Sustainable economic growth and inclusive human development are critical for India to achieve developed nation status by 2047, and skill development will be crucial in actualising this dream. Skilling has been a critical focus area since this government took office in 2014. It established the ministry of skill development in 2014 and launched the National Skill Development Mission in 2015. In the last eight years, the skill ecosystem has grown significantly — government-sponsored short-term skilling programmes, creation of skilling infrastructure, industry linkages in the form of skill councils, skill qualifications, a unified skill regulator and significant enhancement in apprentice engagement.
Yet, along the way, flaws have crept into the system, such as over-dependence on training providers with non-permanent infrastructure, narrow qualifications with inadequate on-the-job training, and overlooking mobility pathways and credits for vocational graduates. However, the reset provided by the National Education Policy 2020 and the convergence-in approach with a single administrative head have helped us correct the flaws and re-energise the system. This reset includes releasing the draft national credit framework, which will help vocational graduates progress towards higher learning. On qualifications and content, 150 trades offered at Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) have been rationalised to align with the new credit framework.
On the operational front, the dependence on training providers with non-permanent vocational infrastructure has been reduced. In parallel, the decentralised skill planning model at the district level through district skill committees and aggregation at the state level is being finetuned to create a robust skill demand-mapping system and align it with national priorities, including PM Gati Shakti and Production Linked Incentive Scheme through a skill-trigger mechanism.
The government is also doing a labour market analysis of all countries where India’s skilled personnel can find employment, assigning institutions as Skill India International Centres across the country and re-energising government-to-government initiatives for facilitating skilled worker mobility.
A Skill India Digital platform is being readied for launch in the first quarter of 2023. This portal shall map all skilling aspects, including counselling, training lifecycle, assessment and certification. It shall act as a convergence mechanism of skilling across ministries and departments, and house information about career guidance, up-skilling/reskilling opportunities, employment opportunities, credit, and social security for skilled candidates.
The skilling strategy must cater to two segments: First, target the traditional dropouts and not in the education, employment and training segment and, second, the higher skilling and upskilling needs of candidates in education or in the formal workforce to raise their productivity. Skilling policy is, therefore, evolving to address these two opportunities.
The traditional segment shall be catered to through government-sponsored programmes. However, the new age segment requires an approach of greater convergence with higher education and the ed-tech space. Collaboration and integration for higher skilling shall also encompass cross utilisation of resources, separate faculty norms for teaching skilling courses and recognition of skilling-related courses being offered offline or online (ed-tech). The government alone cannot cater to the skill needs of the entire economic landscape. Therefore, there is a need for industry wide acceptance of upskilling and reskilling as tools for raising productivity with suitable government facilitation.
The overall spending on skilling must be seen in terms of the huge opportunity size. In addition, several other variables directly affect skilling, including the overall macroeconomic environment, working conditions and migration patterns. While insistence on skill certification (linked to National Skill Qualification Framework) in recruitment norms may be desirable, the changing nature of work itself which rests on the skilling-reskilling-upskilling continuum, would provide skilling the significance it deserves in a nation like ours.
Atul Kumar Tiwari is secretary, ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship (MSDE), and Sidharth Sonawat is lead consultant, MSDE
The views expressed are personal
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