Centre Flags Skilling Gaps

As many as 11 formidable gaps’ in Skilling a ‘Future Ready Workforce’ for Viksit Bharat have been flagged by the Centre in a note shared with chief secretaries.

The challenges identified range from under representation of women in advanced roles and tech/manufacturing sectors to digital inequity, a largely non participate private sector, fragmentation with as many as 20 ministries running skilling schemes besides the lack of skilled trainers and training framework.

The note circulated ahead of the 5th National Conference of Chief Secretaries lists out a series of governmental efforts but notes that “yet, despite demonstrable progress, formidable gaps persist”.

The joint concept note by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship and the Department of Agricultural research and education.

Key challenges identified by the Centre:

1. The Challenges red flagged in the note Limited coverage of formal skilling: Only 4.42 percent of India’s population aged 15-29 years possesses a recognized vocational certificate, a stark contrast to South Korea (96%)3 Japan (80%) and Germany (75%).

Enhanced focus on Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and integration of vocational education within mainstream curricula is essential, though current coverage remains inadequate for the scale of need’.

2. Lack of Dynamic Demand Planning and Labour Market Intelligence: Skilling ecosystem remains unresponsive to fast-evolving labour market trends driven by automation, Al, and new technologies.

Currently, only 41% of ITI and 29% of polytechnic graduates are deemed employable

3. Absence of a unified Labour Market Information System: Sectors such as aerospace show how academic outputs remain misaligned with high-end industrial demand.

LMIS needed to integrate high-frequency datasets, such as GST, e-Shram, and Invest India- to help in evidence-driven planning.

4. Industry Co-ownership in Skilling- old grouse: Despite multiple MoUs between industry and government, ‘industry involvement in curriculum design, training delivery, and hiring remains limited’. Similarly, the Apprenticeship programs have ‘yet to reach critical mass’, says the note.

5. Limited Integration between Skilling and Education- persistent pain point: MSDE has suggested building flexible, well-de-fined pathways between general education and vocational training to enhance career mobility, increase the appeal of vocational education.

6. Fragmented Governance and Institutional Convergence: The MSDE has pointed out how over 20 Central Ministries are involved in delivering skilling schemes leading to a ‘highly fragmented’ system with limited coordination across central and state levels and poor dataflow.

“A unified “Whole of Government” governance model is still in early stages of implementation”, the concept note to all states reads.

7. Trainer Shortage and Capacity Gaps: The quality and availability of skilled trainers are ‘major bottlenecks’, the note has said pointing to lack of formal industry experience or exposure to modern pedagogies and technology. The absence of standardised skills practitioner framework and limited per-formance-linked incentives are other concerns.

8. Access to quality skilling especially for marginalised communities: Marginalised groups have limited access to skilling programs due to poor connectivity, physical isolation, and lack of supportive in frastructure.

9. Gender Barriers and Low Female Participation: Socio cultural norms to mobility constraints, lack of safe infrastructure, limited child care support, unpaid work and digital exclusion continue to limit career options for women.

Gender-targeted initiatives have been proposed but are yet to achieve scale and impact, the Centre’s note reads.

10. Harmonization with Global Mobility Framework: Lack of mutual recognition of qualifications and limited language training results in low global placements. The MSDE has held that while Skill India International Centres (SIICs) are being developed, ‘greater institutional and G2G effort and support from the Ministry of External Affair’ is required to unlock international skilling opportunities at scale.

11. Skilling needs in Agriculture and allied sector: Under-employment and low productivity continue to bog down Agriculture and allied sectors which employ 43% of India’s workforce but contribute only 18 percent to GDP.

With less than 10% of its 25 crore-strong workforce formally trained, there is acute need to ‘formalize the informal’, it states.

Current training curriculum has limited exposure to emerging practices; Infrastructure in rural skilling centres remains inadequate and career pathways are unclear.

(Courtesy: The ET)

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