Budget targets to fill the vocational training gap in employees

New Delhi: Aiming to accelerate India's economic agenda, the government increased 74% in the budget provision for skill development and entrepreneurship from Rs.1,038 crore ($160 million) for last year to Rs.1,804 crore ($264 million) in 2016-17. 100,000 trainers are needed to execute skill-development programs across the country.

According to India Spend, only 2% ( 9 million ) of workers in India are officially trained in which only 5.5 million enrolls in vocational course per year. Enrollment in China is 90 million and 11.3 million in the United States.

Only 209,000 out of 1.4 million got the job in IT sector in 2015 which is only 17%. Similarly, 33,224 are reported to be hired in the banking sector, government and private banks in 2015.

According to a survey of National Sample Survey Office in 2011-12, around 10.6 million Indians are unemployed, in which 7.8 million are from age group 20-59 years and 474 million are the part-time employees. India needs 23 million jobs annually but only 7 million jobs are produced every year from the last 30 years.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, announced his plans during the third budget on February 29, to invest Rs.1,700 crore ($200 million) to open 1,500 multi-skill training institutes across India.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), Prime Minister's Skill Development Scheme (launched on July 15, 2015) targets to skill 10 million youth over the next three years, in accumulation to setting up the National Board for Skill Development Certification in partnership with industry and academia. It is a skill certification and reward scheme which is likely to benefit 2.4 million people.

Rs. 1,771 crore had spent last year for PMKVY under the foundation of a separate ministry for skill development and entrepreneurship in which National Skill Development Fund/Corporation (NSDC), aimed to receive the most Rs. 1,350 crore fund from both government and non-government sectors for skill development.

NSDC achieved less than 15 percent of its 3.7 million skill-training targets in the first six months of the current financial year. NSDC had achieved less than 30 percent in terms of training and 10 percent in terms of certification, and a target of 2.4 million, as of February 2016.

According to data verified in Lok Sabha, around 19 million people have been skilled under 40 different skill-development schemes over the last three years and 5.5 million people are presently enrolled in skilling courses, with 231 million Indians aged 15-24 needing to be skilled, reported IndiaSpend.

According to NSDC study, the employment rate is set to increase 461.1 million in 2013 to 581.9 million in 2022, across 24 sectors. The supplementary requirement in many sectors, such as construction, retail, and wellness, is claimed to be 109.7 million by 2022, with the top 10 sectors accounting for 80 percent of the jobs needed.

31.1 million people are required in building construction and real estate sector, followed by logistics, transportation and warehousing (11.7 million) and beauty and wellness (10.1 million). Maharashtra needs 15.5 million more people, Tamil Nadu (13.6 million) and Uttar Pradesh (11 million).

Around 100 ''model career centres'' are planned to set by 2016-17under the National Career Service, an online portal that matches job-seekers with jobs. About 35 million job-seekers have registered since the launch of this portal in July 2015.(IANS)