Skilling and Re-skilling: The key focus of education

According to the 'International Labour Organisation report', India, with 354.4 million people aged between 15 and 29, is credited for being the World's largest youth population. The era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with technologies like AI, IoT, Machine Learning, digitization, and analytics, is changing the paradigm in every industry.

'Skill India Scheme' proposes to train the youth for relevant industry jobs for securing a better livelihood. Also, the Government has paid fees for training and Assessment. However, big companies are trying to find skilled labor for the job.

Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2017-18 data indicated that around 33 % of India's skilled youth is jobless. This presents a setback for PM Modi's 'Skill India' and 'Make in India' schemes.

To tackle this, the government is trying to focus on state-level strategies for the development of state and implementation of services faster.

According to the 'Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship report', India's total workforce's 4.69 percent is formally skilled. Youth Skills Training is still a challenge. And according to Census 2011 data, 104 million fresh entrants to the workforce will require skill training by 2022, and 298 million of the existing workforce will require additional skill training over the same period.

After independence in 1947, the democratization of education was the step our government focused upon and took appropriate measures towards skilling the people while shaping India.

Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi initiated Education policy for the first time, which was promulgated by Rajiv Gandhi. Now, PM Narendra Modi has also brought a new education policy, which aims to make a difference in the education system. This new policy does so by addressing the requirement of education awareness and creating youth-oriented jobs in India to deal with the unemployment rate.

Some basic skill courses that could be useful in the coming future are:

• Hospitality Skills: The hospitality sector includes hotels, restaurants etc. In these courses students learn how to serve guests, how to treat them during their visit, cordial behavior towards guests along with how to do various tasks such as housekeeping, preparing rooms for guests, welcoming them, cooking various cuisines etc.
• Electrical Skills: These courses include teaching about electric technology, how to work with different electrical skills in houses, buildings, public spaces etc. Students are taught about the tools used in electrical work, how to deal with emergencies, and fix electrical issues.
• Tourism Skills: Tourism courses train students to become tourist guides, tourist hosts and start their own tourism business. The course teaches students how to develop their communication skills, how to guide tourists around a city or town, important things to keep in mind while with tourists, along with ensuring that tourists have a comfortable stay and travel experience.
• Carpentry Skills: Carpentry courses teach students the basic skills of carpentry, different construction methods, different types of tools and machines used and how to make various types of furniture.

In March, Tech Mahindra decided to re-skill 70% of its existing IT workforce in future-tech skills. This indicated how much we require to re-skill our workforce for handling obstacles of the future and emerging technologies. According to the NASSCOM report, 40% of India's total workforce requires re-skilling over the next 5 years.

• Digital Marketing: Digital marketing has been gaining momentum in recent years as it is reaching a whole new dimension of marketing. With the world becoming more tech-savvy and all jobs being done through technology, increasing reach on social media and the internet is essential for people and companies. People can easily learn digital marketing through online courses.
• AI Skills: Machine learning courses can prove to be a good path to pursue. AI can open up new opportunities and job options. People with jobs can also easily learn AI and enhance their knowledge and area of knowledge.
• Language Skills: Learning new languages can make for a strong point in people's CV. Knowledge of different languages can help people get more diverse roles than others. Moreover, correct grammar and pronunciation matter a lot when talking to people in professional space and language courses can help in learning it. Learning different types of languages is easy and people can learn them from various websites and apps at a small fee.
• IT Skills: In the tech-savvy world, gaining additional knowledge about computers and systems is only a benefit for people. IT skills enhance people's knowledge and bestow them with a plethora of options for new jobs and new roles.

Over 70 percent of the population lives in rural India and women comprise 49% of the rural workforce. Hence, it becomes imperative that they receive technical skill training, work ethics, communication skills, and soft skills for the developing market. Our previous and recent government has tried the best approach to deal with this critical issue. But there's still scope for more improvements.

(Disclaimer: Prashant Agarwal is the President of Narayan Seva Sansthan. The opinions expressed are the personal views of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of Devdiscourse and Devdiscourse does not claim any responsibility for the same.)