By the same year, the world is expected to face a shortage of 56.5 million skilled workers, however, unfortunately, India will have a surplus of 47 millions.
Is our youth ready to cater the International Industry demands and fill the shortage for global industries? A report suggests that 30% of India’s youth lack education or training. The statistics are an indication that we are facing crucial issues with skilling. Most of our youth, is quite far away from matching the global standards in terms of update skills for the required workforces.
In order to rapidly implement and scale up skill development efforts in India, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship launched the National Skill Development Mission (NMSD) in November 2014. Seemingly, it seeks to provide the institutional capacity to train a minimum 300 million people by the year 2022. It focuses on building capacity for skill development in unorganised sectors such as construction and provide pathways for upskilling workers in identified sectors and much more. But this not enough if we need to pace. The authorities merely focus on opportunities that provide partial employment to the rural youth which are not sustainable for income generation. Moreover, there is a serious mismatch between the skill sets that industries require and the skill sets youth are equipped with. These structural challenges result in demand and supply mismatch. Thus, it becomes difficult to find suitable employment, particularly in the early stages of their career when they lack adequate experience as well.
Solutions
Coupled with government policies, Skilling the youth and making them future ready can be achieved through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Initiatives. Corporates have the capacity and power to important role in accomplishing the Nation’s agenda of Skill Development. Through CSR Initiatives, corporates can engage with large communities and fulfill the demand for skilled labour. Apparently, education and skill development has been the preferred choice for many corporates for their CSR projects. Some of the reputed brands who have been working consistently for skill development in the youth like the Larsen and Toubro Limited CSR initiative for Skill Development training, HDFC Bank Limited, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company amongst others.
Working towards this direction, Fiinovation, a CSR Consulting firm is constantly working with various corporations, aimed at Skilling Initiatives for youth and women in specific. It partnered with a leading Oil and Energy industry which intends to develop a 6,000 MW capacity power project comprising of 4,000 MW coal based Power project which aimed to employee the locals after upscaling their knowledge and skills. Implementation of a Skill development training program through a leading Skill Development and Training Corporation in Mandvi, Gujarat, Fiinovation supported the organisation with an integrated need assessment program to identify the potential avenues for the community with the Power Plant. Through this initiative, the idea is to skill the youth adequately to be employed in the Power plant .
In another program, Fiinovation Company has partnered with a leading Skill Development and training center in Barmer, Rajasthan. The major objective of the institute is to build capacity among local youth to link them with employment through a job or enterprise in major cities of Rajasthan. The institute offers training courses in computer operations and banking. To cater the youth and women in the most interior rural areas, the institute also runs satellite centers in selected villages to offer training for self-employment such as masonry and mobile repairing among others.
Such continuous efforts by the corporates and other stakeholders can mark massive success. In order to skill the youth, not just the government but the private sectors must come forward in shaping skill development programs in India. Certification and providing market linkages should be standardised to gain trust among the employees. Further, to make the Youth self-sustained and ready for the future innovations skilling, upskilling and reskilling needs fast-paced efforts.
