The Central government recently rolled out a new integrated food security scheme, beginning 1 January 2023, under which free food grains would be provided to 81.35 crore beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act (NFSA). It is a time-bound relief, that needs a sustainable solution to provide skills to the poor to earn a decent livelihood. I wish the Union Budget 2023-24, which Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman would table in Parliament on February 1, focusses on imparting employable and sustainable skills to the most vulnerable 67 percent population of the country. It is they who majorly account for India’s vast unorganised sector labour force.
It is certainly a tough task but not something next to impossible. We should immediately announce skilling programmes and partnerships with the industry to promote continuous skilling avenues and employability for those who are school dropouts and working as an unskilled or semiskilled workforce to earn their livelihood. Virtual labs and skilling e-labs are good but our problem is monstrous where API-based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities won’t work beyond a limited point.
In the last Union Budget, Sitharaman announced that a Digital University would be established to provide access to students for world-class quality universal education with a personalised learning experience. This will be made available in different Indian languages and ICT formats. She had also said that to promote crucial critical thinking skills and give space for creativity, 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75 skilling e-labs for a simulated learning environment would be set up in 2022-23 to promote vocational education. I would not like to comment on the status of these announcements but will certainly vouch for the pressing need to skill the masses to empower the country.
None of us can afford to ignore the fact that more than 40 percent of all Indians– 15-24 years of age– are neither in education nor employment or training, far above South Asian (30 percent) and global (24 percent) averages. Firms reporting skill shortages are very high as compared to other countries, and they assess only about 46 percent of graduates as employable. A small number of Indians excel in top research, entrepreneurship, and management positions abroad. Students lack skills, and the ones they have are not in line with the skills needed by companies.
The government schemes with multiple certification systems further fragment industry initiatives. We need consolidation and scale to happen. The country needs more participation from private players and industry. The unorganised sector, which constitutes about 93 percent of the workforce, is not supported by any structural system of acquiring or upgrading skills. Training needs in this sector are highly diverse and multi-skill-oriented. Further, there is no certification system for a large chunk of workers, who do not have any formal education but have acquired proficiency on their own.
Another concern is the availability of information on skill development. A basic problem with the skill development system is that the numbers, quality and skill types of the system are non-responsive to the labour market. As a result, we have a demand-supply mismatch on several counts. The advent of Intelligent Automation and Robotics will change the skill development ecosystem but we have not yet paid any attention to such things. All the stakeholders need to come together to make the Indian workforce future ready. We still don’t have a structure in place to meet the growing challenges of Industry 4.0 technological advancements.
The skill gap study by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) during 2010-14 indicated that by 2022, nearly 109.7 million additional skilled manpower will be required across different sectors in India. Although the government’s interventions augur well for the cause of skills promotion, there is no getting away from the fact that a lot more work needs to be done for the skill gaps to be closed.
According to a recent report by Nasscom-Zinnov, India is projected to face a shortage of 14-19 lakh tech professionals by 2026. As compared to the current tech workforce in India, which stands at 47 lakh employees (2021), the country needs 52 lakh tech professionals, it stated. This translates to a 21.1 percent tech talent gap as a percentage of supply, which is the lowest globally amongst all the leading economies.
As there is a wide scope for young techies, gig workers should not be ignored. The Union Budget 2023-24 should emphasise on upskilling gig workers, most of whom are youngsters. Youth participation in the gig economy of India has seen an eight-fold increase between 2019 and 2022, according to a report by gig work platform Taskmo. A majority of the youth opting for gig job roles belong to Tier-I and Tier-II cities and they would greatly benefit from the upskilling initiatives.
As a promoter of skill development, I certainly pin hope on the upcoming budget to provide avenues for bridging the gap between skill and employment. While we are making earnest efforts to make employable skills more accessible, albeit with a public-private partnership model. I look forward to substantial budget allocation to provide employable skills to school dropouts on a priority basis.
In the budget, there is a need to revisit India International Skill Centres(IISC), an initiative by NSDC which did not materialise. Indeed, IISC is needed pan-India, equipped with the global ecosystem to match the international standards of skills required by global employers. Without matching the skill parameters, youths are being forced to do odd jobs for survival so it is high time for India to provide ‘Ready to Hire’ young workforce talent.
The writer is co-founder & MD, Orane International, training partner with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), Network Member, India International Skill Centres, an initiative of GoI. The views are personal.
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