The ongoing initiatives aimed at skilling the youth of the country are aimed at significantly increasing the intake of the organised sector. Currently 93% of the Indian workforce is predominantly earning its wages from the unorganised sector. In order to create the necessary impetus for skill development in the country, the government of India and various state governments have launched several programmes like STAR, Ajeevika and other livelihood programmes to equip the youth of the country with skills that will help them become employable. Institutions like NSDC and Skills Mission in the states have been created to champion the cause of skill development in the country through new programmes and policy interventions. Sector Skill Councils have been formed to identify the industry expectations of skills for different roles for which Qualification Packs have been created. National Occupations Standards (NOS) have been drawn up to build a bridge between vocational skills and formal qualifications. Yet the momentum and the desire to acquire skills is still to take off in the country particularly at the bottom of the pyramid.

A large proportion of the youth who are school or college dropouts have not been able to decipher the significance of skills even with attractive incentives for undergoing training. There are several reasons for this. Firstly the salary that is offered to the freshers irrespective of formally being trained or otherwise and assessed for skills is R8,000 whereas the aspirational salary of the youth is around R15,000 after undergoing the training programme. Most jobs are found in large cities and relocation leads to the expectation of higher emoluments in order to meet costs and ensure savings to support their families. Youth migrating to cities manage to find jobs as assistants in shops or as employees in hotels and restaurants with the earning potential of around R12,000 with boarding facility provided in most cases. Therefore getting recognition for skills is currently a challenge with these segments and it is critical to think of solutions for the challenges faced and to find innovative approaches to make skills an attractive proposition to the youth.

Even before providing skills to the youth, it is imperative to conduct personalised counselling to identify the strengths and explain the possible career trajectories. It is important to highlight the opportunities that would open up should there be a systematic process of skills acquisition and upgradation. The bridge between vocational training and formal education system proposed to be created and the alignment of such education with NOS should be explained so that aspiration for building successful careers through higher level skills and education gets created instead of picking up the first job that comes their way in which the earning potential is by and large stagnant and since no unique skills are acquired, mobility to other career options as well is limited.

Employers should be directed to strictly employ only those who are certified after undergoing skills training so that the value of such training is appreciated. Construction industry in western India is an excellent example of supporting the cause of skilled labour force where the worker gets periodic increase in the wages in tune with skills upgrade. It is also important to create ?a deep sense of pride? with the skills and the profession adopted which in turn will motivate the youth to actively acquire the skills.

Instead of providing financial support only for the training programme, along with the training programme, apprenticeship opportunities should be identified with the local establishments and candidates should be provided with the stipends for this duration of internship. This will give them an opportunity to get some useful insights about career options and also make them more confident to find employment opportunities with the same firm or with others in due course of time. There is also a need to conduct more indepth districtwise studies to ascertain employment potential specific to the district and train the youth to meet these requirements. Role definitions also require to be made more granular such that the skills framework covers a large number of the youth who are currently engaged with the unorganised sector and they are also encouraged to acquire skills that would give them more remunerative career opportunities.

In several states, polytechnics that have been established are being considered as ?the stepping stones? for engineering studies. Hence students do not take much interest in skill development programmes. Almost all states have expanded the number of seats in engineering colleges as a result of which there are no takers for more than 100,000 seats. Employment opportunities are available to those engineering graduates who come with an excellent pedigree and good academic track record. Most often students moving into engineering studies from polytechnic track struggle to cope with the demands of engineering curriculum and at the end of their academic studies are unable to find jobs commensurate with their qualification and expectations.

Hence we should seize this opportunity and rethink the automatic pathway from polytechnic to engineering streams. Students should be encouraged to build careers on the strength of technical skills they learn at the polytechnics and take up employment opportunities with local enterprises. The work experience they acquire could earn them credits and together with additional learning would create a pathway to acquiring engineering qualification. With this approach there are several advantages. Firstly there would be focus on sharpening their skills enabling a strong foundation to be created for a technical career. Secondly on the basis of their work experience, these candidates could decide their areas of interest and acquire further theoretical knowledge in these additional subjects as they work towards their engineering qualification. Employers would also be glad to have access to the pool of technically skilled professionals for jobs where engineering graduates are not required.

As a nation we need to develop policies that would encourage the youth to start embracing skills for the sake of strong technical excellence and career growth rather than qualifications for the sake of status.

The writer is CEO, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company