Future skills: Upskilling and Reskilling Strategies for India

Rapidly changing market, accelerated by COVID-19 has been a key factor in the push towards upskilling and reskilling of various types of workers in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

Globally, the disruptions of technology adoption, and environmental impacts of globalization are significantly impacting the labour and product markets. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought in innovative ways of working such as remote and flexible working. This coupled with poor working environment in developing economies is further impacting the labour market.

Rapidly changing market, accelerated by COVID-19 has been a key factor in the push towards upskilling and reskilling of various types of workers in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

  • How the ‘future of work’ is being impacted by the above factors, with a focus on need for reskilling and upskilling?
  • Strategies and policy initiatives being adopted globally for reskilling and upskilling.

Challenge

Challenge Statement

India has a huge demographic dividend, however with only around 5 per cent of its working population trained formally, it faces a huge challenge of shortage of skilled manpower thereby threatening India’s potential for economic development.

Vision Statement for IGDR

The IGDR’S vision is to provide policy insight and direction to India’s skill development initiatives through discussions, outcome-oriented research that can help enable stakeholders to make India a powerhouse of skilled workforce in the world.

Solutions

Some of the solutions around which IGDR is going to work are:
  • Reskilling/UpSkilling
  • Apprenticeship
  • Industry Academia partnerships
  • Public-private partnerships
  • International mobility of skilled workforce

Strategy

IGDR’s strategy for addressing the skills challenge rests on 4 pillars:
  • Continual innovation in design and delivery of skilling
  • Apprenticeship
  • Evidence-based advocacy for shaping the discourse on new-age skill development
  • Delineating the role of public and private actors in this transformation
IGDR will focus on the following thematic areas:
  • Future workforce development strategies– Solutions for making the workforce future ready including upskilling and reskilling, life-long learning, formal recognition of informally acquired skills and adaption to new business models
  • Enhancing skill development models – Evaluation of existing skill development models of government-funded programmes, apprenticeships, on-the-job trainings, market-led and PPPs and recommending process improvements
  • Improvement in quality of jobs – Solutions for addressing the quality of work challenge; eliminating working poverty, improvement in working conditions, and promoting equitable employment opportunities
  • International mobility of skilled workforce – Developing a mechanism for enabling international mobility of workforce to support India’ commitment of becoming a ‘skill capital’ of the world.