The focus of Skill India initiative launched by Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship is to help provide an engaging ecosystem to cater to skilling needs of citizens and aims at inclusive growth especially for those at the bottom of the pyramid (approx. 800 million citizens). Skill India is mainly targeted at citizens seeking to enhance their existing skills and has a grand task of training 150 million individuals by 2022.

Today, India is one of the youngest nations in the world with more than 62% of its population in the working age group (15-59 years), and more than 54% of its total population below 25 years of age. Its population pyramid is expected to “bulge” across the 15–59 age group over the next decade. It is further estimated that the average age of the population in India by 2020 will be 29 years as against 40 years in USA, 46 years in Europe and 47 years in Japan. In fact, during the next 20 years the labour force in the industrialized world is expected to decline by 4%, while in India it will increase by 32%. This poses a formidable challenge and a huge opportunity. To reap this demographic dividend which is expected to last for next 25 years, India needs to equip its workforce with employable skills and knowledge so that they can contribute substantively to the economic growth of the country. Our country presently faces a dual challenge of paucity of highly trained workforce, as well as non-employability of large sctions of the conventionally educated youth, who possess little or no job skills.

Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has been set up in November 2014 to give fresh impetus to the Skill India agenda and help create an appropriate ecosystem that facilitates imparting employable skills to its growing work force over the next few decades. Apart from meeting its own demand, India has the potential to provide skilled workforce to fill the expected shortfall in the ageing developed world. As India moves progressively towards becoming a global knowledge economy, it must meet the rising aspirations of its youth. This can be partially achieved through focus on advancement of skills that are relevant to the emerging economic environment. The challenge pertains not only to a huge quantitative expansion of the facilities for skill training but also to the equally important task of raising their quality.

National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 supersedes the policy of 2009. The primary objective of this policy is to meet the challenge of skilling at scale with speed, standard (quality) and sustainability. It aims to provide an umbrella framework to all skilling activities being carried out within the country, to align them to common standards and link skilling with demand centres. In addition to laying down the objectives and expected outcomes, the policy also identifies the overall institutional framework which will act as a vehicle to reach the expected outcomes. The policy links skills development to improved employability and productivity in paving the way forward for inclusive growth in the country. The skill strategy is complemented by specific efforts to promote entrepreneurship in order to create ample opportunities for the skilled workforce.

The core objective of the Policy is to empower the individual, by enabling her/him to realize their full potential through a process of lifelong learning where competencies are accumulated via instruments such as credible certifications, credit accumulation and transfer, etc. As individuals grow, the society and nation also benefit from their productivity and growth.

For more details, see http://skillindia.gov.in/