“The power of India lies in the skilled workforce that the country will have. Our endeavour is to empower our youth with the necessary skill sets to find and create opportunities across industries and geographies for themselves and add to the global and country’s economic growth story?
—Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge) and Parliamentary Affairs

 The only way to make these workers more efficient is by providing them with a skill; and this can happen only by making the jobs in the unorganised sector attractive and free of stereotypes, so that graduates would opt for them. The surplus human resource needs to be tapped effectively.

There is a clear mismatch of supply and demand of labour due to lack of technical and soft skills and not so effective education system. We have graduates who have theoretical knowledge but no practical experience which means that a person can explain his learning on paper, but may have never done it hands on. We need to find ways and create avenues to make them skilled in the area of their choice and help them become an employable workforce as per local and global industry requirements.

The biggest challenge today of all, is creating aspiration for skills amongst the youth, who must understand the difference that skill development programmes bring to their lives, something which a degree or certificate alone cannot. We also need to accord pride to skills and emphasise the importance of skills across all levels.

For the first time ever, the Government of India has created a new Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship which is steering the skills agenda in India. National Skill Development Corporation and National Skill Development Agency together are working in conjunction with the current incumbent government to address the skills agenda; and through their numerous initiatives are working towards meeting this shortfall. India is one of the youngest nations and we have the potential to supply skilled human resources, based on industry standards, to not only industries in India but also those all across the world.

In the past, there have been several skill development programmes which were running in isolation. But with the formation of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), the focus has shifted to coordination and convergence across ministries, states and departments. This is certainly ensuring quality outcomes in skill development across the country.