10th CII Global Summit on Skill Development and Livelihood – A Report

Session 2 – India Skills Report 2023: A Roadmap to India’s Skills and Talent Economy of 2030

This session included insights from industry and academia on how skills can be leveraged for better employment opportunities.

The eminent panelists for the second session included Mr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi; Chairperson – National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET), Mr. Andra Vamsi; Mission Director, Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission, Mr. Piyush Nangru; Co-Founder and COO, Sunstone, Mr. DP Singh; Strategic Advisor, Employability, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ms. Shalini Karunakaran Kuila; General Manager, Corporate, Times Internet and Mr. Nirmal Singh; Chief Convenor of India Skills Report, Founder & CEO, Wheebox was the moderator for this session.

“India Skills Report” activity starts in February every year and combines forces from government, industry, and academia. It goes to all the urban and semi-urban places of India, where close to 3.7 lakh students in higher education got tested on employability skills and approached almost 15+ sectors to know the hiring intentions for the coming year.

During the presentation on India Skills Report 2023, sharing a few insights about employment, Mr. Nirmal Singh; Chief Convenor of India Skills Report, Founder & CEO, Wheebox, said, “This year, the employable workforce for females has moved above men. So 52.8 percent of the total female population that took the test were more employable than the male population, which is 47.2 percent. But the hiring mix of males and females per industry came to 67 percent male and 33 percent female. The in-demand industries for hiring employees are more in the automotive industry and engineering and manufacturing industries”.

Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi; Chairperson – National Council for Vocational Education and Training (NCVET), joined the event virtually and shared his viewpoints and recommendations on the topic. He stated, “NCVET is working on creating international equivalence of qualifications, which is being done through bilateral equivalence with countries such as Australia and New Zealand through various organisations like the ILO. We are also trying to get into SAARC, a commonwealth of learning, as international equivalence is the focus of the Indian government. For this purpose, NCVET is onboarding all globally renowned OEMs for skilling, training, and certifications”.

Mr. Andra Vamsi; Mission Director, Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission, stressed that “Skills are the basic walks of life; everything that we use is related to a skill. We need to guide people through training and interact with the industry to know about market changes so that enhanced skill sets can be obtained”

Speaking about the skills gap in India, Mr. Piyush Nangru, Co-Founder and COO of Sunstone, stated, “Coming from academia, there is a problem of fragmentation; we have 50,000 colleges, and at each unit, matchmaking is not possible, so there has to be an aggregation effort that has to come into play. The larger universities with a large student body should get into this game where there can be effective matchmaking, and this is the skill gap that can be bridged.”

Mr. DP Singh; Strategic Advisor, Employability, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said, “Technology has to become horizontal and cut across higher education. This is where the industry has to step in and that’s where the entire effort of the higher education institutions have to look at it”.

“Our role is not just giving news but also helping people achieve their career goals and grow professionally. For several years, we have been continuously working on creating programs and initiatives that make us more relevant to our readers. This month, we are launching an initiative called ET Career Ready, it is for the top employable talent across the country,” said Ms. Shalini Karunakaran Kuila; General Manager, Corporate, Times Internet.