A recent NASSCOM data reveals that more than 75% graduates of Indian Universities are really not employable. There is now a growing need to teach job-specific skills and to bundle the curricula with globally recognised certifications to be able to quickly respond to changing market needs. The Prime Minister of India has fixed a target, that is, by 2022 at least 5 crore Indian youth have to be technically trained. An overall assessment has revealed that in the developed and the developing countries put together, 4.5 crores of manpower is required as resource to match up with the industrial demands.
Besides, India’s labour force is growing at a rate of 2.5% annually but the employment rate is growing at only 2.3% due to a huge dearth of skilled workforce. Only 5% of the labourforce has some kind of skill certification in contrast to 85% in the developed countries.
Therefore, skill development in the current scenario is gradually assuming a role of great significance. In this issue, we aim to bring to the fore and to the attention of our readers, some skill development initiatives that have aimed to bridge the gap between the education imparted and the actual skills needs of the industry.
Various ministries, departments and organisations have been actively involved in skill development pro grammes. Many industrial training institutes are being opened all across India to impart the right kind of skill to the youth population- which will enable them to contribute positively and productively in the development of the nation.
The paradigm shift is from formal education to streams of vocational training to benefit a large chunk of our youth population including the unemployed, un-organised sector workers and the dropouts from school education. This untapped human resource segment goes waste because there is lack of training opportunities for enabling them to sharpen their skills with certification.
Through this issue we also bring our readers, a glance of eAsia summit scheduled to be held in Colombo between 2nd to 4th December 2009. eAsia is an open ICT for development platform for Asian countries to discuss opportunities and challenges in promoting growth of ICT4D, through consultative dialogues, strategic planning, knowledge networking and business partnering. The conference will bring together scholars from Asia, high government officials, academicians and industry players for sharing knowledge and information regarding health, governance and education issues in the field of development.
