Skill development: an Archimedean lever

India is among the few countries with a favourable structural growth story. It also has a huge demographic dividend. Attributing to both these factors, India can make significant headway if we find effective ways to harness this remarkable talent said Dr. N.S. Rajan Member, Group Executive Council, and Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Sons . Unfortunately, opportunity doesn’t serve everyone equally. As Thomas Gray poignantly observed: Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear: Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Skills can be an Archimedean lever to enable sustainable livelihood and unlock value for the future.

On the heels of the ‘Make in India’ campaign and with India increasingly being seen as the world’s fastest growing economy, interventions driven towards educating, skilling, employing and driving entrepreneurship are the need of the hour. There need to be focused efforts to:

• Develop an adequately skilled working-age population
• Provide employment opportunities of a certain quality
• Create a conducive working environment

In terms of employability, while a fair amount of work has already been done by the government in conjunction with other entities like the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a public private partnership organisation, to map the existing skill situation, the enormity of the need requires concerted and coordinated efforts by all stakeholders. One of the biggest concerns is that the quantum and the quality of skill development institutions has not kept pace with the labour force increase—especially of the unorganised sector, which comprises over 90 per cent of the overall labour force of 45 crore—and industry demands. This is apparent from the fact that only 2.5 per cent of the workforce has formal vocational training, a number that is woefully low in comparison to Germany (75 per cent), North America (70 per cent), Japan (80 per cent) and China (50 per cent). A few key aspects that need to perhaps be critically addressed are:

• Spread of awareness about the need for skilling, the onus of which probably lies on all stakeholders within the ecosystem
• Student mobilisation through counselling that understands the aspirations and aptitude of students, and addresses any mindset related issues that students or parents may have on vocational education
• Scaling up of the ecosystem, especially in terms of support, provided for capacity creation and upgradation of training infrastructure (specifically for training in the manufacturing sector that is capital intensive) through public private partnerships, for example, vocational training institutes that are sector specific, or targeted at backward and geographically fragile regions, or for young women, SCs, STs and minorities
• Engagement and commitment of industry
• Mechanisms to attract and develop trainers of a certain quality to impart training in marketable skills

The ‘proof of the pudding is in the eating’. To realise the full potential of skill development, there needs to be close alignment with employment generation. This requires efforts to boost up both the supply (in terms of marketable skills) as well as the demand (in terms of high quality jobs). In this regard, a few elements that will possibly require focus are:

• Industry relevance of skill development (curriculum review, strengthening of apprenticeship system, etc.)
• Sensitisation of employers (especially SMEs and unorganised sector) on the importance of occupational standards, job roles, qualification packs and on linkage of skilling with productivity
• Technology-enabled mechanisms to enable effective job-matching

It should also provide for development of entrepreneurs or self-employed professionals by extending support on a number of aspects related to institutional building including funding, market linkages, a platform to market products, and more.

The labour force in India is characterised by a low unemployment rate. However, there is a high incidence of informal employment, casual employment and lack of social protection. Hence, there is a compelling need to review and re-orient labour regulations for effective protection of all types of employees and setting minimum standards for work, safety and health. This will require a comprehensive review of labour regulations. It will also require establishment of mechanisms to simplify and incentivise compliance.

In today’s world with innumerable opportunities, we are also faced with a number of uncertainties. There is, however, one constant—the aspiration of individuals everywhere in the world to continuously upgrade their lives. What they really need is the right set of circumstances to prosper. Industry demand-driven skill-development interventions that effectively tap the capability of the young labour supply are indeed required to drive significant change and make a real impact in India’s progress.

Dr. N.S. Rajan Member, Group Executive Council, and Group Chief Human Resources Officer, Tata Sons 

The writer’s views are personal and do not represent those of the company

olmdesk@outlookindia.com