World Skills Day: In 2014, the United Nations General Assembly declared 15 July as World Youth Skills Day, to celebrate the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship.
World Skills Day: The goal is to achieve better socio-economic conditions for today’s youth as a means of addressing the challenges of unemployment and under employment.
Appended are the expert comments from the Management Team of Ampersand Group on the importance of technical, vocational education & training and the development of other skills relevant to both local and global economies.
Mr Rustom Kerawalla, Chairman AMPERSAND Group
“The skilled Indian work force has been successful across every nation in the world be it the indentured laborers in Fiji & Mauritius or the Punjabi Farmers in Canada or the more recent technology consultants in Europe & America. The success story of the skilled Indian immigrant can easily be replicated in India where only 46% of the youth is perceived as employable. The new normal of the post COVID 19 Pandemic world presents exciting opportunities for India which must quickly leverage its power in the skilling sphere given the completely new framework that presents itself for virtual operations with robust digital platforms to deliver skilling programs to trainees and connect them to international employers”
“ India should create formal and structured pathways for labour mobility by the private sector. There exists many organisations that facilitate this international mobility, but a code of conduct will prevent any potential exploitation of migrating workers. International mobility of labour should become an essential part of India’s economic diplomacy. We should work towards breaking down barriers in international labour supply to ensure hassle-free movement of talent. India should also enable innovative state supported programs like what is being done by many countries like Russia, Italy, Germany and even East European nations like Romania like the ‘Talent Boost’, of Finland. Many of these countries in-fact even have State-supported programs to attract international talent. India must follow suit and adopt these best practices.”
Ms Kavita Sahay Kerawalla, Vice-Chairperson, AMPERSAND Group
“The need for skilled manpower amongst the youth in India cannot be under emphasized. Technical & Soft skills need to go hand in hand and the only way to have this combination perfected in the youth is to start them at a nascent age. The National Education Policy 2020 has laid emphasis on this area and has laid down the policy framework to start skilling in schools from Grade 6. NSQF framework must undergo a transition to accommodate new age courses such as Robotics, Digital Marketing, Machine Learning etc and VR platforms must be used to encourage new dimensions of learning and
development along with the regular curriculum. Innovative assessment techniques such as ‘credits” in lieu of marks proportionate to effective skilling techniques learnt must be encouraged to maintain a balance between academics and vocational education.”
Mr Vinesh Menon, CEO – Education & Skilling Services, AMPERSAND Group
“ While India enjoys the benefit of demographic dividend, the government must work on a far more outreaching Training& Skilling ecosystem to cater to the 12 million youth that are entering the workforce every year. While the current health crisis has created a natural demand for healthcare service providers, there has been equal demand getting created in many other sectors such as Oil & Gas, Construction, diamond processing, Information Technology to name a few both in India & offshore markets. The Government should move quickly to formulate policies and imagine new paradigms of digital skilling by augmenting the adoption of digital technologies to address the vital aspect of continual skilling & oncoming challenges in international mobility for our youth in a post Covid-19 world”
“India should leverage its image as a benign power with a strong democratic tradition and tolerant society to create partnerships with such countries, like that announced with Japan recently. A Government to Government (G2G) arrangement secures better terms for migrant workers and ensures better protection of their rights. A part of the G2G arrangement should be to allow India’s National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) being accepted in the receiving country. Innovative value additions such bespoke programs can be created under the NSQF or bridge modules may be introduced to meet the assessment and certification framework of the receiving country. Regional Centers of Excellence must be set up under Public Private Partnership specifically for training of youth for international markets”
This article is shared with Prittle Prattle News in the form of a Press Release.
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