No big solve for unemployment yet

India’s skills development arena is in a terrible shape. And that would be putting things mildly. 

Even after the thousands of crores that have been spent over the last one-and-a-half decades in improving the skill sets of India’s youth, employability of young people continues to pose a huge challenge to the world’s most populous nation in terms of its ability to ensure that those in the employable age can secure decent, well-paying jobs or gain access to gainful self-employment opportunities.

The Economic Survey for the financial year 2023-24, released on July 22, said that “about one in two are not yet readily employable, straight out of college.” In the past, too, numerous industry leaders have voiced their concerns about the low employability of our youth.

Seen in this backdrop, the measures on skill development announced in the Union Budget for FY25 – while being reflective of the federal government’s continued commitment to the skills cause – may not move the needle much on the employability parameter as they do not address in detail the fundamental issues that lie at the heart of the employability problem plaguing India.

The most that upgrading 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and an enhancement in the amount that can be availed as a skill loan can do is provide a pathway for increasing the number of Indian youths with formal skill certifications. Nothing more.

Quality dilemma

Why do I say this?

Somehow in all the hullabaloo surrounding the establishment of more skill training centres, little attention has been paid towards monitoring the quality of training being imparted at India’s numerous vocational training facilities which have mushroomed almost everywhere in recent years. There has also been inadequate focus on quickening the pace of upskilling trainers in the vocational education domain so that these people are better equipped to provide youths with the relevant skills for gaining employment.

If the trainers themselves are not upgrading their skills on a regular basis, what hope can we possibly have of increased employability of our youths who are undergoing training under those whose own knowledge of their craft are not keeping pace with the times?

If you think that fixing this is all that is required to improve youth employability in India, hold on. There are more issues that require to be addressed.

In many cases, the need to meet an announced target has led to training mandates under various government skill training schemes being provided to all kinds of private skill training providers. Many of these training providers also lack the requisite industry connect. This, in turn, has compromised the quality of training received by the trainees and done little to improve their employability quotient even with a formal skills certificate to boast of.

The solution for this? Authorities taking a close, hard look at the performance of private training providers associated with different government schemes and only giving training mandates to such organizations whose work is found to be meeting key deliverables. 

Undertaking a closer scrutiny of the performance of the government-backed and industry-led Sector Skill Councils (SSCs) – which are supposed to bring in the industry voice to the skilling process – is also something that should figure on the agenda of the authorities to raise youth employability. Any instances of vocational educational curriculum for a particular domain developed with active involvement of the SSC in that arena being debunked by companies active in this sector as “outdated” should be examined in detail.

The SSCs that have been consistently underperforming should be hauled up for not being able to live up to their billing. The leadership at such organizations may also be changed, if necessary, if it is felt that such a step could contribute to the betterment of their work going forward.

The SSCs are funded by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), which, in turn, is a public private partnership. A clutch of industry bodies, which include the likes of CII, Ficci, Nasscom etc., have shareholding in the NSDC.

Way forward

A favourable demography is considered one of India’s biggest strengths as it aspires to become a developed country by 2047. But leveraging this demographic dividend would require us to come up with a new playbook for the skills arena so that low youth employability does not come in the way of India’s ambitious growth and development agenda.

Given the government’s stated commitment to the Sabka Vikas (development for all) mantra, one would hope, though, that the process of revamping the skills training arena is embarked on soon. With those entrusted with this responsibility keeping in mind the saying that “we cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future”.

(Sumali Moitra is a current affairs commentator. Views expressed are personal. X: @sumalimoitra.)