The Strategic Significance of reskilling and up-skilling the Indian Workforce
- Professional Skills
As lives and businesses around the world have started adapting to the new realities amidst the continuous disruption post the pandemic, the aspirations and vision for growth have been refocused with an acknowledgment to balance such effort by blending them with the endeavors for developing resilience and flexibility.
India, with its vision to proceed towards the five trillion-dollar economy is gearing up for a promising future, with estimates suggesting that more than 60% of the population of the nation comprises youngsters making it one of the leading countries with a youth majority workforce. As per data released in 2021, India has a humongous strength of around 468 million people as a part of its workforce. It is expected to increase at a high rate since almost 28 million young individuals are expected to join the workforce every year.
The period between 2020 to 2040 is being viewed as a vista of opportunities for India to catapult its growth. It can leverage the demographic dividend, in terms of the advantage that India can wield, where the number of individuals being dependent on those working, would be at the best projection of 46 dependents over 54 working individuals expected by 2040.
Several efforts have been put in by the government, non-profits, academic institutes, and policymakers in the past and a lot of encouraging endeavors are currently contributing and have been instrumental and effective to a great extent. Initiatives like the National Skill Development Mission or the ‘Skill India’ Mission, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), setting up Kaushal Kendras, PM Yuva Yojana, the Aatmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM), among various others, have been significant developments in recent years.
However, skill development, upskilling and re-skilling initiatives need to be further strengthened, amplified, and even re-engineered, whenever required. The Manpower Talent Shortage Survey 2018 revealed that 56% of the companies surveyed in India were affected by skill shortages. While skill shortage has emerged as a global scale problem, it should be on the top of the list of priority strategic problems for India for the decade.
The Status Quo
As per the India Skills Report 2020, released by WheeBox, employability has grown from 45.97% to 46.2% with the age group of 22 - 25 years being the most employable demographic.
NEP 2020 has made a move to incorporate vocational training and awareness sessions from various sectors to be conducted in schools and educational institutions. If implemented as planned, this can prove to be a giant leap in creating awareness and motivation among young students regarding vocational training.
As per a LinkedIn study, released in January 2022, 82% of individuals in India's workforce are considering changing jobs this year. The world media is also reporting the post-pandemic trend of people switching roles and industries or even leaving their jobs for gigs or remote-work projects, being termed as the Great Resignation, pointing towards a major surge in reskilling demands.
The Road Ahead
India envisions to emerge as the skill capital of the world, based on three foundational pillars of Skill, Scale, and Speed. With gig and freelancing going strong, vocational skill training especially in digital skills can boost employability manifolds with a galore of job creation opportunities. In collaboration with NASSCOM, MEITY has initiated FutureSkills PRIME program for re-skilling/ up-skilling of IT professionals in ten emerging technologies like AI and AR/VR etc and professional skills like Communication and Collaboration. About 7 lakh candidates have signed up on the FutureSkills PRIME Portal, out of which, 1.2 lakh candidates have already completed their courses. The emerging entrepreneurship ecosystem in India is encouraging too, and if the rural skilling programs can be effectively executed, Rural Entrepreneurship can be a game-changer.
Bringing spotlight on the key aspects
While India converged its effort for skilling the potential workforce to achieve a strategic edge for leveraging the demographic dividend there is a need to focus on a few aspects.
The post pandemic reality
The Manpower Group Employment Outlook Survey 2021 suggests that talent shortages are at the highest levels in 15 years with 69% of companies reporting it globally and 43% of Indian employers expressing their concern over it. The report also highlights the rising importance and demand of soft skills like resilience, adaptability, and stress tolerance. India’s skilling strategy should accommodate considerable effort to cater to emerging skill needs and demands.
Enhancing quality of skill training
This can be done by creating a robust framework for auditing, grading, and assessing various training centers and training partners. Assessment services can also be extended for evaluation of the impact of non-profit and corporate CSR foundations.
Incentives for various sectors
Various Incentivesand tax benefits can be introduced for promoting and attracting apprenticeship and internship opportunities.
Power up with partnerships
Increasing collaborations with global training organizations and bodies can be initiated to achieve global standards and take advantage of the exchange of resources and talents, and foreign placements to truly expand the vision of competing as a world-class skilled workforce.
Rigorous skill development initiatives are not only vital for leveraging the demographic dividends but are also instrumental in strengthening a foundation for robust economic and social growth, narrowing the skill gap, and creating a valuable talent pool to enable India to emerge as intellectual power. Skilling endeavors can directly enhance proficiency and productivity. However, the key to unlocking the immense potential for leading the future talent scenario, lies with accurate planning, understanding the intricacies of skill demands, and ensuring vigorous and timely implementation. The success of Skill India can lead to the success of Aatmanirbhar Bharat in the true sense.
Written by Prof. Himanshu Rai, Director, IIM Indore