere 4.6% being skilled workforce in India, it is really an uphill task but not impossible to get more people into the skilled group. This lockdown has really helped us to know how much Indian states are dependent on migrant labor or work force (people from other states).
South Indian states are mostly dependent on the migrant labor. Most of the people have left to their home towns and now companies are feeling the pinch. Due to manpower shortage the companies are not operating to their full capacity.
Manufacturing sector is the worst affected out of all the sectors. Automobile, MSMEs, Power generation, Infrastructure companies are highly dependent on the skilled labor. It’s high time that states should at least now design a policy on their own to make their own people employable without depending on migrant workers.
It takes a lot of time to go to the percentage where Koreans are operating (96%- skilled work force) but with good policies coupled with determined implementation will make India an export hub of the globe.
The Make in India scheme was launched with huge expectations that India will be the export hub of the world, but due to weak basics like unskilled manpower, poor macroeconomic policies and many other things it is still in the initial stages.
This pause has made us rethink our economic strategies and I hope that more and more policies will be designed to make people employable by enhancing their skillsets. Once the ball gets rolling everything will fall in place and slowly India can become the export hub and in a way the manufacturing hub of the world
Source: https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/skill-india-why-there-is-a-gap-between-current-status-and-goals-explained/1520633/
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