India has a large young population but lacks skilled workers, with only 10% of graduates employable. To take advantage of its demographic dividend and meet job demand, India needs to enhance skills training. The government has recognized this need through initiatives like the new Ministry of Skill Development and the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana program. However, skills training must be integrated into mainstream education to truly boost employability among India's youth.

1. Need & Importance of Skill Development And
Skill-Based Education In India
Paresh Joshi
Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat

5. India has a unique advantage in terms of demographics
because more than 60% of its population is young. However,
in order to reap the benefits of such a large workforce,
employability needs to be enhanced. According to current
statistics, only 10% of recent graduates are employable, and
the remaining 90% lack the skills necessary for corporate
employment. India's GDP is expanding at a rapid rate of 6-8%,
but job creation is not keeping up. When compared to its
neighbours, India is a relatively young country. Around 28
million young people enter the workforce in India each year.
The National Sample Survey Office found that India's
unemployment rate in 2018 hit a 45-year high of 6.1%, which
was the highest it had ever been.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-skill-development-india-olivegreen-
consulting

7. Overall employability among
youth increased from 46.2 % to
50.3 % this year. The employable
women workforce has risen
significantly to 52.8 %, surpassing
the employability rate of men at
47.2 %. This positive trend bodes
well for India’s economic growth,
as leveraging the nation’s
demographic dividend could lead
to doubling the GDP by 2030

8. Skill Development Initiatives
• The Governing Council of the National Skill Development Mission
(NSDM) is chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister.
• The Skill Mission launched by the Prime Minister on 15 July 2015,
• For the first time since India’s independence, a Ministry for Skill
Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE) has been formed to focus
on enhancing the employability of the youth through skill
development.
• The Hon’ble Prime Minister’s flagship scheme, Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) alone, has till date seen close to 1.37
crore people get skilled and prepared for a new successful India.

9. National Educational Policy
NEP-2020 has advocated for the
integration of vocational
education programmes into
mainstream education in all
education institutions in a phased
manner. NEP-2020 further
envisions that vocational courses
will be available to students
enrolled in all Bachelor’s degree
programmes, including the four-
year multidisciplinary Bachelor’s
programmes.

10. Towards a More Holistic and Multidisciplinary
Education
• Ancient Indian literary works such as Banabhatta’s Kadambari described a
good education as knowledge of the 64 Kalaas or arts;
• 64 ‘arts’ were not only subjects, such as singing and painting,
• ‘scientific’ fields - chemistry and mathematics,
• ‘vocational’ fields -carpentry and clothes-making,
• ‘professional’ fields - medicine and engineering,
• ‘soft skills’ - communication, discussion, and debate.
• The very idea that all branches of creative human endeavour, including
mathematics, science, vocational subjects, professional subjects, and soft
skills should be considered ‘arts’, has distinctly Indian origins. This notion of
‘knowledge of many arts’ –Liberal Arts should be brought back. (NEP CHAP-
11, Page 36)

11. NATIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY
• 21 vocations
• Skill Gap
• Training 5 million

12. UGC Common Syllabus- CBSC
• Core Courses
• Discipline Specific Elective
• Skill Based Electives

13. NAAC
• Skills
• Values
• Employability
• Entrepreneurship
• Finishing School
• Values Stress Management -
ccday

14. National Skills Qualifications Framework
Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India
• The National Skills Qualifications
Framework (NSQF) is a
competency-based framework
that organizes all qualifications
according to a series of levels of
knowledge, skills and aptitude.
• Skill Directory - Courses and
Training Centers

15. Global Scenario and Issues
• Across the world, there is a deficit of skilled workforce,
and the quote is self-explanatory.
• On the other hand, countries like South Korea, Finland
and Singapore have made tremendous progress by
investing in skills development initiatives
• At a time when 48% of employers in India find it difficult
to identify a skilled workforce, employability may prove
to be the bottleneck for development

16. Education and Skills in India
• Education has grown in expansion and inclusion, but quality in
higher and technical education is still a concern
• Only 15 % of technical graduates and 10 % of general graduates are
readily employable
• A country that has undertaken the missions: Make in India, Digital
India, Skill India, and Atmanirbhar Bharat cannot operate with
manpower with poor skills
• The services sector contributes a large share of its GDP. A skilled
workforce is the key to its efficacy and advancement

17. Status of Skills Development in India
• ‘Scale, Skill and Speed’ cannot materialize against serious
skills gap across education system
• Skills development is a priority that has been agreed
upon but not yet acted upon
• Skills development has till date remained on the
periphery and has not yet found its place at the core of
educational processes

18. Boosting Employability in India
• In order to boost employability, skills Development has to
be integrated into the every day experience of the
students
• Universities, IITs, IIMs and other institutes of repute
should take a lead in this regard
• Students should be educated about the need for skills
development at the outset of the academic program

19. Skills and Learning
• Student profiling should be carried out at the
commencement of the program, and skills deficits should
be arrested at the beginning rather than at the end
• The government should generously fund skills
development initiatives, and a skill eco-system should be
created.

20. Technology and Innovation
• Advanced technology and tech tools of Web 2.0 should
be roped in to support skills development at universities
and colleges
• Innovative training methods such as Active Learning
Methodology, Flip the Classroom etc should be used for
fostering a culture of skills on the campus
• We need 21st century skills for 21st century workplace