65% of youth below the age of 30, translate to almost 700 Million in India, which is massive by any standards. They all need skills for employment. 60% of India’s workforce is self-employed, many of who remain very poor. Nearly 30% are casual workers. Only about 10% are regular employees, of which two-fifths are employed by the public sector. More than 90% of the labour force is employed in the “unorganized sector”, i.e. sectors which do not offer the social safety and other profit of employment that are available in the “organized sector.” This is the critical area for skills and the captive market that must be expanded for an enhanced GDP growth.
The metrics of skills follows two distinct groups. Those who are in college, about 20 to a hundred, and others who never see a college or for that matter even a school. A student who completes a degree or a diploma eventually finds some employment, even if termed, under-employment, which of course is not as bad as no employment. Employment skills or lack of it, depends on the workplace and is also the responsibility of the workplace. Can State or the education system be blamed for this? Can they take over this responsibility? University Skills and Workplace skills should be seen and acknowledged as distinct. Finishing schools can only do so much to the communication and interpersonal skills and are useful only if subject skills are ingrained by the University system. It certainly is a matter of concern if this were to be the contrary.
The skill centres focussing on the first group makes a better business sense for their placement is easier. Does it promote the National cause is a debatable issue? Was the placement due to the skills imparted or was actually due to the fact that they had a diploma or a degree is an interesting question. Reskilling at the workplace is a serious issue, but again is in the domain of the workplace. This brings us to the second larger group and the skills that they need.
The department of employment in Australia carries out research to identify skill shortages in the Australian labour market and projects skill shortages at the state, territory and/or national level. An Indian data base on similar lines is hard to come by. There are skills that are easy to impart, easy to measure and easy to certify. A revenue model built around these skills may get off the ground but will it sustain? A holistic approach to skills imparted and their employment potential must be assessed. The job roles defined by NSDC across sectors, may not necessarily lead to meaningful employment because of their micro disaggregation. A judicious combination of the job roles may be a better idea. Several traditional skills have an unexplored job market and consequent earning potential that has not been researched and hence shunned as revenue models. These need to be reinvented.
Most economies run on creativity, innovation and collaboration. Skilled jobs are more and more centred on solving unstructured problems and effectively analysing information. In addition, technology is increasingly substituting for manual labour and being infused into most aspects of life and work. Many countries including ours, have witnessed a steady decline in jobs that involve routine manual and cognitive skills, while experiencing a corresponding increase in jobs that require non-routine analytical and interpersonal skills.
More than ten thousand ITI’s have failed to deliver, as the trade based skills they impart are terminal in nature and hence reskilling and upskilling become mandatory for better placements. The pathways they provide into formal education is a double edged sword and can cut either way. Industry metamorphosing into an automated mode has put additional pressure on the training centres which have not kept pace with the industry market requirements.
Expanding available job markets, creating new job markets to absorb this large number must be an important principle on which the Government must work. Aadhar and large scale digitisation will move markets increasingly to the formal fold which must be welcomed. However, an informal market that is more than 90% could derail the effort.
Creation of new cities to ease pressure on the existing ones, will boost the infrastructural initiatives leading to new job markets. “Make in India”, indigenisation of defence equipment through start-up ventures will add to the job markets. There is much to learn and worth emulating from the Australian model where a close synergy exists between TAFE NSW and their National Employment Division.
New projects like bidding for CW Games or Olympics is preceded with a detailed planning of the infrastructural requirements like stadia, roads, new housing complexes and support systems. Further planning helps in new skills required, employment potential for the locals to be estimated, capacity of existing community colleges to be evaluated and new skills centres approved in the towns and villages covered. This pre-empts any excess trained workers left unemployed apart from the gains of creating new cities.
The current skills paradigm cantered around NSDC could go the ITI way if several of the concerns are not addressed leading to the argument that skills must be institutionalised in the education system. Further it could easily become a super regulator for skills without the requisite wherewithal to implement, a malice afflicting many of our current education regulators. Having said that, the current model suffers from a serious disconnect with education.
The skills implemented at various levels under the current framework are for varying hours of duration at each certification level across sectors and certified by the SSC’s, leading to different credits at similar certification levels across different sectors. Accumulation of such credits for the award of a degree or diploma by a university is not feasible since the number of credits would be different for each sector for the same degree or diploma.
The skills paradigm must include education, albeit different for both the groups of skill seekers and must also lead to the award of a degree or a diploma if they so choose going from one certification level to the other, learning at their own pace and be awarded when sufficient credits are accumulated. Alternatively, they would also have a predominantly skills channel available with supportive education. The current administrative and operative structure is not designed to handle this.
A National Skills University (NSU), as a Central University, anchored in the Skills Ministry, with regional centres all over the Country preferably in each of the States or even in all the districts is a way forward. The NSU must affiliate all skill centres throughout the Country through provisions in its Act and must set standards for curriculum, create curriculum with SSC’s, develop teaching pedagogies, learning methodologies, create evaluation systems with NSDC and also conduct research in skills both traditional and emerging.
Skills only, or skills and education through various certification levels can easily be conducted under the provisions of the university and award of a degree or a diploma would be legally tenable for those who wish to progress through higher certification levels. Underlying assumption is that the higher certification levels are higher order skills in the same sector. This prevents disaggregation of skills, their delivery and meets National goals and would truly aid in India becoming the “Skills Capitol” of the World. The NSU can create an enabling and facilitating regulatory environment under the “Make in India” blue print.
A corpus with funding from the State Governments, the Centre and CSR initiatives of the industry, creation of bonds, for possible soft loans, scholarships to fund the needy could be the proverbial icing on the cake to see the skills mission take off, currently stuck somewhere and not progressing the way it should.