India is a young country with a steady increase in the younger population. The consequences of which are a large pool of people of employable age with a much younger average age. This increase in the number of young population coincides with the decline in young population across the world. It can easily be argued that the chance for India to take lead as a global hub of investment and a global economy driver and leader is truly here and like a ripe fruit just waiting to be eaten. India’s quest to become a superpower can get a huge boost from this large population of young people seeking employment as they are sure to push the Indian and the global economy and drive the International markets. The untapped potential of the Indian youth can create wonders for the Indian economy and the standing of India in the international community with regard to availability of skilled labor and make it a preferred destination for corporations and companies to set up factories and industries.
Future is now
The future of our nation is in the hands of today’s youth as industries, corporations and companies around the world are looking for more skilled and technically literate workers, a demographic which has been on the decline for quite a long time now. Countries all over the world are dealing with an aging population and a rapidly aging workforce. This has inadvertently pushed the native corporations to look for cheap and skilled labor elsewhere in the world and India stands to gain the most from this situation. With the swelling number of unemployed youth, it is imperative that opportunities be presented to this big chunk of country’s population to earn a living and push the nation’s economy forward. The window of opportunity is here for the India youth and without proper skills required by the industries, it is becoming increasingly difficult and embarrassing for India to fill the void in the international market for skilled workers. The current situation is favorable to the Indian youth and opportunities have to be actively sought out by the youth. This huge population of unemployed semi-skilled/unskilled workers is India’s biggest strength in striving to become the biggest economy in the world.
National Employment Enhancement Mission
Govt. of India with the help of AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) has launched the National Employment Enhancement Mission (NEEM Scheme) to offer national level job training scheme to enhance and train the workforce to create skilled workers who can be instantly employed by industries. Under the NEEM Training scheme, the young unemployed youth are given something like an apprenticeship at industries where they learn on the job acquiring the required skills by directly working there. The scheme prioritizes underprivileged youth and women and must be within the age limits of 16-40 years. The number of unemployed youth is at a truly alarming figure and the rate of job creation is not enough to meet the demand of young people looking for a livelihood opportunity. The underprivileged and women suffer the most when it comes to the hiring of workers as these groups tend to be unskilled and thus not employable in the short term by the industries. The NEEM scheme helps these people to attain the required training and knowledge to compete for these jobs and drive their lives forward. The intention of the government behind the NEEM scheme was to create millions of skilled personnel every year to meet the industry demand even now lies unfulfilled. These millions of students who complete their training each year are just a fraction of the people who need such training and industries who provide such pieces of training.
The motivation behind such a scheme lies at the aim of the government to add a significant number of skilled workers to counter the issue of shortage of skilled workers in the industry. The huge amount of unemployed youth has always been a huge problem and this scheme helps in providing these people a chance at employment free of cost. The NEEM training is a wonderful opportunity for the underprivileged to secure a job and gain an on the job training which can then be utilized by them for getting a job anywhere else in the industry. The training provides a comprehensive training which is overlooked and tracked and recorded by a NEEM agent who is responsible for the registration of youth under this scheme and then providing them with opportunities to work with the industries and develop their skills.
The NEEM facilitator or NEEM agent is responsible for placing students in the registered industries so that they can receive training and the NEEM facilitator is the one responsible for the NEEM trainees. Some guidelines issued by the government with regard to NEEM are:
- NEEM training shall be of at least 3 months and at most 36 months.
- Training must comply with NSQF standards.
- The NEEM contract does not guarantee employment, it only guarantees industrial training.
- Stipend paid during NEEM training will not be subject to any deduction as is with the regular form of employment.
- To register under NEEM physical fitness must be met as specified by the NEEM facilitator.
Industrial Application
Industries registered under NEEM scheme have a great pool of readily available skilled workers to hire from and this saves a lot of time and effort for the industries. Since these workers have most probably trained at the industry itself, they are familiar with the industry and the processes and don’t need a time period to settle in and can start working right away. Industries just need to provide industrial training to students recommended by the NEEM facilitator, and they are only responsible for providing training. The industries are not bound to offer employment, just training. Since the trainees come through NEEM facilitators the industries face no legal liability as the contract is between the facilitator and the trainees and no direct contract is between the industries and the trainees. It is only after the conclusion of the training do the industries decide upon whether to offer the trainees a permanent position in the industry.
The NEEM scheme allows industries to foster their own workers through training and assess the trainees during the training period itself to decide who to hire based on their performance in the training program. The scheme helps industries to hire more skilled and efficient workers for their work process and thus boost productivity without having to heavily invest in employee training courses. The NEEM trainees provide a great way for the industries to tap into the vast number of available workers who can be then trained according to industry requirements and then trained accordingly. NEEM allows industries to instantly hire and create a workforce to compete in global markets as they can choose the best-performing trainees instead of hiring whosoever applies and then needs to be taught the work and paid during the training itself. It is not necessary to pay a NEEM trainee and is up to the discretion of the industry whether to pay a stipend and how much to pay.
The central government’s commitment to bring the unemployed youth into the mainstream and add them to the economy is a great step to make India ready to meet the challenges of the global markets and industries and make the country prosper at the same time.
The industries gain a great benefit through this scheme as without bearing any burden of liability they get to train and acquire a skilled workforce tailor-made to suit their needs.
