India has the largest young workforce in the entire world. Millions of people who could work for their own betterment and that of our constantly growing nation. And yet, earlier a large percentage of this workforce wouldn’t find employment. Because they did not possess the right skills required by the industry. A loss for both the industry and the youth.
But this has changed. The skilling ecosystem now follows a learner-centric approach. It provides the right kind of training to the learner as per their choice of careers while addressing the need of industries. India Skills Report 2022 claims the overall youth employability in India increased to 48.7% compared to last year’s standing at 45.9%. A positive trend that has awakened the necessity to upgrade the skill framework of the country.
The Union Budget for FY 2023 – 24 aims to further strengthen India’s economic status by revamping the skilling policy and making on-the-job training (OJT) mandatory for short-term courses. Thereby exposing learners to the work environment and improving placements after OJT. It also proposes to set up a global board of accreditation to bring industry focus to the ecosystem. An industry-centric approach with incentives for training and placements for candidates.
This has brought to light how important it is for the nation to have youth with industry-ready skills. Right from mobilisation to placements, all the processes must be completely learner centric as well as be continuously improved upon.
We believe when we embed the following two key principles in the skilling value chain, institutes and enablers will be able to offer industry ready workforce not just in our country but also to the global requirement.
1. Design every element keeping the learner at the heart of it. Having a learner-centric approach.
2. Bring the two significant stakeholders, the institute and the industry closer throughout the chain.
At Tata STRIVE, we have made quality a vital part of all our skilling programmes. Because it guarantees greater efficiency, regulation of successful practices, a better understanding of learners’ needs and improved satisfaction among the stakeholders resulting in greater outcomes.
While youths need to skill up, we must also put equal emphasis on the quality of these skilling interventions or else we may have a supply of trained youths but unemployable. This means not only addressing quality assurance in vocational education but also inculcating aspirational value for skilled training to the trainers and management faculty.
We at Tata STRIVE, believe that the most influential change agents are trainers. Most youths have access to information, trainers need to shift from spreading information to creating a learning environment. To inspire the learner to stay engaged in the course and become a lifelong learner. To bring about this change our facilitators go through training themselves.
Best Practices at Tata STRIVE:
a. Train the Trainer Programme: 10 days programme on adult learning principles, pedagogy practices, project and inquiry-based learning, classroom management and vocational landscape in India & abroad.
b. Continuous Professional Development & Classroom Observations: Periodic observations of training delivery and training programmes to upskill the facilitators.
c. Strengthen Your Industry Proficiency (SIP): An intervention for Facilitators to stay relevant in their respective domains.