HPAS/Allied Mains 2022 Answer Writing Challenge Day 25: Model Answer

Question: What is the status of skill development and unemployment in India and briefly enlist the four types of skill levels? Enlist some of the initiatives taken by the  Government of India in this context? (8 marks, 120 words)

Answer: 

Introduction:

• The India Skills Report 2021 found that about 45.9% of young people would be considered employable. The number was about 46.2% in 2020 and 47.4% in 2019.
• India’s unemployment rate reached an all-time high in 2020. There were several factors responsible for this, including the coronavirus pandemic-induced lockdown.
• Barely one in five Indians in the labour force is “skilled” according to the just released Human Development Report (HDR) 2020

BODY

• India is facing a lot of challenges keeping in view the current infrastructure and the policy framework. The challenges faced in skill development have been discussed below:
• Insufficient capacity: Current infrastructure facilities available in the educational institutions throughout the country are inadequate considering the huge demand for skilled labour. There are not many trained and highly skilled trainers available. The faculty needs to be motivated and skilled to take up higher responsibilities.
• Mobilisation: The outlook of people associated with skill development is still very traditional. The enrolment of the students for vocational education and training has become an extremely challenging task.
• Scalability: Any model to be successful needs a lot of support from different stakeholders. Since there is limited buy-in from the corporate sector, the progress of such initiatives is slow.

Skills Mismatch:

• There are lot of issues related to the skills needed by the industry and the skills imparted by the educational and training institutes.
• There is lack of industry-faculty interaction because of which the skill sets provided by the educational and training institutes do not end up suiting the employers’ requirements.
• As a result, though the people may be skilled but they do not get employment.
• It becomes extremely important that the industry professionals are also included in the design of the skill development curriculum.