KPMG in India report titled - An insight into East and Northeast India from a skilling vantage point

The need for a skilled workforce and its importance to the economic growth of a country has been a key agenda for discussion across several policy forums. Countries with high skill standards are able to cope up in a much better way with the challenges and opportunities presented by the ever changing domestic and international markets, particularly during the current age of COVID-19 pandemic and the resultant systemic social and economic turmoil.

India currently faces a dual challenge of severe shortage of well-trained, skilled workers on one hand and non-employability of graduates, who possess little or no job-oriented skills on the other hand. The India Skills Report 2019 estimates that less than five per cent of the total Indian workforce is skilled, a statistic that is worrying considering the overall requirement of skilled labour that exists in the country and compared to our peers where the ratio is substantially higher. In order to harness its demographic dividend and overcome its skill shortage, India needs to work towards developing a sustainable skill ecosystem and roadmap wherein the workforce is equipped with employable skills and knowledge to be able to contribute to the economic growth of the country. State governments will play a pivotal role - providing the much-needed policy direction, roadmap creation and guidance to all stakeholders in the skill ecosystem.

The report titled “An insight into East and Northeast India from a skilling vantage point”, which was launched today at the 2^nd CII Skill East – Developing a ‘fit for future’ workforce, discusses at length the demography, economy, focus sectors, and the ongoing skilling interventions of the six major states in the East and Northeast, namely Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. It also highlights about some of the key interventions that the individual State Skill Development Missions (SSDMs) may explore in order to further develop the skilling ecosystem within the region.

Narayanan Ramaswamy, Office Managing Partner - Kolkata and National Leader- Education & Skilling, KPMG in India says,“Eastern India is all set to have a significant economic growth in the years to come. If the benefit of such an economic growth should reach the youth of this region there is an urgent need for a skilled workforce, and hence a robust vocational system. This will be possible only when the government, industry and academia come together and catalyse the skill ecosystem to work towards a positive, result-oriented eco-system. Providing quality industry-aligned training, moving towards recognising certificates and certified workforce would encourage more and more youth to participate in vocational training.”

Moving to the next level of skill development in the East and the Northeast

Traditionally, East and Northeast India has been the supplier of skilled manpower to the rest of the country given the young workforce, large population within the employable age-group, and access to technically skilled as well as low cost resources. It may, hereby, be mentioned that only the three states of Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand together account for about 22 percent of the country’s migrant population, according to the Census. Realising the huge challenge as well as the vast opportunity, the individual state governments in the region have accorded skill development its due significance and launched several initiatives towards skilling the unemployed youth.

The government needs to address the inherent priorities of the region including focus on self-employment and entrepreneurship and female-centric skilling and employment to work towards the common goal of providing skilled workforce to support the economic expansion of the region. Some key recommendations are listed below:

1. Spreading awareness: There is currently a dire need to spread awareness about the need for skilling among the masses and the onus lies on all stakeholders of the skill ecosystem in this connection. There needs to be a continuous, concerted and combined effort from the governments at the state levels and the Centre to spread awareness about the benefits of enrolling in different schemes, their certifications and placement opportunities with the ultimate aim of making vocational education both aspirational and industry-aligned. For example, the individual SSDMs can be instrumental in creating awareness through campaigns in regional languages through electronic and print medium for maximum reach to target segments. NGOs with their grass-root level outreach and community connects too can be engaged in mobilizing awareness in remote areas.
2. Youth aspiration and mobilization: It would be important to engage with the students and candidates to understand their aspirations and aptitude for a particular sector or job role and set their job expectations right. It would not only help in getting the right kind of resources for respective roles but also curb dropouts and absenteeism during training as well attrition.
3. Indigenous sectors and skills: Eastern and Northeastern India are home to some of the best-known indigenous sectors of the country with more than 90 per cent people involved with unorganized sectors (including agriculture). Sectors like these need an ecosystem to sustain them. Artisans need to be provided with funds, market linkages and intelligence, a platform to market their products, education about raw materials and the products used and also how to market them. Educating the customer about the skills involved hence commanding a premium price for the product and promotion of fair-trade practices to build awareness among artisans and customers alike of the benefits of using of eco-friendly products and processes are also important.
4. Diversity and inclusivity: Any plan/policy mandate must acknowledge the intersectionality and the divergence in the social groups that it targets. It is important to embed inclusivity as well as equity under the ambit of any skill development plan and policy. Vocational education and trainings provide pathways to further learning, employment opportunities and a ‘second chance for learning’ to people from disadvantaged backgrounds. In line with the recommendations of NPSD&E 2015 i.e. development of a specific disadvantaged groups and gender-focused strategy to boost participation rates in skill development programs, it would be imperative to strengthen the equity angle in the state skill development plans of the states in this part of the country.
5. Industry involvement and PPP: While a lot of government as well as private institutions have been created for skill development, some suffer from physical infrastructure and manpower crunch. The industry has to step in here to help support the infrastructure needed in the ITIs and training centres so that students can receive industry relevant training with a focus on next-generation competencies and skillsets. It may also be said that the relevance of skill development programmes in the states could have been improved if the course/job role mix was adequately rationalized and prioritized to target the candidate’s aspirations and industry requirement. Further, there is more scope for engagement and advocacy with the industries, local business houses, and industry associations through sustainable engagement models. 
6. Factoring COVID-19 impact: Relevance also translates to skills in focus, particularly in the post COVID-19 era. While prioritization of sectors helps in identifying industries, the next important step is to focus on skills which are emerging and are required by the industries. It is evident that the skilling requirements of the future workforce is expected to undergo consequential changes which are dynamic and may be exigent to implement. The evolving market requirements would require effective moulding of the training landscape to guard against the redundancy of the workforce.
7. Integral approach to vocational education: It is essential that the skill development initiatives are coordinated with demand and supply scenarios across geographies, industries and labour markets so that new skills required by industry or changes in supply of labour are speedily adjusted with adequate and efficient training programmes
8. Migration support: Migration from one area to another in search of improved livelihood is a key feature of human history. The people from the East and the Northeast may be considered as the most vibrant migratory population. Globally the workforce is ageing, and this trend is going to continue for the next decade. India, particularly the East and the Northeast, a youth-concentrated geography, has the potential to reap its demographic advantage and export skilled workers to the world.

For the economic growth of the East and the Northeast, skilling and vocational education will be essential. It will be a catalyst for the success of the other initiatives and programmes introduced by individual state governments. For such skilling initiatives to succeed, the government, industry and academia will have to work hand-in-hand and catalyze the skill ecosystem further to achieve the objectives. Providing quality industry-aligned training, moving towards recognising certificates, preference to certified workforce would encourage more and more youth to participate in vocational training. Making skill development aspirational will ultimately lead towards changes in the society's perception on such training as a livelihood option, thereby motivating a larger number of youths to take up a skill-based career for improved quality of life and recognition.