Context:
- According to a recent report, less than 10% of the youth who had received training under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana have obtained placement offers (offers, not jobs).
The Real Problem of Jobs:
- Jobs are not simply a function of the country’s workforce acquiring formal skills making them employable.
- More fundamental to job creation is a vibrant economy, in which investment and consumption fuel demand for labour, skilled and unskilled.
- This happened between 2004-05 and 2011-12.
- Today’s crisis is not one of employability, but of investment and economic activity leading to shrinking job opportunities.
PMKVY
- It seeks to impart industry-relevant skill training to 10 million youth over four years (2016-2020), largely through private accredited “training partners” and with the Centre meeting the entire fee expenses.
Problem with PMKVY
- The problem with PMKVY is not its poor job placement record.
- The question to ask is whether a scheme of this kind is required at all.
- Ideally, the government’s focus should be on providing decent education.
- That would mean ensuring minimum standards in schools, colleges, polytechnics and industrial training institutes (ITI).
- Training is better left to the private sector.
- The Rs 12,000-crore outlay for PMKVY can instead be used to beef up the infrastructure and course content in 2,284 government ITIs.
Way Forward
- Formal skilling — currently restricted to hardly three per cent of India’s workforce — is important.
- However, skills are mostly job-specific and acquired at the workplace.
- The market has ways to address skills gap.
- The government would do a great job by just concentrating on basic education, labour reforms and improving the ease of doing business.
