Challenges of Skill Development in India

Introduction:

To reap the demographic dividend which is expected to last for next 25 years, India needs to equip its workforce with employable skills and knowledge so that they can contribute substantively to the economic growth of the country. Today 62% of population are between 15-59; 50% of population less than 25 years; by 2020 the average age will be 29 as compared to USA, UK, Japan; in next 20 years the labour force is about to decline by 4% in industrialized world while in India it will increase by 32%. This provides us with immense opportunity to shape the country's future.

Skills and knowledge are driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. Countries with higher levels and better standards of skills adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities in domestic and international job markets. The country, however, has a big challenge ahead as it is estimated that only 4.69% of the total workforce in India has undergone formal skill training as compared to 68% in UK, 75% in Germany, 52% in USA, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea. Apart from meeting its own demand, India has the potential to provide skilled workforce to fill the expected shortfall in the ageing developed world.

Challenges:

1) Skill development should not be viewed in isolation. Skills are germane to, but not always sufficient for securing adequate economic dividends. Skills need to be an integral part of employment and economic growth strategies to spur employability and productivity. Coordination with other national macroeconomic paradigms and growth strategies is therefore critical.

• It is estimated that during the five year period from 2004-05 to 2009-10, only 2.7 million net additional jobs were created in the country. For a skills strategy to be successful it should be complemented by commensurate creation of jobs in the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors which will be a key outcome of overall economic growth including entrepreneurship cutting across all sectors.
• The Indian capacity for harnessing entrepreneurship has not been fully realized. The MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector contributes to only 17% of GDP as 3 compared to 85% in Taiwan, 60% in China and 50% in Singapore . Given the realities of rapidly changing economic landscape in the country, entrepreneurship opportunities have emerged as an important source of meeting the aspirations of the youth. An all inclusive approach to strengthen the entrepreneurship development scenario in the country which is competent, quality conscious, market savvy, innovative and has globally competitive entrepreneurs, needs to be carefully mentored and encouraged.

2) One of the major challenges in the country today is public perception on skilling, which is viewed as the last option meant for those who have not been able to progress/opted out of the formal academic system. A number of factors are responsible for this state of affairs:-

• Social and traditional view that sees status as being inversely proportional to the degree to which one works with one’s hands. This can also be attributed to primeval and archaic ethos which compartmentalized the skilling landscape for several hundred years. This unfortunate legacy has no moral, ethical and constitutional sanction in free India. Nonetheless, this gets at times manifested in norms, attitudes and societal behavior.
• The proclivity of large sections of industry especially in the micro, small and medium sectors to treat skilled and unskilled persons at par, thereby depriving skilling of any meaningful economic incentive.

3) Most of the vocational training programmes are not aligned to the requirements of the industry. As a result of the above, a piquant situation exists in the country wherein unemployment continues to coexist with lack of requisite number of skilled people at functional level to build roads and bridges, lay pipelines, work in factories, engage in offshore drilling, build ships etc.

4) Skill development programmes of the Central Government over the years have been spread across more than 20 Ministries/Departments without any robust coordination and monitoring mechanism to ensure convergence. This legacy has resulted in multiplicity of norms, procedures, curricula, certifications etc. Further, many of these skill development initiatives often remain unaligned to demand, thus defeating its entire objective.

• Different states in India face varied challenges in relation to demographics and skill development. There needs to be a shared sense of urgency to address the challenges of the changing demography

5) The various grant based, free training programmes available today, though necessary, have their own limitations especially on quality and employability. Students undergoing training for free attach little value to training whereas training providers focus on increasing their numbers rather than quality of training. While financial support is required for certain industry sectors or segments of unorganised sector, it is critical to exercise utmost discretion and link employability with all such efforts.

• There is multiplicity in assessment and certification systems existing in the country which leads to inconsistent outcomes and causes confusion to the employers.
•  Further, despite concrete timelines mentioned in the NSQF notification, the process of alignment of courses/qualifications with NSQF has been rather tardy.
• The availability of good quality trainers is a major area of concern. There is a lack of focus on development of trainer training programmes and career progression pathways for trainers have also not been defined.

6) Efforts in the skill landscape have been largely devoid of industry/employer linkages until the last few years. This has created gaps in terms of sectoral need and availability, competency required by employer and those possessed by a trainee etc. Placement of trainees has consequently suffered. While industry has started defining their skills requirements, and training methodology, commitments in terms of increased remuneration to skilled workers also need to be made by them. This is necessary to create economic incentive for skilling, and for industry to realize the productivity gains linked with skilled manpower.

7) One of the biggest challenges of skill development in our country is that 93% of the workforce is in informal/unorganised sector. Consequently it is difficult to map existing skills in the unorganised sector and gauge the skilling requirement in the sector. On the other hand, the rate of job growth in informal sector is estimated to be twice that in formal sector.

8) Women constitute almost half of the demographic dividend. The key challenge here is to increase women participation in the country’s labour force, which is directly linked to economic growth of the country. Census data has revealed that there has been a continuing fall in labour force participation rate of women from 33.3% to 26.5% in rural areas, and from 17.8% to 15.5% in 6 urban areas between 2004 and 2011 . Mainstreaming gender roles by skilling women in nontraditional roles and increasing gender sensitivity in the workplace will have a catalytic effect on productivity and be a smart economic decision.

Conclusion:

All these challenges can be overcome by coordinated efforts of government ministries and private companies. India has to address the problem of skill development in a holistic manner to achieve its dream of global power. 

By: Jasmeet Singh