The BRICS New Delhi Declaration, adopted at the 18th BRICS Summit held in New Delhi on September 12–13, 2026, highlights several areas of cooperation relevant to the future of skills and workforce development. These include skill development, TVET-industry linkages, digital literacy, workforce preparedness, qualifications and mobility, responsible use of emerging technologies including AI, and stronger institutional partnerships.
Many of the issues highlighted in the Declaration are not new to India. Labour-market alignment, industry participation, work-integrated learning, employability, digital skills, recognition of qualifications, institutional partnerships and outcomes have already been addressed through policies, programmes and institutional initiatives.
The more useful question is how well these efforts are connected, implemented and translated into outcomes.
The 50 questions below bring these issues together across eight areas. They are not intended as a scorecard or to suggest that these areas have not been addressed. Instead, they offer a way for institutions, policymakers, educators, employers and other stakeholders to examine how the skills ecosystem is functioning as a system.
The 50 Questions New Delhi Declaration Raises
Relevance and Labour-Market Alignment
- How effectively does labour-market information influence decisions about training programmes?
- How frequently are curricula reviewed in response to changes in occupations, technologies and industry practices?
- How well are national, state and regional skills priorities connected with institutional-level decisions?
- How do we identify emerging occupations before they become established training categories?
- How effectively do employers’ changing skill requirements reach curriculum designers, teachers and trainers?
- How much duplication exists among different initiatives addressing similar skills needs, and how effectively are they coordinated?
Industry Participation and Work-Integrated Learning
- Does industry participate only in consultation, or play a meaningful role in curriculum, training and assessment?
- What responsibilities are clearly defined for institutions and industry partners?
- How much of a learner’s experience involves authentic workplace tasks or realistic work simulations?
- Is work-integrated learning deliberately designed as part of the programme or treated as an additional activity?
- How effectively do workplace experiences feed back into what and how students are taught?
- How are employers involved in assessing whether learners can actually perform occupational tasks?
- What evidence do we have that industry partnerships improve learner and employment outcomes?
Employability and Human Capabilities
- Are employability capabilities embedded in occupational learning rather than taught only through separate modules?
- Do learners have regular opportunities to communicate, collaborate and solve authentic problems?
- Are these capabilities actually assessed, or simply described as desirable outcomes?
- Does assessment capture what learners can do, rather than only what they can recall?
- How effectively do programmes develop adaptability when technologies, tasks and workplaces change?
- Are learners prepared not only for their first job but also for continued learning and progression?
Digital Skills, AI and Emerging Technologies
- Is digital capability integrated into occupational learning or treated as a separate subject?
- How are learners prepared to use AI and emerging technologies within occupations?
- Are learners taught to evaluate and verify technology-generated information?
- How are ethics, privacy, security and responsible AI addressed?
- How quickly can curricula and training environments respond to new technologies?
- Are teachers and trainers prepared to teach emerging technologies and their workplace applications?
Qualifications, Recognition and Mobility
- How easily can learners move between vocational education, higher education and employment?
- How effectively is prior learning recognised when learners return to education or training?
- Can skills acquired through workplace experience contribute to further learning?
- How understandable and comparable are qualifications across institutions and sectors?
- How much progress has been made towards making Indian qualifications more portable across countries?
- Can BRICS cooperation create practical pathways for skills recognition and professional mobility?
Institutional Partnerships and Capacity
- What does an institutional partnership actually produce beyond an MoU?
- Do partnerships result in shared curriculum, equipment, training, projects, assessment or employment pathways?
- Do institutions have the autonomy and flexibility to respond to industry requirements?
- Do teachers and trainers receive industry exposure and professional development?
- Are institutions equipped with appropriate equipment, technology and resources?
- How effectively are successful institutional practices shared and adapted?
- How can partnerships be sustained and made less dependent on individual champions?
Employment, Enterprise and Outcomes
- How do we measure effectiveness beyond enrolment, completion and certification?
- What proportion of learners move into relevant employment after training?
- How effectively are retention, career progression and wage outcomes tracked?
- Are learners prepared for entrepreneurship or self-employment where appropriate?
- How well do employers perceive the readiness and productivity of newly trained workers?
- Are employment outcomes used to improve programme design and resource allocation?
Coordination, Accountability and Learning
- How well are ministries, departments, institutions, industry bodies and other stakeholders coordinating?
- Where multiple programmes address similar objectives, are roles and responsibilities differentiated?
- Who is accountable when a multi-institutional or multi-agency initiative does not achieve its objectives?
- How effectively is implementation evidence used to modify policies and programmes?
- Are successful practices systematically identified, documented and scaled?
- Do we have a mechanism to look at the skills ecosystem as a whole rather than each programme in isolation?
Also read: BRICS 2026: Education, Skills and TVET in the New Delhi Declaration
An NSN Checklist for a Responsive Skill Ecosystem
The 50 questions above provide a broader lens for examining India’s skills ecosystem. To take this exercise further, NSN has developed a short Skills Ecosystem Check based on the eight areas covered in this article.
The 5–7 minute self-assessment invites policymakers, educators, training professionals, industry representatives, researchers and other stakeholders to share their perspectives on where India’s skills ecosystem stands today.
Click here to take the NSN checklist for a responsive skill ecosystem – Click here!
The responses will help identify areas of strength, areas that may need greater attention, and perspectives that can contribute to the wider conversation on skills, TVET and employability. Selected findings may also be featured in a future edition of NSN Insights.
Looking at the Skills Ecosystem as a Whole
The 50 questions are not intended to suggest that the issues highlighted in the BRICS New Delhi Declaration are new to India. Many of these areas have already been addressed through policies, programmes and institutional initiatives.
The purpose is to look beyond individual initiatives and examine how well the different parts of the skills ecosystem work together; from labour-market alignment and industry participation to digital capability, qualifications, institutional capacity and employment outcomes.
The BRICS New Delhi Declaration provides a framework that brings these areas together. The questions in this article offer a way to examine them from the perspectives of the people and institutions working across India’s education, training, employment and industry landscape.
The NSN Skills Ecosystem Check takes this conversation one step further by inviting stakeholders to share their experience and perspectives. Together, the questions and the assessment can contribute to a more informed conversation on how India’s skills ecosystem is connected, implemented and evolving in practice.
Reference:
- BRICS New Delhi Declaration: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability, 12–13 September 2026, especially paragraphs 124–125. Official source: Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India.
- BRICS New Delhi Declaration, paragraphs 124–125 — Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India
- BRICS-TCA Symposium and JMC Meeting, 4 August 2026 — Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
