Can Skilling Save India's Youths' Future?
The impact of COVID-19 is widely seen all over the world. India with it's over 300 million youth population is going through one of the worst crisis in history. The income loss, major lay-offs, salary cuts and unclarity on the future of work is creating an environment of despair among India's youth.
Many public and private organisations are working to put the economy back on track and recent trends show that skilling and reskilling our youth will be more important than ever. Amazon India has recently launched a pilot project to train 1,000 young apprentices under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme. Education and training are central to the achievement of the 2030 Global Agenda.
It is important to understand that this is not a short-term situation and we have entered into a new world. It has always been observed that when compulsive economic events happen, it tends to take years to play out. This is the time to fight against this crisis. Many great companies that we have today were born during or after a major economic crisis. This is the time to learn new skills and prepare for the future.
According to a report published by Dell Technologies and authored by the Institute For The Future (IFTF) and a panel of 20 tech, business and academic experts from around the world states that 85% of the jobs that will exist in 2030 haven't even been invented yet. What will be these future skills?
We also need more public-private partnerships to finance the widened gap for skilling. One good example is Skills Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion (SANKALP) project by World Bank, Govt. of India and the Private Sector, which has committed $ 675 million worth of investments to boost the skilling landscape in India.
We have also seen a rise in the consumption of online courses offered by platforms like Udemy, Coursera, UpGrad, Harappa and Byju's among others. NSDC chief, Manish Kumar said e-learning course enrollments grew 162% after COVID. E-learning is changing the way we learn and will continue to be a significant way of learning in the future but, with the amount of information which is out there, it's important to become selective and thoughtful about the content we consume.
As a responsible social enterprise which aims to empower young people, MASH Project Foundation has undertaken various initiatives to sensitise, build capacities and create an ecosystem for skilling. It has partnered with World Skills India along with Harappa Education, BW BusinessWorld and Network Capital to mark the World Youth Skills Day on 15th July 2020, with a special event called 'Community Connect: Unlocking Skills for Yuva' which will see an eminent panel of leaders from diverse backgrounds followed by a session by Harappa Education on Skills that build resilience through its Embracing Change course.
This year's theme of World Youth Skills Day is “Skills for a Resilient Youth. It's an important occasion to learn, collaborate and create opportunities for the future of our young people.
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