In India, youth unemployment and skills gaps are threatening the growth of economies, the stability of societies and the wellbeing and prospects of individuals. Despite improvements in average educational attainment, the youth unemployment situation is common to all nations in the world. According to India Skill report 2019, employability in the country is at 47%. When compared to the percentage of formally skilled work force globally, India scores the least at 2% against South Korea (96%), Japan (80%), Germany (75%), UK (68%) and China (40%).

Body:

On the one hand, India has a large number of educated unemployed, and on the other, industry is desperately short of skilled professionals. One of the biggest challenges HR managers face, today, is finding candidates with the right skill sets. Being qualified is one thing, being skilled for the job quite another.

Reasons for the disconnect between Higher education and industry requirement:

• The targets allocated are very high and without regard to any sectoral requirement. Everybody was chasing numbers without providing employment to the youth or meeting sectoral industry needs.
• The focus of PMKVY has been largely on the short-term skill courses, resulting in low placements. There has been an over emphasis on this scheme and hence it is seen as the answer to all skill-related issues.
• The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pointed out flaws in the design and operations of the NSDC and National Skill Development Fund which has resulted in falling short of skill development goals. Majority of them also could not achieve the placement targets for the trained persons.
• The Sharada Prasad Committee, held the NSDC responsible for poor implementation of the Standard Training Assessment and Reward (STAR) programme. It highlighted that only 8.5 per cent of the persons trained were able to get employment. That is what has been claimed by NSDC.
• The Report also cites “serious conflict of interests” in the functioning of the National Skill Development Corporation. NSDC has not been able to discharge its responsibilities for setting up sector skill councils (SSCs) owing to lots of instances of serious conflict of interest and unethical practices.
• The skilling courses are not in line with the Industrial Revolution 4.0 which is round the corner.
• Against 12.8 million new entrants to the country’s workforce every year, the capacity of skill development in India is only around 3.1 million.
• Lack of awareness about vocational training programmes, absence of adaptability with changing market needs, and lack of vertical mobility are key challenges facing the skill development landscape in India.
• Vocational education is regarded as non-academic training related to a specific trade route or occupation.

The private sector can help in the following ways:

• Industry-ready talent:
  • Job training institutes can play a big role in picking up deserving candidates with industry tie-ups.
  • Smooth coordination between industry and placement institutes can help in tapping of the right potential and creating industry-ready talent.
  • Accreditations and certifications from the industry also add value to new entrants to the job market.
• Perfect matching:
  • Training and placement institutes can match organisations’ and candidates’ requirement.
  • Perfect matching is key to good placement.
  • The idea is to get the right candidate for the right job.
• Internship opportunities:
  • Internships provide students hands-on work opportunity and help them learn to apply their theoretical knowledge to real-life situations.
  • These are stepping stones to the job market.
  • Many companies give high-performing interns job offers, others give internship certificates which could help one land a good job.
  • Placement institutes that have tie-ups with MNCs and industry bodies can facilitate internships and jobs.
• Soft skills:
  • Good communication and soft skills are part of the job requirement.
  • Placement training institutes can help students master soft skills to increase their market value.
• Mock interviews:
  • Companies no longer just look for academic excellence; they lay great stress on a candidate’s suitability for the job.
  • Here, mock interviews and assessment tests can be great tools for preparing them for the day of reckoning.
  • These provide appropriate grooming and build confidence for campus placement interview.
• Future skills
  • We are living in a fast-paced, technological world.
  • If India wants to move up in the comity of nations, we need to improve our educational infrastructure, and technology is the most important component for that improvement.
  • We need to integrate technology at the grass-roots level and introduce futuristic skills for students to learn.
  • The aim should be to empower schools and support the budding generation of change-makers and innovators to visualise, design and create.
• Job fairs:
  • Job fairs aid in recruitment and networking.
  • The attempt should be to connect prospective employees with multiple employers.
  • Recruitment fairs give students industry exposure and the interactions held provide them real-time experience about the hiring process and methodologies.

Other measures:

• Sharada Prasad committee recommendations:
  • Create a sound and well defined National Vocational Education and Training System of the country which should ensure the following::-
    • At the secondary school level, the children should be sensitized about the dignity of labour, world of work and career options but vocational education and training should start only after 10 years of schooling which is the case in most of the developed world.
    • Every child should be given an option to go for higher vocational education and training.
  • Create National Labour Market Information System, National Occupational Standards, National Competency Standards, National Training Standards, National Accreditation Standards, National Assessment Standards and National Certification Standards and align them to the International Standards.
  • Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship should become the owner of all National Vocational Education and Training Standards and get them developed though intense industry involvement.
  • Set up state of the art Vocational Education and Training Colleges to impart vocational education and training with a clear objective of meeting the skills needs of the industry and providing employment to youth.
  • In-plant apprenticeship training should be made an integral part of the Vocational Education and Training for all trainees.
  • The industry must come together to contribute towards a National Skill Development Fund.
  • All diploma colleges and ITIs should be renamed as VETCs and their capacities should be enhanced to about 500 trainees per annum.
  • There should be one Skill Development Centre (SDC) in a cluster of about 10-12 villages, which would provide skills to the youth so that they can access employment opportunities in the local economy.
  • The state of Gujarat has already set up a good number of such SDCs called Kaushal Vardhan Kendras which are doing excellent work.
  • The two existing Acts i.e. Apprentices Act, 1961 and The Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959 should be repealed and a new Vocational Education and Training Act (VETA) should be enacted.

Conclusion:

India is one of the youngest nations. Its median age is 27.3. As India aims to have one of the strongest economic growth stories in the 21st century, it becomes vital for it ensure it growing workforce is capable to handle the incoming disruptions and find suitable jobs. Skill development holds the key to India’s future as a globally competitive economy and the demographic dividend it hopes to reap.

Case Study: India could learn a lesson from Germany, which imparts skills in just 340 occupation groups. Vocational education must be imparted in broadly defined occupational skills, so that if job descriptions change over a youth’s career, she is able to adapt to changing technologies and changing job roles.