The Indian economy is growing at a fast pace of 7.6 percent per annum and this figure is making our nation the fastest economy across the globe. Its demographic profile is allowing an acceleration of economic growth with the labour market comprising of the 64.8 percent of the total population.
India is empowered with a huge young workforce which allows an astounding opportunity in the labour market. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India was formed after assessing the growing demand for the skilled workforce. Shri Narendra Modi, has felt the importance of skill development as his government focused on the changes looming large in the labour market. Its focus was on associating with the other ministries for meeting the growing demand of skilled labour in the country.
The present scenario of the skill development:
The area of skill development in the country pays attention to establishment as well as designing of common and consistent standards of collaborating with the efforts of the various organisation who aims at develop the skills and expertise of their labor. When the state and central government come together to function as a whole in order to facilitate skill development. A number of parties have been involved in the skill development of the nation along with the National Skill Development Corporation. Their function is to help the various training institutes across the country to map the skill sets, design the pertinent curriculum and research the relevant market. With these, the gap between the demand and supply of skills can be bridged effortlessly.
In our country, skill development takes place through a two way course which are inclusive of formal as well as informal methodologies. The governmental and private sectors are collaborating to provide formal training to the labours of India. The government is also looking up to the PPP model or Public and Private Partnership. Other than these, ITIs are constantly working to improve the scene of vocational training. The laws pertaining to labour also works towards the training of the students who are opting for technical education through the process of Apprenticeship. Though the public and private sector are both taking part in developing skills of the youth of the country, it is the governmental organisations which dominate this sector. A disorganised structure of the private sector can be attributed to this and therefore, they work on developing skills through experiential learning.
The model of skill development in India:
India is armed with a huge population which is both a boon and bane: A boon as it supplies with the necessary workforce and a bane since it is highly heterogeneous in nature. Our country has a huge and highly complex model of skill development and it can be classed under two heads: skill based vocational training and skill education.
Challenges that make skill development difficult:
India is facing a number of challenges concerning the current infrastructure as well as educational policy framework. Some of the most significant areas of challenges that deserve mention include:
Restrictions in capability- The infrastructural facility is not able to fulfill the huge demands of labour as there is an inadequacy of the trained and expert labour. This phenomenon reflects the insufficiency and inappropriateness of the infrastructure in big cities as well as small towns and villages. The faculty has to be more energetic, motivated and trained for taking up more responsibilities. The training facilities available also has to cater to the needs of the aspirants.
Mobilization- One of the most challenging task in skill development lies in enrolling the students for vocational education. The thoughts and views of people centering skill development is still quite orthodox. Students also show a preference for managerial roles since the positions of technical trades do not offer much salary or recognition. There are also students who do not have access to various training programs initiated by the public and private organisations. It is quite unfortunate that in a developing nation like India, the skill acquisition is labelled as a blue collar affair which doesn’t involve any honour. It is therefore important to mobilise such schemes and programs so that people from all strata of the society can access it.
Scalability- In order to make anything successful, it is crucial that the stakeholders should offer support too. Skill development of the youth has recently gained momentum and this area has never gained prominence in the past. The obstacles associated with lack of infrastructure and slow pace of processing loans demoralize the young but promising entrepreneurs from the core. The situation is even worse in the rural areas as they are absolutely unaware of the credit facilities and such other schemes presented by different financial bodies.
Lack of holistic training- It is a matter of concern that though the various training centres across the country is engaged in boosting the technical skills of their students, no heed is paid in brushing up the behavioral skills. Areas like communication, domain expertise, integrity, interpersonal and reasoning skills often go untouched in the skill development programs. This is definitely something that deserves attention of the concerned authorities since it results in the growth of unemployed but skilled workforce in the country.
Mismatch of skills- A lot of issues have cropped up in the skill development sector as there is a mismatch of the skills imparted by the institutions and those required by the concerning industry. It means that though the young students are acquiring skills by investing their time, money and energy, yet they are remaining unemployed. It is therefore crucial to involve the professionals of the respective industries in designing the curriculum of skill development.
The development of the nation is heavily dependent on the skill development of its workforce. Though India is progressing at a praiseworthy rate, it is time or all the stakeholders, agencies and the job aspirants to join hands in making skill development in India a grand success. The demographic dividend of the country can only be utilized when it is rich in knowledge, skills and expertise in operating in various fields as per the needs and demands of the work expected of them.
