Skill Development - scope

Skilling India to Growth Path-
PSEs Partnering with Government
Dr. U. D. Choubey
Director General, SCOPE
Dr. U. D. Choubey
PSEs have incorporated 3 P’s
i.e. People, Planet and Profit,
within its work ethics. People
come foremost for them and
hence, they have given major
thrust to human resource
management time and again
by adopting training and development
of the workforce in
order to enhance their skills. It
is carried out in diverse ways
including on the job training,
in-house training programs,
participation in external exposures
etc.
Skills and knowledge are the
crucial driving forces for a
sustained economic and social
development of any country.
Given the increased globalization
and dynamic technical environment,
the need for constant
upgradation and development
of skills and knowledge has also
increased.
In various studies, it has been
observed that countries with
higher and better levels of skills
adjust more effectively to a fast
changing environment. Further,
there is an increased awareness
amongst policy-makers that for
their countries to be able to compete
with developed countries
they must produce a higher value
added and quality goods/ services
that can yield higher wages
and profits. To do this they need
a skilled workforce and an education
and training system that adequately
prepares young people
to enter the labour market.
For this reason need for skills development
and knowledge upgradation
is attracting heightened
interest in many countries.
Over the years India has gradually
evolved as a knowledge-
based economy due to various
factors foremost being abundance
of human capital. As compared
to western economies where
there is a burden of an ageing
population, India has a unique
20–25 years window of opportunity.
This is apparent from the fact
that out of a population of 1.21
billion 1 in the year 2011, more
than 50 percent of the population
was in the age group of 15 to 59
years which is usually termed
as the ‘working age population’.
Further, according to Census
Board of India, presently 40 percent
of the population is below
the age of 18 years and by 2015 it
is expected that 55 percent of the
population would be below age
of 20 years. This gives rise to ‘demographic
dividend’ to India i.e.
as compared to other large developing
and developed countries;
India has a higher proportion of
working age population vis-à-vis
its entire population. In addition,
a shortage of approximately
56 million skilled manpower by
the year 2020 is expected in the
global economy.
However, aforesaid ‘demographic
dividend’ can easily turn
into a disaster if unemployment
1
As per ‘Educational Statistics at a Glance’ published by Bureau of Planning, Monitoring &
Statistics, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India
20 Kaleidoscope July 2013