India’s demographic advantage—with over 50% of the population expected to be under the age of 25 years by 2020—is a well-known fact across the globe today. However, for the country to leverage and benefit from this advantage, it needs to be ensured that our youth is adequately prepared for productively participating in the path to economic development and prosperity.

In today’s times, with easy access to information, the youth—irrespective of whether they are based in urban or rural areas—aspire for a better quality of life. Such aspirations can only be fulfilled through productive participation of the youth in economic development. Further, they should be able to take advantage of employment opportunities that are expected to emerge through various programmes such as Make-in-India and Digital India as well as those aimed at encouraging entrepreneurship and job creation in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector.

With the current gross enrolment ratio in the higher education space being at around 20%—which is below the global average of 26%—there is a large population of the youth who are left out of the higher education system. In fact, it is estimated that around 84% of India’s population of age 15 years and above are either not literate or have not completed secondary level of education. This is a significantly large population, which includes youth in the working-age group who will need to be skilled for gainful employment. Studies indicate that only around 5% of the working-age population, excluding those having higher education and farm workers, have been formally skilled. There is an urgent requirement for bringing our youth population within the formal skilling ecosystem for meeting the twin objectives of providing employable workforce for the industry as well as meeting the youth’s aspirations for a better quality of life through increased earning prospects.

One of the key objectives of the Skill Development Mission is that the youth should acquire skills which would contribute towards making India a modern economy. Today, there is an entire ecosystem in place for achieving this objective, which includes various initiatives.

*National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) for identifying competency-based skill levels required by industry;

*Sector Skills Councils in all key sectors such as automotive, capital goods, electronics, construction, plumbing, agriculture, IT and ITeS, retail, and banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), which brings in the industry/sector connect for ensuring employable skills;

*Funding mechanism for encouraging setting up skill development and training institutes in PPP mode;

*Schemes for adoption of government-owned vocational training centres by the private sector;

*Labour market information systems for matching skill demand and supply, etc.

To help training providers identify courses, several studies on skill gaps at regional and sector levels have been commissioned by the government and Sector Skills Councils. In addition, to promote skill development, the mission has sought to introduce various key measures.

*Recognition of prior learning (RPL) based on skills acquired through experience which can be certified and built upon to improve employability;

*Industry recognition of certified skills, along with willingness to pay a premium in recognition of improved efficiency and productivity;

*Programmes such as Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna which can be leveraged by students to fund their training courses;

*Ensuring skilling courses include necessary soft skills such as language, basic IT and financial literacy for enhancing employability as well as for those who choose to become entrepreneurs, etc.

A key challenge for formal skills training has been societal attitude which traditionally has preferred formal higher education over skills training. An attempt has been made to address this through positioning vocational training as a successful career option through targeted awareness campaigns, integration of skilling in formal school education, certification and diploma from skills universities and community colleges to be established.

The opportunity for formally certified skilled youth from India lies not only within the country but globally as well. While the average age of the Indian population is expected to be 29 years by 2020, larger economies such as the US, European countries and Japan will be facing the ageing population problem, with the average age being 40, 46 and 47 years, respectively. This provides an enormous opportunity for Indian youth in seeking opportunities abroad leveraging the skilling ecosystem in India. The skill development mission also seeks to address overseas employment with the objective that youth in India should be trained to the highest global standards to access employment opportunities abroad and international mobility. Key initiatives in the mission include ensuring equivalence between NSQF and International Qualification Framework, partnerships with leading vocational training institutes in other countries, identifying global workforce requirements in key sectors in select destination countries leveraging Indian embassies and research organisations, etc.

While the intent is there to promote formal skilling for ensuring that the youth get the advantage of participating in the economic growth and can look forward to a better standard of living, the implementation and turning this vision into reality would depend on the key actors in this journey—which include governments both central and state level implementing the policies and enabling regulations, training providers offering affordable courses with curriculum aligned to industry requirements and getting themselves accredited by concerned Sector Skills Councils, industry willing to pay premium salaries to certified trained youth as compared to unskilled/informally trained persons, and finally the youth opting for formal skill development courses as per their aptitude. If this is achieved, over time India will be recognised as the talent capital of the world.

The author is a senior director with Deloitte in India