India’s biggest problem is bridging the skills gap for job creation at scale. The country’s GDP can grow to Rs.400 lakh crore, if its working-age population is employed With a GDP of Rs.300 lakh crore and 6.5 percent growth forecast — making the country the fastest growing economy globally — India is adding 12 million youth to its labour force annually. Nearly half are employed in agriculture, and the other half is in industry and services. India has the advantages of favourable demographics and rapid digital penetration. Industry 4.0 supported by the Gig economy is opening up a range of opportunities for youth. However, India’s target of 29 million skilled professionals and GDP target of Rs.850 lakh crore (by 2030) is perhaps too ambitious. Unemployment at 8.3 percent is dragging down growth. Digitisation is driving automation while the workforce is unsuitable for the digital era. Only a quarter of India’s graduates are employable. With unemployment highest in the 15-29 age group, the future looks grim. India’s biggest problem is bridging the skills gap for job creation at scale. The country’s GDP can grow to Rs.400 lakh crore (i.e, 1.5x of the current US economy), if its working-age population is employed. India needs a National Doctrine with four strong pillars — Mindset, Structure, Building Blocks, and Values. In my previous essay (https://www.educationworld.in/transforming-india-into-a-global-education-hub/), I wrote about Mindset. Here I address the structure that India can adopt to bridge the skills gap for jobs creation. Make cars so highways can be built. Tomorrow’s world belongs to the skilled, not merely educated. Skilling youth is similar to making cars first so highways can be built. India’s current institutional framework of National Skill Development Mission, NEP 2020, Samagra Shiksha, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, are in the right direction and an excellent foundation to build on. Yet making India’s youth skilled and employable calls for a shift in the education system from emphasis on knowledge accumulation to its application. Skills training will have to start from primary school and culminate in higher education with internships/apprenticeships. Industry has to partner with government through PPP (public private partnerships) to build a synergistic next generation platform — Advanced Integrated Mission for Skills (AIMS) — for a skills ecosystem customised to deliver high quality, well-trained talent supply chain (i.e, cars) to meet rising industry demand for skilled professionals in climate-smart agriculture, quantum computing, AI, robotics, space, and green economy. AIMS can create long-term impact among learners, employers/investors and government to enable jobs creation and start-ups incubation (i.e, highways) to power India in Industry 4.0 and beyond. When rubber meets road. AIMS should have five structural elements. (1) Testing at point-of-entry and continuously through a learner’s journey, (2) Capability building of educators, (3) Partner ecosystem for content, internships/apprenticeships/jobs/capital, (4) Hybrid infrastructure with technology across skill spokes, skill hubs and skill universities (36 Indian Institutes of Skills in state capitals and Union territories), and (5) National Command Control Centre with linkages to India’s 766 Skill Hubs for real-time…
