Rethinking India’s skilling outcomes

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2-Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Education, Human Resources. Rethinking India’s skilling outcomes.

Introduction

Over the last decade, India has built one of the largest skilling systems in the world. Strong public funding and multiple schemes show serious intent. Yet skilling has not become an aspirational pathway for most youth. Employment outcomes remain weak, industry trust is low, and skills are poorly linked with education. This gap between effort and impact defines India’s skilling challenge.

Current status of India’s skilling ecosystem

1. Large-scale programme expansion: Between 2015 and 2025, the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana trained and certified around 1.40 crore candidates. This reflects sustained government focus on skill development.
2. Low formal vocational coverage:

• Only about 4.7% of India’s workforce has received formal vocational training. This is only a small rise from nearly 2% a decade ago.
• In comparison, vocational participation exceeds 70% in Germany and Japan and crosses 90% in South Korea.

3.Weak employability outcomes:

• Skill assessments show that only 51.25% of Indian youth are employable.
• Formal vocational training covers just 4.4% of youth, while 16.6% depend on informal training.

4. Growing workforce pressure: Around 12 million new entrants join the workforce every year. Annual training capacity is about 4.3 million. This gap highlights the scale of unmet skill demand.

Concerns related to India’s skilling ecosystem

1. Low aspiration: Despite training 1.40 crore candidates under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), only about 4.7% of the workforce has formal vocational training, showing weak preference for skilling.
2. Weak legitimacy: Degrees continue to dominate career mobility, while skilling lacks recognised qualification value. Only 2% of graduates pursue skilling certifications after completing degrees.
3. Limited wage gains: Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS)-based observations indicate modest and uneven wage benefits from vocational training, especially in informal jobs where most trained workers are absorbed.
4. Education–skill divide: Higher education degrees are often viewed as irrelevant by industry, forcing graduates to unlearn academic knowledge and relearn workplace practices.
5. Low youth employability: Only 51.25% of Indian youth are considered employable, despite years of skilling interventions, highlighting weak outcome quality.
6. Training capacity gap: Around 12 million new entrants join the workforce annually, while training capacity is only 4.3 million, creating a persistent skill deficit.
7. Industry disengagement: Most employers do not use public skilling certificates for hiring and rely on internal training, referrals, or private platforms instead.
8. High attrition: Attrition rates of 30–40% in sectors like retail, logistics, hospitality, and manufacturing raise onboarding costs and productivity losses.
9. Uneven apprenticeships: National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) participation has improved but remains concentrated in large firms, with limited penetration among smaller enterprises.
10. Fragmented accountability: Training, assessment, certification, and placement are handled by separate entities, leaving no institution accountable for employability outcomes.
11. Weak certification value: Employer surveys show that Sector Skill Council (SSC) certificates carry limited signalling value compared to degrees or prior work experience.

Initiatives taken to strengthen India’s skilling ecosystem

1. Restructured Skill India Programme: The Union Cabinet approved continuation and restructuring of the Skill India Programme until 2026. An outlay of ₹8,800 crore supports PMKVY 4.0, NAPS, and Jan Shikshan Sansthan under one framework.
2. Integration with higher education: The National Credit Framework allows credit portability between vocational and mainstream education. This enables students to combine skills with degrees more easily.
3. Modernisation of training institutions: PM-SETU focuses on upgrading ITIs with better infrastructure and industry alignment. It aims to improve execution quality and shared responsibility.

Flagship Programs under Skill India Mission:

• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): Offers outcome-based, short-term skill training, incentivizes enrollment, and focuses on future skills, gender inclusivity, and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).
• Pradhan Mantri National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (PM-NAPS): Encourages on-the-job training with financial support (DBT) for apprentices, broadening scope to contractual staff and UGC institutions.
• Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS): Community-based vocational training for non-literates, neo-literates, and school dropouts, promoting lifelong learning.

Integration & Modernization:

• National Education Policy (NEP 2020): NEP 2020 integrates vocational education aligned with the National Skill Qualification Framework into school education from Classes 9 to 12. This aims to expose students early to work-related skills and career pathways.
• Skill India Digital (SID): It Uses AI for job matching and continuous learning, introducing new-age courses (e.g., Drone Pilots).
• Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) Revamping: ITI reforms under schemes such as STRIVE focus on increasing industry ownership and introducing contemporary skills. These measures aim to make training more responsive to current workplace requirements.

What should be done?

1. Embed skills within degree pathways: Skilling must move along with formal education. Degrees provide legitimacy, while skills add relevance. Integrating both can raise aspiration and participation.
2. Make industry a co-owner: Industry should help design curricula, certification standards, and assessments. Skilling must reflect real job roles and workplace practices.
3. Strengthen SSC accountability: Sector Skill Councils must be made answerable for employability and placement outcomes, not just standards creation. Their credibility should depend on labour-market results.
4. Align curricula with professional standards: Courses should map clearly to industry portfolios and roles. National Skill Qualification Framework standards can guide alignment.
5. Use Professors of Practice: Industry experts can bridge gaps between academia and work. They can support curriculum design, assessment, mentoring, and employer feedback.
6. Improve assessment and learner profiling: Skill modules should define clear performance indicators and workplace tasks. AI-enabled skill profiling can help students choose suitable pathways.

Conclusion

India’s skilling challenge is rooted in weak accountability and poor integration, not lack of intent or funding. Skills must gain legitimacy through education, industry must become a co-owner, and institutions must own outcomes. This shift can turn skilling from fragmented welfare into a driver of productivity, dignity of labour, and sustained economic growth.

Question for practice:

Discuss the reasons behind weak skilling outcomes in India despite large public investment, and suggest measures to make the skilling ecosystem aspirational, industry-relevant, and employment-oriented.

Source: The Hindu