Ecosystem approach to skills building

In perspective

Skill-building is a hot topic around the country. The “Skill India” campaign was launched by the Union government in 2015 and an ambitious goal to train over 40 crore people in different skills by 2022 has been set.

While the goal is well-intentioned, this needs the active participation of multiple stakeholders. There are many of them besides the government. What is needed is the creation of an enabling environment.

This new ecosystem needs a suitable policy environment, infrastructure for training, the connectivity and ownership from industry, community and non-profit organisations that can penetrate the communities and find the underserved young men and women. All these factors have to mesh together to effectively deliver high quality skill-building in large numbers.

High quality training centres have come up around the country to meet this growing demand. The Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) had an antiquated approach to skill building. The vocations offered were also not in tune with the industry needs or reflected the economic changes at present.
Many state governments have made an effort to modernise the ITIs in terms of training content as well as the methodology. In many cases, the ITIs offer a good infrastructure and base, but need some significant modernisation and upgrade. Corporates are chipping in too in this effort. But more needs to be done.

Young people are streaming in from the rural hinterland into the cities in search of jobs. Even a short intervention of a three-month training and skill enhan­cement can catapult them to a different path both in terms of career and income-generation. Local non-profits and industries, both domestic and international, are teaming up to offer this trai­ning and this is a welcome trend.

Skilling young people involves a whole range of actions and activities that may not be very apparent at first. It is no small feat to train and at the end have smart, industry-ready young people, confident and earning a decent income.

The building blocks include a well-rounded training programme, a deliberate outreach effort to find these young people from the nooks and corners of the country, and a highly sophisticated training curriculum with the right trainers and the infrastructure.

The efforts in skill building can only be deemed successful if relevant jobs are created. This can only happen with an appropriate larger policy environment, growth in labour intensive sectors, suitability of skills to dynamic work environment needs and the propensity of the industry to pay a wage premium to skilled persons.

Apart from the hard skill — be it plumbing or electrician or hospitality specialist — there needs to be an emphasis on soft skills like language and work temperament. Elements like financial literacy, workplace read­iness, basic English communication and tech skills are imparted in many of these settings. Preparing young people to face life in a new and sometimes challenging environment is as important as the core training. This helps them stay in their jobs and feel empowered.

The other looming question is if there are enough jobs to absorb these millions of youth. Here is where micro entrepreneurship may work better. Efforts are underway to facilitate this as well by setting of a fiscal framework in the form of venture funds and patient capital.

Flexible mechanism

These will help the flow of philanthropic capital available among successful entrepreneurs, high-net-worth individuals and altruistic donors to be directly routed to those aspiring entrepreneurs in the bottom of the pyramid through a flexible mechanism. This investment in micro enterprises and supporting entrepreneurs will promote rural job creation.

Experts feel that there is a need to bring the focus to the agricultural sector and the rural economy as well. Investment in areas like food processing industry is vital to creating jobs in rural areas. Creating market linkages, adding value to agricultural products will keep youth in villages and generate the income they need. Skilling people with disabilities is yet another opportunity and challenge.

A staggering one million young people enter the workforce every month. This adds up to a mindboggling 240 million over the next two decades. Rural youth are a big slice of these job seekers. On the other hand, fast growing companies in retail, IT, BPO, banking and financial services struggle to find employable staff, especially in rural areas. It is time to bridge this gap.

Among other things, the government has set up the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) as a public-private partnership entity. The NSDC works in close co-ordination with the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and other related government entities to help create the enabling environment.

There has been as much as a 38% jump in the financial allocation by the Centre which signals the importance given by the government to this issue. It is important to keep in mind however that the success of skill-building also depends heavily on the role of the community and non-profit organisations besides changing mindsets about gender, disability and geography.

(The writer is a philanthropy expert and Senior Director, American India Foundation)