FICCI-KPMG white paper stresses on the need to create large scale awareness among youths

According to the report, the growth in the domestic Industrial output has accentuated the crucial need for skilling India’s working age population.

The total projected increase in labour force during the Twelfth Plan period for was estimated to be 477.9 million in 2011 and is estimated to increase to 502.4 million by the end of 2017.

At an annual addition of 9.25 million per year approximately 37 million jobs are expected to be created from 2012-13 through 2016-17.

Manufacturing shall roughly contribute towards half of these additional jobs.

Significant proportion of the jobs in these sectors would require a sector and skill specific trained workforce.

“Although a certain shift is currently being witnessed these facts and figures are clearly indicative of the fact that India would need to revamp its Skill development strategies with a focus on industry and an attempt to balance labour force demand and supply,” said Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner and Head of Education Practice, KPMG in India

While a lot of initiatives have been taken, skill development in the country has been plagued by multiplicity of agencies and duplication of efforts. To address this problem Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2014 announced the creation of a first-ever separate Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to promote entrepreneurship and skill development.

The White Paper looks objectively at each of the related policies, enabling and implementing bodies and assesses their current performance and suggests structural and operational level efficacy interventions.

The white paper has given some valuable recommendations to promote skill development.

Another major recommendation is that an integrated effort from employers, training providers and government bodies like Panchayats is required to train the people at the migration source, i.e., cluster level or a specific geography could help mobilize people to take up training. This would help to tackle the challenges related to migrating unskilled workforce.

The white paper also suggests sectors like handlooms and handicrafts needs an ecosystem to sustain themselves.

With a projected 500 million trained work force, the nation is looking for a large number of trained workforce but creating a fine balance between quality and quantity would be vital to create a credible and sustainable reform.

A country teeming with burgeoning youth, a concrete skill development policy in terms of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship taking shape and increasing industry participation holds a promise of a skilled India which will not only cater to demands within but also globally.