Other speakers on the panel were Swati Mujumdar, pro-chancellor, Symbiosis Skills and Professional University (SSPU); Ved Mani Tiwari, CEO, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC); Pankaj Bansal, founder and group CEO, PeopleStrong; and Jayant Rastogi, global CEO, Magic Bus India Foundation.
According to Tiwari, since the formation of MSDE in 2014, multiple initiatives have been taken including interdisciplinary ramping up, creating a base for India to become the skills capital of the world.
He said, however, there is a need for further tweaking of the skill-based migration framework. “International migration of the workforce is assessed by the different xenophobic forces and migration patterns as well. But there is a very important case for that to also happen,” he added.
Mujumdar of SSPU emphasised the need for changing perceptions on skilling to achieve scalability of initiatives.
“If you want scalability, you will need to create mechanisms and institutionalised processes where the skilled workforce also gets acceptability and appreciation. The pertinent problem of social acceptability of coming from a skill university background still exists. In India, most students are looking for degrees at the undergraduate or postgraduate level without thinking whether that would lead to employability or not,” she said.Mujumdar proposed a hub and spoke model, wherein academia in conjunction with industry and the government tailor skilling initiatives to meet context-specific local needs.”Skilling is very localised and contextualised. Pune is a big auto hub, and Indore is known for textiles. What works in Pune may not work in Indore and vice versa. Therefore, contextualising and localising are very important,” she added.
Noting the role of the private sector in skilling, NSDC’s Tiwari said markets are the best determinator of resource allocation and somehow, “we have not been able to send this signal that skilling leads to productivity gains.”
“We need a humongous amount of financing. So we are working on a lot of financial innovations, including Skill Impact Bonds, vouchers and recently launched skill loans where the government is providing guarantee for somebody to take a skill loan up to Rs 7.5 lakh,” Tiwari said.
Bansal of PeopleStrong pointed to the long winding road from obtaining degrees to skills to jobs. He said, “HR professionals are no longer talking about degrees alone. Every job is about skill. There is something called a skill cloud, not job cloud, not competence. I don’t see funds investing in jobs.”
Bansal said 52% of Indians are employable as per the India Skills Report by Wheebox, and that the figure has risen from 34% a decade ago. However, three out of four companies say they do not have employable talent. To bridge this gap, Bansal proposed that funds need to invest in job creation.
According to NSDC’s Tiwari, India has multiple opportunities including services exports through global capability centres, creating a pool of workforce to cater to the Care Economy, and to upskill India’s workforce to enable them to play a greater role in areas of energy transition.
Technology, however, can also act as an impediment in harnessing India’s demographic dividend.
Rastogi of Magic Bus India Foundation, said, “For this demographic dividend to pay dividends, we need to look at the job equation. We need to be producing 7.65-8 million jobs. AI is disruptive, it changes the way we work. What’s going to happen is that the number of jobs that will be created will be far lower than before. We need to be cognizant about it.”
Two factors, namely, a young workforce and cost arbitrage act as silver lining to a looming dark cloud, according to Rastogi.
He emphasised the need for skilling to become more inclusive in India. “If we want to be a global hub for skilling, we need female workforce participation to go up. At present, it’s at 30-35%, the international average is 47% and we need to get it to 60% to be inclusive,” Rastogi said.
