India has entered that demographic dividend phase where, along with a sustained population growth, the share of its working-age population exceeds that of the very young and the very old.
Here are the worries:
One–The World Bank’s “Jobs for Resilience” report on South Asia states that the region recorded the highest outflow of migrants during 2010-23, accounting for 2 per cent of the working-age population.
Two–According to Citigroup Research, India needs to create about 1.2 crore jobs every year to absorb new entrants into the labour market. However, with a 7 per cent growth rate, the country is able to generate only around 80–90 lakh jobs a year. That’s a deficit of around 30–40 lakh jobs every passing year.
One factor that hampers labour market operations is the skill mismatch.
According to the Indian government’s 12th Plan document, merely 2 per cent of the workforce has any vocational training, whatsoever. And that’s not all. The India Skills Report 2015 stated that only one-third of all students applying for jobs had the appropriate skills to match their employers’ requirements.
The Periodic Labour Force Survey or PLFS data shows that the percentage of formally vocationally trained individuals stood at 3.7 per cent in 2022-23. Now compare this figure with 52 per cent in the case of US, 80 per cent in Japan, and 96 per cent in South Korea.
We do have miles and miles and miles to go…
SKILL BASED VERSUS CONVENTIONAL LEARNING
The difference between skill-based learning and traditional university education lies in their focus and approach….and duration in most cases.
Skill-based programs prioritize practical skills and real-world experience. Traditional universities give a broader, more theoretical kind of education.
Skill-based learning often involves peer collaboration and project-based assignments, fostering a more hands-on learning experience compared to traditional classroom lectures. Traditional universities do this too, but the difference lies in the proportion.
The other difference is that skill focused courses are shorter in duration…and in most cases don’t fetch the kind of high paying jobs that institutes following conventional methods of education do.
In the year 2017-18, 29 percent of vocational trainees undertook courses lasting over two years, which halved in a matter of six years. By the year 2023-24, this figure had plummeted to a mere 14.3 percent, according to data from MOSPI.
During the same period the share of trainees attending courses shorter than six months skyrocketed from 22 to 44 percent.
Every year, four to five thousand crore rupees are spent by the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship towards schemes focusing on skill development. The worry lies in the placement statistics.
The rate of placements at the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana or PMKVY 1.0–that was launched in 2015–stood at 18.4 percent. This figure marginally increased to 23.4 percent under PMKVY 2.0. By the time PMKVY 3.0 came, the figure had declining to 10.1 percent.
The scheme, however, continues to receive funding, with PMKVY 4.0–that commenced in 2024–being backed by a budget allocation of 12,000 crores rupees.
The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)–launched in 2016 with a budget of Rs. 10,000 crores–aimed to train 50 lakh apprentices by 2020. But by the year 2022, only 20 lakhs had been trained.
SOMETHING INNOVATIVE IN ODISHA
India is a complex case when it comes to tackling employment.
The effort has to be from both the corporates–big industrial houses like the TATAs, Reliance do have their own programmes and even institutes– and the government–both the central and the state…that is.
Here one example of something innovative on this front.
The Odisha government is adopting the use of AI in Skill Development and technical education using California, US based EON Reality’s Spatial Ai. In order to equip Odisha’s youth with industry-ready skills using AI and other tech-driven solutions, the World Skill Center is launching a Spatial Artificial Intelligence Center to be made operational by 2025. An MoU was signed on Friday, between World Skill Center & ITE Education Services (ITEES) Singapore to set up a Spatial Artificial Intelligence (SAI) Center.
The World Skill Center, which operates in a hub and spoke model encompassing the government ITIs and Polytechnics across Odisha presently offers 7 advance courses under its ‘School of Engineering’ and ‘School of Services’. WSC prepares the youth of Odisha under the framework of ‘Finishing School’ by providing practical training along with necessary life skills preparing them to work at various industry platforms at national and international level.
EON Reality has been pitching its software and hardware to other state governments as well…and this is just one example…
The Periodic Labour Force Survey or PLFS data shows that the percentage of formally vocationally trained individuals stood at 3.7 per cent in 2022-23. Now compare this figure with 52 per cent in the case of US, 80 per cent in Japan, and 96 per cent in South Korea.
We do have miles and miles and miles to go… Business Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
