Articles

Skill Development Landscape in India 

Skills and knowledge are the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. Countries with higher and better levels of skills adjust more effectively to the challenges and opportunities of world of work.

India is one of the few countries in the world, where the working population is not in expected proportion with those who are dependent on them.  As per the World Bank, this will continue for at least three decades till 2040. The working population has increasingly been recognized as a potential source of significant strength for the national economy, provided we are able to equip and continuously upgrade the skills of our working population. 

In commensuration of this need, the Government of India has adopted skill development as a national priority area over the next 10 years. The Eleventh Five Year Plan has given a detailed road-map for skill development in India, and favoured with the formation of Skill Development Missions, both at the State and National levels.

The National Skill Development Mission consists of following three institutions:

·        Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development-under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Prime Minister, for policy direction and review of spectrum of skill development efforts in country.

·        National Skill Development Coordination Board-under the chairmanship of Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission to enumerate strategies and implementing the decisions of PM’s council.

·        National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a non-profit company under the Companies Act, 1956.

Major challenge of skill development initiatives is also to address the needs of huge population by providing skills in order to make them employable and help them secure “decent work.‟

Skill development for persons working in the unorganized sector is a key strategy in that direction. This will also inculcate dignity of labour and create greater awareness towards environmental, safety and health concerns.

National Council for Skill Development of India has undertaken a defined approach in order to address the issues involved in skill development and decided to implement the six-point strategy to reach the goal.

The Vision – National Skill Council:

(a) Massive Ambition: Our aspirations must exceed our current resources. Our vision should create 500 million skilled people by 2022.

(b) High Inclusivity: We must design the skill system for inclusivity and to deal with the divides of gender, rural / urban, organized / unorganized employment, and traditional / contemporary work place.

(c) Dynamic and Self-healing : The system must be designed so that supply (trained candidates) adjusts dynamically to changes in demand.

Strategies adopted by Council:

(a) Folding the future in: If we start from our current position, we are likely to extrapolate. Folding the future in allows us to innovate.

(b) Skills must be made Fungible: The rigid boundaries between categories of Education e.g. diplomas and degrees has created a structure of rigid “caste systems” within education. This must be transformed into a more open / flexible system that permits competent individuals to accumulate their knowledge and skills, and convert them through Testing and Certification into higher diplomas and degrees.

(c) Skills must be made Bankable: We must make the process of skill acquisition bankable, especially for the poor. This will force a demand driven approach.

(d) Co-created Solutions: The States and Districts within States are in various stages of development. We have to accept a very asymmetric India as a starting point. We have to work with States, civil society and community leaders. Public-private partnerships are only one part of the broader concept of co-creation.

 (e) Game-changing Delivery / Innovation: To give an example, the Planning Commission proposal conceives setting up 50,000 Skill Development Centers over the plan period. If we need to game change delivery, an alternative model could be to make available very public institution above the high school level, numbering over two lakhs in the country, after class hours for skill development by the Private Sector. Necessary regulations could be brought in by the local management authority of the particular educational institution. It would immediately make available the stock of public investment to combine with private sector capacity thereby helping the private sector to generate skills at lower costs, as it will not have to invest in buildings for skill training.

(f) Multi-lingual Instruction; English as a Vocational Skill: English is a vocational skill. It substantially improves labour mobility and improves employment outcomes since English is now like Windows, an operating system for business. Accelerated English learning classes must be included in Vocational training curriculums and attempts must be made to incentivize English instruction.

Approach to deliverables:

Diversity of skills: There is a need to identify, catalog and project the range and depth of skills e.g. traditional, industrial-era and post-industrial era skills to understand and present the vast array of skills that individuals can choose from.

Talent pool: The ultimate measure is the “500 Million” skilled people. Skill inventory along with its various levels and grades will be created.

Employment outcomes: Skill training must ensure a job for those who seek it. The placement ratio will be monitored and placed in the public domain by agencies involved in skill training.

The entire mission has been proposed to be implemented by various stakeholders in India. It includes big employers, industries, trade unions, civil society organisations. BVG India Ltd is one of the major stakeholders in the country which has taken a role in imparting the skill development trainings and ultimately to provide the helping hand in the economic growth.

Certain sections in society have been concentrated to whom skill development training should be given. These are as under:

Equity and access to

·        Women

·        Minorities

·        People living in remote rural areas, hilly areas,

·        Disadvantaged groups i.e. backward classes

·        Person with disabilities

·        School drop-outs

·        Economically challenged – BPL people

  

Service sector growth in India

Indian Economy is in a great transition. It was an agrarian economy then it moved towards relying on manufacturing strength & now it has turned to the service sector. Now, service sector is the biggest sector of Indian economy which dominates the contribution to GDP. It has been seen that, growth in service sector was kicked off in late 1980’s and got accelerated in 1990’s.  Since then, it has become a leading contributor to economic growth of India. The prime movers of the growth in services are facility, hospitality, electrification, medical, communication, banking and other business services.

Service industry is that part of the economy which creates service delivery rather than tangible objects. Economist have divided all economic activities into two broad categories i.e. goods & services. Industries engaged in to goods production and provisions are agriculture, mining, manufacturing and construction.  Each of them create some or other kind of tangible objects. Service industries include everything like banking, facilities, engineering, communications, wholesale & retail trade etc.

The key service segments creating larger employment opportunities are facility, hospitality, security, logistics & travel & tourism services. This trend shows the high level of potential of service enterprises to absorb workers who are not highly skilled and majorly lies in unorganised sector, and hence need appropriate policy support for their development.

Skill Development for Unorganized Sector:

Approximately 93 per cent of the country’s workforce is in the unorganized sector. The sector cuts across all economic activities and includes rural and urban areas. It contributes to about 60 per cent of the country’s GDP.

Separate institutional mechanism is being explored which will interalia plan, implement and monitor the skill development efforts for the unorganised sector.

The mode of informal apprenticeship and learning will be recognized and accommodated in the NVQF to help in horizontal and vertical mobility.

Target Groups: The target groups in the unorganized sector include own-account workers, workers and apprentices in micro enterprises; unpaid family workers; casual labourers; home-based workers; peripatetic workers and migrant labourers; out of school youth and adults in need of skills; farmers and artisans in rural areas, among others. In order to encourage participation in skill development, entry barriers such as educational qualification, transportation, loss of wages, problem of language, etc. will be suitably addressed.

Training Providers: Various avenues / institutions including schools and public/ private training institutions/civil society organizations/NGOs etc. will be encouraged to conduct skill development programmes for the unorganised sector.

Human Resource Requirement projected by CII:

CII has conducted study in select sectors of economy and has derived with following sectors where skilled human resources are required.

Sr. No	Sector	Demand in (Mn)
	Auto	2-2.5
	Construction	15
	Retail	4-5
	Healthcare	4-4.5
	Banking and Financial services	4.5-5
	Creative industry	0.5-0.8
	Logistics	Drivers 51 Mn
	Total	81-83.8 Mn

CII has further projected Incremental Human Resource Requirement till 2022 as below.

Sectors	Incremental Human Resources Requirement
Mines and Minerals	1,754,881
Construction	55,199,568
Engineering	1,813,790
Banking and Insurance	3,947,139
Drugs and Pharma	1,383,721
Biotech	1,209,489
Healthcare	20,684,530
Textiles	86,545,390
IT and ITeS	14,806,299
Tourism	12,478,386
Agro and Food Processing	169,782
Paper	57,976
Chemicals and Fertilizers	1,391,948
Total	201,442,899

Hence total requirement of skilled workforce by 2022 will be about 300 Mn.

(Source: National Skill Development Policy of Government of India)

SKILL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES UNDER VARIOUS MINISTRIES/ DEPARTMENTS

These programs are available on following website.

http://labour.nic.in/upload/uploadfiles/files/Policies/NationalSkillDevelopmentPolicyMar09.pdf (Hyperlink could be given to this point) - pg no. 35.

In order to reach these numbers, BVG has taken a step ahead to impart the trainings in skill development through various innovative ways. A Case study of BVG India Ltd has been given below to show the best model implementation at agency level. 

Financing Skill Development:

To fulfil the mandate envisaged in this policy apart from adequate central outlay, the Planning Commission will also provide a specific budgetary provision for skill development in the State plans. In addition, private sector investment in skill development will be encouraged through innovative methods.

A National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) has been established with Central Government commitment of Rs. 1,000 crore. Rs. 15,000 crore is envisaged to be generated from other Governments, public sector entities, private sector, bilateral and multilateral sources.

- Vivek Sinare