Skill Development a National Necessity for a Self-Reliant India: PM Modi on World Youth Skills Day on 15th July-2021.

(References: Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, thequint.com, and The Economic Times).

"We are celebrating the 75th year of our Independence today. Born in the 21st century, today's youth will carry the journey of India's progress to the 100th year of its Independence," he stated.

"This is why the skill development of the new generation of youth is a national necessity and will provide the base for a self-reliant (Atmanirbhar) India."-PM Modi

?Prime Minister Modi also recognized the importance of a skilled workforce in the country's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. "This is the second time we're celebrating World Youth Skills Day amid the pandemic. The challenges of the global pandemic have increased the importance of World Youth Skills Day by manifold," he said.

"If education gives us the knowledge of what we have to do, skill teaches us how it will be done in actuality," the prime minister said.

Modi also spoke about the need to accelerate the Skill India Mission introduced by the government. "The country's Skill India Mission is a movement to fall into step with the need for skill development," he remarked.

He further observed that more than 1.5 crore youths had received training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

The mission to skill, re-skill and upskill our youth should continue undeterred, he added.

?Skill Development in India (An overview: Efforts, Investment v/s Outcome & Issues)

As per The Economic Times (5th Feb-2021), statement tabled by skills development minister Mahendra Nath Pandey in Rajya Sabha, 36.04 lakh candidates were trained under short term training (STT) component. Out of this, 18.95 lakh candidates have been placed (2.77 lakh – self-employed, 15.83 lakh – wage employed and 0.35 apprenticeship). Till Jan-2021

As per the article published in skillreporter.com on March.20, 2021, “According to KPMG recent report, top 100 companies collectively Rs. 35,077 crores towards CSR, between 2014-15 to Sept 2019-20.”

Apart from this, 328 companies contributed Rs 1638 crores towards skill development in different CSR Projects (As per a report by Nasscom Foundation).

No doubt, these all efforts made some satisfactory results i.e 50 % placement and employments to the enrolled candidates.

But this is not the concern. The concern is the result and outcome of all these efforts and investment is only 50 %. And what is about the rest 50 % of the candidates or youths.

As per the 6th?and latest Annual Report (2019-20) of Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, there exist several challenges in the skilling and entrepreneurship landscape in the country, a few of the many are enumerated below:

?i.???????????????????Public perception that views skilling as the last option meant for those who have not been able to progress/have opted out of the formal academic system.

?ii.?????????????????Skill development programmes of the Central Government are spread across more than 20 Ministries/Departments without any robust coordination and monitoring mechanism to ensure convergence.

?iii.????????????????Multiplicity in assessment and certification systems that leads to inconsistent outcomes and causes confusion among the employers.

?iv.??????????????Paucity of trainers, inability to attract practitioners from industry as faculty.

?v.????????????????Mismatch between demand and supply at the sectoral and spatial levels.

?vi.??????????????Limited mobility between skill and higher education programmes and vocational education.

vii.????????????Very low coverage of apprenticeship progremmes.

?viii.??????????Narrow and often obsolete skill curricula.

?ix.???????????????Declining labour force participation rate of women.

?x.?????????????????Pre-dominant non-farm, unorganized sector employment with low productivity but no premium for skilling.

?xi.???????????????Non- inclusion of entrepreneurship in formal education system.

?xii.?????????????Lack of mentorship and adequate access to finance for startups.

?xiii.???????????Inadequate impetus to innovation driven entrepreneurship

Now there is great need to understand the issues and to resolve these to get better results. In my opinion, Govt. and CSR agencies must be concerned about this outcome as India being a developing country and facing high impact of Covid-19 outbreak as compare to others.

And after Covid-19 outbreak, there is a change in the industry. Hence skilling organizations need to find ways to be updated with the changing need of the employers.

We are not in the stage of wasting our 50 % of the resources. And we must go for solutions not only disbursement the funds.

Thanks............

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