The Indian government has set a target to skill 500 million people by 2022. Diptiman Dewan finds out the steps under way to achieve the goal.

In India, approximately 12.8 million people join the job market every year. This number comprises people who are highly skilled, who form a miniscule part, and who are semiskilled or not skilled. The last category is the bulk of the population entering the workforce every year. The current skill capacity of the country is about five million—a deficit of more than seven million annually.

CHALLENGES

Dilip Chenoy, CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which was set up as part of the government’s national skill development mission, says, “Skilling 500 million people by 2022 is a challenge. The 34 training partners that we have approved of till now will put in a capacity of 11.2 million per year. We might even create excess capacity in the shortterm, which will even out in the forthcoming years.”
   A large number of companies engaged in skill education in the country are fully or partly funded by NSDC. For a project to be approved, says Chenoy, it must meet certain criteria.
   “The first requirement is scale. We evaluate if the promoter has experience in developing scale, if the model is scalable, and whether it is financially feasible. The second criterion is that 70% of the people that are trained should get employment – and if there is a mechanism in place in the proposal to ensure that. Third, the training should be industry relevant, and the model sustainable,” he says.
   Considering the fact that only about 20% of college graduates today are deemed employable, Santanu Paul, CEO, TalentSprint, feels that for a country that produces close to 30 lakh graduates every year, there is a major issue if 24 lakh are unemployable. “Consider the irony: by 2020, the number of college graduates is expected to rise between 75 lakh and one crore annually; in the same period, research shows that about one crore new jobs will be created in the IT/BFSI segment. Although it looks like a perfect demand-supply balance, 80% of the resource will be unemployable. Hence, the urgency for skill development and employability,” explains Paul.
   Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd, which runs NIIT Yuva Jyoti (NYJ), a joint venture between NIIT and NSDC, says that NYJ aims to provide industry and job-specific training to around 70 lakh Indians by 2022 across sectors like retail, IT/ITES, banking and financial services, education and training, media and entertainment, healthcare, telecom and hospitality.
   Though 500-million target is stiff, experts in the field believe that it is achievable. As Manish Sabharwal, CEO, TeamLease, points out, “Our demographic dividend will become a demographic debt if we do not achieve the targets of the National Skill Policy.”

BUSINESS MINDED

Some companies are also focusing on the growth of entrepreneurs. Muralidhar Rao, CEO, Future Learning, a Future Group company, says that they have factored entrepreneurs in the skill plan.
   Out of a target of 7 million people to be skilled, 5.6 million will be placed/employed, while 1.4 million will be selfemployed, who will in turn, generate more employment through their businesses. The company is looking at providing training in the unorganised sector like carpentry, masonry, besides the sectoral skill development.
   In accordance with the government’s National Policy on Skill Development, NSDC is setting up sector skill councils, to create a labour market information system and assess market demand and type of jobs available, ensure that people passing out of these institutes are industry-ready, among others. Seven sector skills councils have been approved to date while another 30 are in different phases of implementation.
   Overseas partnerships and collaborations are also an important step, which result in the exchange of learning. “Our first engagement was with the UK in the area of sector skills councils where experts from the UK worked with us to develop the Indian model of the councils. Agencies and experts from Germany, Australia, Canada, France and Japan, besides Switzerland, are also looking to work with us. We plan to join forces and take the initiative ahead towards fruition,” concludes Chenoy.

TOP 4

SKILL-DEFICIENT SECTORS

1 .UNORGANISED SECTOR (INCLUDING SECURITY GUARDS, HOUSE MAIDS, BEAUTICIANS, ETC) – 37 MILLION

2.AUTOMOBILES – 35 MILLION

3.CONSTRUCTION – 33 MILLION

4.TEXTILES – 24 MILLION, FOLLOWED BY HEALTHCARE AND RETAIL