In 2018, the proportion of India’s working-age population started growing larger than its dependant population (children below 14 and above 65 years of age). This bulge in the working-age population, called the demographic dividend is going to last till 2055—a total of 37 years.

But such a large population of young people is productive only if they are educated and skilled so that they realize their potential and contribute to the nation’s growth.

The harsh reality is that only about one in five Indians in the labour force is “skilled” as per the Human Development Report (HDR) Report 2020. India is 129th among 162 countries for which this data is available.

If the absolute numbers are a matter of concern, for me, the less-obvious ‘quality of skills’ is even more of concern.

Let’s look at a few indicators of how effective skill training programmes in India may be. With regard to many skills, a school dropout can be certified at Level 3 or 4 through a 3-month training programme. In the formal skill structure, which is the ITI and Polytechnic systems, the length of programmes is more respectable, but the courses and curricula are outdated by about five decades—some of these institutions still offer programmes in Stenography! The faculty may never have set foot in an industry, and the equipment, even if it is functional and not rusting, has not been in use in the real-world for at least 20 years. And the youth themselves, during their time in these institutions may never work on an industry shop-floor, or even visit a factory.

If skill is ‘the ability to do something well’ how do we expect youth passing out of such systems to do anything useful, least of all ‘well’?

Contrast this to Germany, which is one of the leaders in skill training. They base their skill training on the dual system which works because of the cooperation between Medium and Small Scale Enterprises, and vocational training institutes. Trainees in the dual system typically spend part of each week at a vocational school and the other part at a company. Dual training usually lasts two to three-and-a-half years. It is basically a combination of theory and training implanted in a real work setting. It is an integral part of the education system and is driven by industry and trade unions, who constantly upgrade and modify training modules and job roles. These occupations are certified by either a chamber of commerce or crafts or trades. About 70% of German youth go through this skilling system.

Whether is the length of the training, the rigour, the exposure and hands-on work in industry, or the up-datedness of the curriculum based on industry needs, where is the comparison between skilling in such a system and skilling in India? We can talk about the importance we place on skilling, tout the numbers (the National Skill Development Corporation website says 1,10,34,285 candidates have been certified through the flagship short-term training programmes), and the institutional structure and industry-involvement mechanisms we have put in place.

But to quote a 2019 ILO report on India,

‘Since 2013 … despite ongoing reforms promoting skills development, VET has not kept pace with general education, and its share of upper secondary education fell to 2.7 per cent in 2016. Moreover, VET does not respond to the training needs of young women. Only 17 per cent of VET students were girls in 2016, down from 20 per cent in 2000 (UIS, 2018). Non-formal and informal VET programmes do not reach a large proportion of India’s young people. Survey data collected in 2017 indicate that only 5 per cent of young people aged 14–18 were taking any type of vocational training, whether formal or not. And 59 per cent of those receiving training were taking courses shorter than six months.’

This should not be news to any of us. Each of us has experienced how difficult it is to find a plumber, electrician, carpenter or welder, leave alone one who knows their job, can problem-solve; one who turns up on time; one who works cleanly and cleans up their mess.

We are five years into our demographic window. And still have not put in place a critical building block, viz skilling. How can we hope to fulfil our dreams, aspirations and ambitions if we don’t bring about DRASTIC changes and SOON? We need to take an honest look at where we stand, admit we are not on the right track, and go back to the drawing board.  

July 15 is marked as World Youth Skills Day.  We in India too marked this last week. But Skill Days will come and go. When will our youth be able to access high quality skills?

–Meena