Skills and knowledge are the driving force of economic growth and social development for any country. Education and Skill development becomes quite an imperative sector to appropriate this massive human resource. Education and Skill development sector constitutes of Industrial Training, Professional courses and vocational education apart from School and higher education. Skill development is associated more to the context of industry oriented training that fetch immediate employment and earning.
Talking to educationbiz.com, Areesha Fatma, Research Associate at PHD Chamber of Commerce and industry, expressed her views on the Skill development scenario and what measures are to taken in scaling up the masses in the country.
Talking about Skill Development, what is the scenario of Education in this particular domain?
In India, only 5.8% people are skilled. So there is a need of time to at least assess the skill set of the people and accordingly skill people. As we have the target of skilling 150 million people by 2022, we still need to cater around this area. So, it is very important to first assess the skills of the people and set the target.
What role Government has to play in skilling the masses in today’s time?
The government has to put massive effort to form better educational structure especially for skill development sector comprising of industry-oriented training. A number of special initiatives are rolled by Government.
Currently, the government has launched various schemes with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship joining hands in bringing out new schemes for the population. Also, one such scheme which is worth mentioning. The ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna’ is one of the flagships project of the government. So, here in, government plays the part in organizing the structure by giving the infrastructure and inputs and accordingly the training partner provides the training to the trainees.
So, the government here plays the role of a mediator in educating the people of the country.
As an individual, what are the changes have you observed in the Education space pertaining to skill development. Are we lagging behind other countries when it comes to Education?
Going by the skill development scenario in the country, the skills, nowadays, are based on industry perspective. Elaborating it further, in a particular industry, a person is expected to be skilled in soft skills or IT skills. So, I won’t mention that the gap has filled up but definitely it is filling up. It is in the process. Time is required but right now that skill is that “Industry should be coordinated with the Training partners and the agencies so that the skilling gap can be filled.”
