PM’s
idea of focusing on skill development is great
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is absolutely right in placing renewed emphasis on skill
development in the services and manufacturing sectors. His ‘skilled India’
mission to promote holistic development deserves
full appreciation. India definitely needs
to equip its youth with greater work skills.
Our country cannot survive with mostly semi-literate
workforce without the requisite marketable skills in a globalised world. The real challenge is not to find low-paying
jobs for the unemployed, but to equip those entering the workforce with the
necessary skills in a competitive environment.
One feels impressed when
Modi talks of a workforce that will be in a position to “face their
counterparts in any corner of the world” by virtue of hard work and dexterity
of hands. He speaks about capacity-building
too in the global context. His idea about creating employment opportunities and
developing a balance between imports and exports
is simply great. One should also
appreciate his idea of making the multinationals sell in any country but
manufacture in India so that the
education and capability of India’s youth is put to use.
His government is interested in investing heavily in
education and training, in research and development. He wants the foreigner not to invest in India just to obtain
cheap labour. That’s the reason why he wants to develop the skill and talent of
Indians by paying full attention to promoting education and training.
India has a very vibrant man power which if transformed into a skilled work force will take the
country to unimaginable height. A
National Skill Development Council at the Center with State, District and Taluka
based centers are needed. The existing centers need to be equipped and manned
by trained men and women.
The journey should start from upper primary education
level. With traditional curriculum, vocational education should be included
with more emphasis on practical knowledge than theoretical concept building.
Aim should be to equip the students with the right "skill outlook" by
the time they finish their high school.
Appropriate training should also be imparted to the
government workforce as well in different fields - whether clerical,
supervisory, executive or managemental or technical level. Presently, in
general, once a person joins the government service, he/she hardly gets any
training throughout his/her career. This hugely tells on the efficiency of the
workforce, which in turn slowly percolates to degeneration of valuable
government machinery.
Nearly two third of those who enter engineering colleges
have no aptitude for the subject. They go there because of peer pressure and
with the hope of getting a corporate job. If half of these candidates joined
Industrial Training Institutes or Polytechnics, India would have a large pool
of skilled workforce. The private sector must hire more diploma holders who are
in no way inferior to degree holders. After all, the corporates are always
complaining that they are forced to spend huge amounts to train and reskill the
fresh graduates.
There is no doubt about the fact that PM Modi is trying
to lay a kind of foundation which can make India emerge as the new powerful
country in the world. That’s really great!
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