Skilling India: An Aspirational Challenge
119
counselled to develop realistic expectations
of employment opportunities.
Labour productivity
: Comparison of
labour productivity growth
18
across Asian
Productivity Organisation (APO) member
countries during the year 2000–2012 shows
that labour productivity growth has been the
highest in China (9.1 per cent) followed by
Mangolia (5.3 per cent), India (5.1 per cent),
Lao PDR (4.6 per cent), Vietnam (4.4
per cent), Cambodia (4.4 per cent), Sri Lanka
(4.2 per cent) and Indonesia (3.5 per cent).
India ranked 2nd among the 20 APO mem-
ber countries for which the study has been
made. The comparison of labour productiv-
ity measures in terms of GDP (Purchasing
Power Parity) per person employed per hour
and Overall Productivity–Real Growth, that
is, percentage change of Real GDP per per-
son employed in Asian Countries and four
benchmark countries during 2013 reveals
that productivity level per person employed
per hour in India during 2013 in comparison
with other selected nine Asian countries is
the lowest at 4.78 US$. The labour produc-
tivity in selected nine Asian Countries has
been reported to be the highest for Singapore
(47.25 US$) followed by Hong Kong (43.77
US$) and Japan (36.33US$).
19
While growth
in labour productivity has been impressive,
in terms of absolute level of productivity
India lags behind and has to meet this chal-
lenge to remain competitive.
Thus, Government faces several chal-
lenges in skilling—improving quality of
basic education and stemming dropout
rate from schools, improving skills of casual
labour, majority of whom are illiterate and
can benefit little from classroom based
trainings, increasing labour productivity,
designing proactive strategies to ensure that
women are not left behind in work par-
ticipation and last, designing skilling pro-
grammes tomeet the aspiration of the youth
but not the least ensuring career progression
of already employed with appropriate skill-
ing so that overall productivity increases
and Indian industries can compete globally.
Initiatives for skill building
20
The Government has recognised the need
for Skill Development with the 11th Five
Year Plan providing a framework to address
the challenge. The first National Skill
Development Policy was framed in 2009 and
subsequently a National Skill Development
Mission was launched in 2010. Over the
last seven years, from Eleventh Plan period,
India has made some progress towards
developing the institutional efforts to drive
skills training at scale. The establishment of
the NSDC in 2009 to promote private sector
participation via short duration courses was
a significant initiative. The NSDC has tied
up with more than 207 training providers,
of which many have started scaling up their
operations. NSDC also supported and incu-
bated 33 Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) that
are intended to facilitate the much needed
participation and ownership of the industry
to deliver needs-based training courses.
The National Skills Development
Agency (NSDA) is working with the State
governments to rejuvenate and synergise
skilling efforts in the State. The National
Source:
Based on data from Employment and
Unemployment Situation Among Social Groups in
India, NSS 68th Round (July 2011–June 2012).
Note:
The table refers to population 15 years and above.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Not literate
Primary
Middle
Secondary
Higher secondary
Diploma/cert
Graduate
Post graduate+
All
Figure 6.5:
Educational attainment and unem-
ployment levels
18
GoI, Annual Report of Ministry of Labour and
Employment, 2014–15.
19
GoI, Annual Report, 2014–15.
20
The state of the sector reports on livelihoods for
the years 2011 and 2013 had in-depth coverage of skill
development. This chapter builds on them.
