The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) began its 14th edition of its Global Skills Summit on Wednesday, which will conclude today, in New Delhi. The Summit was themed “Building Skills, Empowering Youth, Creating the Future.”
Addressing the gathering here, Atul Kumar Tiwari, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said that the time has come for India to set right its education, skilling and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
“The next five years are very crucial for India where we will see all investments happening, operationalizing of the National Education Policy (NEP), and this is the time when need to create capacities in our young people to take the country forward and achieve the vision of becoming a developed country,” he added.
He said, “In order to take people forward, we need systems, institutions and a new way of thinking. We need to work together to ensure that India has educated and skilled work force as that will be the foundation on which our dream of New India will be built.”
Speaking on the recently launched PM Vishwakarma Yojna, he said that the most important part in this scheme is skilling. It is a need based, giving holistic solution right from identification to skilling and giving the concessional credits which is all part of the system.
Meanwhile, Manoj Agrawal, Co-Chair, FICCI Skill Development Committee and Executive Advisor, Training Academy, Maruti Suzuki India Limited said both education and skilling should be application oriented and making the people employable.
“Industries are eager to invest in training and development of their workforce to align with industry demands. ITI graduates are aligned with industry needs and starting their association with industry at an early age is the most effective way to nurture talent,” Agrawal added.
Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, Chairperson, National Council of Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) said that skilling propelled and led by industry is the way forward.
“Recognizing and comprehending the trajectory of Future of Work along with effective industry-academia collaboration will drive timely and effective growth of skill ecosystem,” Kalsi said.
He further added that identifying and understanding the future of work in every sector with industry needs and trends is the way forward to industry-driven, high-quality skilling and education.
During the event, Skill Financing in India – a report by KPMG was also released which emphasised that over-reliance on government funding has resulted in suboptimal outcomes in terms of the number and quality of trained individuals. Therefore, there is a pressing need to explore alternative financing models for skill development.
The report was aimed at assessing the current state of skill financing in India, including the allocation and utilization of funds, funding sources, financing patterns, priority areas, bottlenecks, and emerging models. It also investigated the feasibility, scalability, and applicability of finance models, providing policy recommendations for a dynamic and evolving skill ecosystem. It also highlighted the challenges like limited government budgets, and poor fiscal position which often constrains the capacity to increase the budget dedicated to Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
