There is need for more public-private partnerships (PPPs) to meet the Prime Minister's aim of having 500 million skilled persons in the country by 2022. However, the biggest challenge at present is the acute shortage of trainers.
“We need more trainers to meet the target of 40 million skilled persons annually,” Mr Sharda Prasad, Director-General of Employment and Training, Labour Ministry, said. He was addressing the fourth Global Skills Summit here on Thursday, hosted jointly by the Labour Ministry and industry chamber FICCI.
Mr Prasad said the shortage of trainers was despite enhanced investment as well as expansion of the country's training capacity from about 2.5 million persons in 2006-07 to 5 million at present.
He called upon the private sector to help in providing trainers to meet the target. The Labour Ministry is setting up 6,500 skill institutes under the PPP model.
Mr S. Ramadorai, Adviser, National Skill Development Council, said the focus should be on creating a skills database or a registry. The country's expertise in technology can play a big role in areas such as modernisation of employment exchanges into a marketplace for job-seekers.
A paper by FICCI-Ernst & Young, says 75 per cent of new job opportunities will be skills-based. “It is, therefore, essential for the country to evolve a comprehensive qualification framework linking formal education and vocational training, industry linkages in designing courses and certification accreditation,” it said.