Recognition of the importance of skilling the youth of the country has led to setting up of the National Skill Development Authority, the star programme under the aegis of National Skill Development Corporation and definition of job roles and qualification frameworks. The mission mode approach to skill development by various State governments to encourage youth to get skilled with the objective of making them employable has led to 0.6 million getting skilled between 2010 and 2013, going upto 1 million in 2014. Yet employability cannot be enhanced by skills training alone, it is a complex problem impacted by several factors. It would be feasible to find solutions for enhancing employability of the youth only by appreciating and decoding the underlying factors that determine the success rate.

The first and most critical dimension related to employability is the recognition of skills certification and the value it is accorded to by the industry. Industry often laments on the lack of skilled workforce both in terms of quality and quantity which has led many companies to create their own models of talent sourcing and developing the required skills. In the 90s, IT industry started the trend of hiring engineers from tier 2 colleges and putting them through the intensive three to six months? training programme that was designed and delivered through in house R&D departments and post training putting them through on the job training for another six months before they could become billable resources.

Although the number of employees have not been as large as in the case of IT industry, manufacturing industry too has been grooming engineering and other technical talent through apprenticeship programmes and customised training programmes. In both these models, all aspects of training, namely design, content, pedagogy, prerequisites of the candidates who undergo the programme, assessment and final certification are defined by the respective organisations. With the setting up of the sector specific skill councils which are supported by industry representatives, it is of paramount importance that corporates adopt the qualifications and certification as the benchmark for recruitment and career development within their own organisations. Specially since the assessment is carried out by third party agencies, such unbiased processes would help create standardisation of roles and job specifications and strengthen the case for acquisition of the right skills and acquiring industry certification as pre requisites for employment opportunities.

In reality, it has been observed that many organisations are slow to adopt the industry standards and continue to follow their own selection and training processes despite being the advocates of sector skill councils. The reasons for this could be many?they may be waiting for the standards to mature, some of them would be keen for majority of the corporates to adopt these standards, in some other organisations, the representative of the company in sector skill council has limited mandate to make suggestions of their requirements with no authority to implement for themselves and some others face the challenge of dismantling their well set methods of training and development function they are used to, over the years.

Skill development and employment go hand in hand and the crucial first step is for the industry to wholeheartedly support the certification processes laid down by the sector skill councils making it mandatory for hiring with a defined set of timelines. So long as large employers continue to follow their own hiring and assessment processes, the goal of the nation to improve the percentage of skilled resources from 5% of the workforce will not become a reality and the demographic dividend would remain a mirage.

The second important dimension is understanding the aspirations of the youth and helping them develop relevant skills and capabilities aligned with these aspirations. It is also possible that the aspirational job/emoluments may not be practical expectations based on their qualifications. In such cases, counselling and helping them with the road map to get to their aspirational goals forms a vital part of the skill development process.

In our keenness to foster skill development, various schemes are being designed by governments such that they would motivate the youth to undergo the skill development programmes. Yet the youth are unable to fully comprehend the relevance of skills certification and hence in many cases their attendance in the training programmes is also a matter of concern. When they find their peers and colleagues joining organisations without skill certifications and drawing similar salaries as those who have undergone the skill development programmes, they are unable to fathom the significance of time, effort and money spent on skill acquisition. Further, if there are alternates available for them which provide more or less similar value as post skill acquisition based jobs, skills acquisition is not viewed seriously by the youth.

Therefore it is imperative for the industry to discuss and agree on the adoption rates with timelines for skill certifications to become the prerequisites for hiring and promotions. At the same time, it is extremely important to create awareness about the National Skills qualification framework and the alignment it offers with the formal education qualifications recognising the related work experience with respective to NOS (National Occupation Standards). There is an urgent need for educating the youth about how this framework could help them move towards their aspirational employment and beyond on the strength of skills, step by step.

While India is not a small country where it would be possible to come up with the perfect plan and a match for skill gaps, industry requirements and the supply of talent and therefore the dynamics of multiple models and channels for employability need to be in the play, the efforts towards skill development would be successful only when the linkages of employability, awareness, counselling and certification adoption rates are all simultaneously addressed and orchestrated.

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