Open Forum
New
Delhi, 18 July 2019
World Youth Skills
Day
21st CENTURY CHALLENGE
By Dr. S Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi)
Celebrating the World
Youth Skills Day, we cannot but feel ashamed that on the “Skilling Index” of the
World Economic Forum, India stood at rank 65 out of 130 countries hardly a year
ago. The country that can be proud of
its many achievements through skills of a few, however, lags behind when its
overall status is evaluated.
The index pertains to
development of human capital by teaching, learning, and training. It is made
across four sub-indexes – capacity, deployment, development, and know-how.
India Skill Report
confirms the backwardness of the country by its finding that only 47 per cent
of students coming out of educational institutions are employable. The disconnect
between education and skills is alarming.
Skills, like knowledge
and education, have the power to change lives. Through the capacity of skills,
individuals, communities, countries, and the whole world are propelled towards
a more prosperous future. Long-term success of nations in economic progress
depends to a large extent on how they develop their human capital. Realisation
of this secret of success underlies skill development missions spreading in all
countries. Skill development enables youth to make a smooth migration from
educational institutions to the world of work. Where it is part of education,
it makes the transition easier and provides continuity for life-long learning.
In the pursuit after
what is known as “21st Century Skills”, young people today are seeking
skills along with and through knowledge. Educational institutions are asked to
prepare students with such skills as “problem-solving, critical thinking, communication,
collaboration, and self-management”, which are needed for any work.
UN General Assembly, accepting
a resolution sponsored by Sri Lanka and supported by G-77 and China to
highlight the importance of skill development for youth, declared 15th
July as World Youth Skills Day (WYSD) in 2014. The goal was “to achieve better
social-economic conditions for youth including as a means of addressing the
challenges of employment and unemployment”.
WYSD was declared
with a view to generating awareness of the importance of technical and
vocational education, training and development of skills relevant for promotion
of local and global economies, and to address problems of unemployment and
underemployment confronting young people everywhere.
The Sustainable
Development Goals to be achieved in 2015-30 include two goals specifically on
education and skills for employment. Goal 4 is “to ensure inclusive and
equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for
all”. One of its targets is to increase the number of youth and adults who have
relevant skills including technical and vocational skills for employment,
decent jobs, and entrepreneurship. Goal 8 is “to promote sustained, inclusive,
and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work
for all”.
The age-group 15-59
years, technically regarded as workforce, comprises about 62 per cent of India’s population. Child labour (5 to 14
years) and adolescent labour (14 to 18 years) are still going on despite
prohibitory legislations. The workforce needs skill development for personal
and the country’s development.
To take full advantage
of its demographic dividends in terms of large working age population, our
country has to build up the skills of its young workforce. Shift from
predominantly manual work to thinking and mental work is taking place and it
requires new skills and capabilities. Skill deficit in India is indeed too high to
help realise the ambition of “make India” and the government has set a target
of creating a skilled workforce of 500 million by 2022. A Minister of State with independent charge
was also appointed in 2014 for Skill Development.
Skill India campaign
was launched by the PM in 2015, which aims to train over 40 crore people in
different skills by 2022. Two major schemes have been launched to persuade
youth to acquire job-oriented skills – Deen Dayal Updhyaya Grameen Kaushal
Yojana, and Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana. Structures and incentives to enable skilling
in new age techniques across various sectors are created.
In the present Modi-II
government, skill is treated as part of education and a single Ministry of
Education and Skill Development has been created. The demands for “change and
creativity” are growing day by day, which in turn demands changes in the
educational system.
Skill is essentially about
practical training and comes when knowledge is put in use. It improves by
practice. Even creativity, believed to be a gift, can be learnt and nurtured by
efforts to apply knowledge and skills in new ways to new situations and to
reach new goals. It requires proper mindset which can be imbibed through
education and upbringing. Skills acquired through heredity may play a role in
individual cases.
Young people today have
a larger responsibility in four traits -- volatility, uncertainty, complexity,
and ambiguity -- collectively called VCCA. Major changes in the educational
system and teaching methods must go on to cope with new demands and challenges.
Skills in olden days
were associated with manual work and handicrafts. That mental and intellectual
work and even politics also require appropriate skills that can be taught and
learnt is a late realisation. Technical innovations, organisational changes,
and globalisation have hastened the process of transformation from manual to
mechanical and mental skills. They have intensified the demands for skills
education.
Bridging the gap
between education and skill development has started very late in India. There has been an inherent void between the
two ever since curriculum-based and examination-oriented school and college
education was established.
Classroom teaching
has not much scope for skill training as long as the focus still remains
largely on what we should know, remember, and reproduce. How we should use knowledge has now become the
concern of education.
Under the scheme Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan and the legislation on Right to Education, enrolment in schools
has remarkably increased, but it has not helped enhancement of skills. Nor is
it the direct object of these schemes to instill skills. When the boundaries
between learning and work are vanishing, the education system should change.
It is, therefore,
necessary for us to get over our inertia to make changes in the education
system to include skills training. This should be in addition to basic skills
such as literacy, numeracy, language, and knowledge of core subjects, presently
taught in schools and which form the base for any knowledge and even skills.
Teaching methods have to change keeping in view the world of work awaiting the
students.
At the same time, work
places, to remain relevant and useful, have to keep pace with the changes
taking place. This involves continuing education and upgrading skills. Indeed,
like knowledge, skills are unlimited. It is doubtless easy to write, lecture,
and comment on this matter. But, we have to handle a sizeable proportion of
population still out of school. This
must end.
To move with changing
times and adapt ourselves to new needs, we have to resist the common tendency
to stick to the line of least resistance, which will leave us in the rank we
are at present in the Skill Index.---INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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