VisionPlus India

landscape in the country, such as • Public perception views skilling as the last option meant for those who have not been able to progress/ have opted out of the formal academic system. • Skill development programmes of the Central Government are spread across more than 20 Ministries/ Departments without any robust coordination and monitoring mechanism to ensure convergence. • Multiplicity in assessment and certification systems leads to inconsistent outcomes and causes confusion among employers. • A paucity of trainers, and an inability to attract practitioners from the industry as faculty. • A mismatch between demand and supply at the sectoral and spatial levels. • Limited mobility between skill and higher education programmes and vocational education. • Very low coverage of apprenticeship programmes. • Narrow and often obsolete skill curriculum. • Declining labour force participation rate of women. • Pre-dominant non-farm, unorganised sector employment with low productivity but no premium for skilling. • Non-inclusion of entrepreneurship in the formal education system. • Lack of mentorship and adequate access to finance for start-ups. • Inadequate impetus to innovation-driven entrepreneurship. Be it manufacturing, retail, distribution, technology, sales and marketing, e commerce- Omni Channel there are ample areas to work on and ride the wave. For this, its time to move out of our past mindset of small-scale business units and look at a global scale to target opportunities within India and the rest of the world. Skill gap challenge: Sixty- five per cent of India’s fast-growing population is under 35, and many lack the skills needed by a modern economy. Estimates show that about 51.25 per cent of the youth is deemed employable. In other words, about one in two are not yet readily employable, straight out of college. However, it must be noted that the percentage has improved from around 34 per cent to 51.3 per cent in the last decade. Helping India Build a Skilled, inclusive, workforce for the Future : The Annual Report further goes on to enumerate the challenges in the skilling and entrepreneurship ITS TIME TO MOVE OUT OF OUR PAST MINDSET OF SMALL-SCALE BUSINESS UNITS AND LOOK AT A GLOBAL SCALE TO TARGET OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN INDIA AND THE REST OF THE WORLD 57 VISION PLUS INDIA EDITION