Introduction

• Digital technologies are changing the shape of work before our eyes. They are enabling firms to automate and this will reduce employment in some old, typically low- and medium-skill sectors.
• But they also help firms to increase productivity, to innovate, and subsequently to create new products and sectors. Emerging markets like India stand to gain—but they need to have the right skills at the ready.

Demand for new skills

• The demand for certain skills is going up in today’s labour markets. These skills include complex problem-solving and analysis, and social skills such as teamwork and relationship management.
• Reasoning and self-efficacy are also increasingly important, particularly as they improve adaptability.
• In a survey of employers of engineers in India, socio-behavioural skills were ranked at or above technical qualifications and credentials in terms of their significance for the employability of recent graduates.

How to Build the above mentioned skills:

• The World Development Report 2019 argues, India needs to focus even more strongly on the quality of education it offers to its greatest asset—its citizens.
• Building these skills requires strong human capital foundations—and building these foundations is especially important in early childhood development.
• Most of these traits are learnt by infants up to the age of 5-6. If children miss out during this period in life, it is hard to catch up.
• These foundations can be established through effective early childhood development programmes and basic education.
• Investments in nutrition, health and stimulation in the first thousand days of life build stronger brains.
• India also needs to think about its current stock of adolescents and working adults. Every year, 12 million youth enter the labour market in India. By 2030, the country will have 123 million 25- to 29-year-old citizens.
• For these young people, many of whom did not graduate with a high-school diploma, adult learning programmes and forms of tertiary education are the only remaining path to adequate skills development.
• India’s tertiary education system needs three sets of reforms. First, it requires more flexibility between the general and technical tracks. Second, more focus on building the skills I discussed earlier. And third, ensuring that specific universities become effective innovation clusters.
• India also needs to overhaul its short-term skilling programmes. Adult learning is an important channel for readjusting skills to fit in the future of work, but it would benefit from a serious design rethink.

Conclusion:

• Investing in human capital now and over the long term is an investment with profound implications for people’s future prosperity and for national economic growth.