There’s an adage that goes: ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’. This piece of social wisdom embodies the message and the spirit of World Youth Skills Day, observed by the United Nations on July 15. It underlines the importance of equipping the youth with the skills needed to become employable and to create sustainable livelihoods.
The youth dividend is one of the greatest assets a nation can have in the global marketplace, with India enjoying a massive advantage – globally, one-fifth of people aged under 25 are Indians, a demographic that accounts for nearly half the country’s population.
The challenge, though, is to leverage this demographic dividend by helping young people become job-ready. This is critical as it helps achieve the twin objectives of personal development and fulfillment, and the nation’s sustainable economic goals.
At AM International, we are constantly aligning our goals with the larger goals of sustainable development. To this end, we regularly conduct training, reskilling, and upskilling programmes across our operating companies, across operations, and across verticals. By making training a priority and investing in our people, we seek to not only enhance the productivity of our companies and keep them competitive, but also make our employees better professionals.
Corporate businesses are the third tier in a hierarchy that must be invested in skilling our youth. The onus of making sure that young Indians acquire the competencies they need in order to become employable and to thrive in the workplace lies with two other stakeholders in the economy, that is, our educational institutions and the government.
India is home to educational institutions of international repute but the educational system, by and large, must be realigned to keep it current and to foster skills that will make our graduates employable. Through school and college, we must equip students with a suite of skills that prioritises creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. This approach would help young men and women thrive in the real world and stay ahead in a workforce that is fiercely competitive.
The Indian government, for its part, is going all out to address the skills gap in the economy. This was evident when it established the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) in 2014.
In doing so, it renewed its focus on establishing a vocational and technical training framework. Then, in 2015, the government launched the hugely ambitious Skill India Mission, which aimed to train 400 million Indians in various skills by 2022. The mission includes various programs to create a workforce that meets the demands of different industries and encourages entrepreneurship. The National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, for instance, encourages industries to engage apprentices and provide them with practical training, thus bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and real-world skills.
India is currently a services-orientated economy, with 30.7 percent of the workforce employed in this sector, according to the International Labour Organization. However, the government is determined to make India a global manufacturing hub as well, powered by its ‘Make in India, Make for the World’ agenda. This super-ambitious agenda will work only if a Young India is skilled enough to leverage the massive employment opportunities being unlocked.
The demands of the modern workplace are constantly evolving and the pressure to succeed is intense. The need for a skilled workforce that is young and driven cannot be overstated, a prerequisite if India is to remain globally competitive in the manufacturing sector. Developing such a workforce through government, private, and public partnerships will drive innovation, productivity, and social inclusion, and ultimately help achieve the country’s global development goals.
