THE SKILLING CHALLENGE

THE FLAGSHIP SKILL INDIA MISSION HAS TRAINED OVER 60 MILLION INDIANS SINCE 2014. BUT WITH CONCERNS OVER POOR PLACEMENTS, LOW SALARIES AND RISE OF AI, IS IT TIME FOR A RESET?

- SURABHI

BUT WITH CONCERNS OVER POOR PLACEMENTS, LOW SALARIES AND RISE OF AI, IS IT TIME FOR A RESET? WITH A MEDIAN age of 28, India's population can power economic growth. But for decades, imparting skills and vocational training has been a challenge for policymakers and industry, putting the considerable demographic advantages that the country enjoys at risk. In fact, industry has for long complained that most of India's graduates are unemployable with little or no on-the-job skills and training. As per Mercer-Mettl's India's Graduate Skill Index 2025, just 42.6% of Indian graduates were employable in 2024, down from 44.3% in 2023. It attributed this to a drop in nontechnical skills.

Nipun Sharma, CEO of TeamLease Degree Apprenticeship, a degree apprenticeship service provider, highlights the massive skill gap and lack of formal skilling. "Our education system continues to emphasise qualifications over skills. While the government is working hard to attract investments in areas such as semiconductors, renewable energy, and electronics manufacturing, apprenticeship adoption still remains low—only 0.27% of our workforce are apprentices compared to 3-4% in the UK or Germany," he says.

This is apparent on the ground with learning a skill or undergoing vocational training being a choice forced either out of the economic necessity to earn quickly or lack of academic qualification to continue in the degree-based education system.

Renuka Chaudhary (name changed), a craft trainer at a government-run industrial training institute (ITI) in New Delhi, says though learning a skill can add to a degree from a college, there's not enough awareness about its benefits. Chaudhary, who did a computer science course from a polytechnic and has three decades of teaching experience, says not much has changed from the time she was a student. The ITI staff visits neighbourhood schools every year to make students in classes X and XII aware about this option.