Potential Game Changers in
Skill Development
There
are 1.2 billion people in the world trapped in poverty, and surviving on
less than 1$ a day, and roughly a third of them live in India. For many
of these individuals, access to skill development and subsequently
gainful employment is one of the primary drivers that can change their
lives. With the mission to ‘Create Sustainable Livelihoods at Scale’,
the Development Alternatives Group believes that real change in
communities can result from working with the unemployed youth and women.
With this belief, it has developed and stabilised a unique operating
structure of several levels of skill development centres which ensure
that in Central India, access to affordable and relevant skilling is
right at the community’s doorstep.
The skill development sector has been
expanding rapidly in India due to lot of impetus by the government run
programmes as well as the corporate social responsibility funds deployed
by the corporate sector. With its demographic dividend’s strategic
advantage, India is home to the youngest population globally. There is a
huge market demand from both the unemployed youth as well as employers
and there are several new business models being explored in various
parts of India.
While skill development centres are
mushrooming everywhere, either stand alone or under the aegis of the
National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), there are 2 major growth
drivers for this sector that have the potential to become game changers.
mCommerce and Training of Trainers are areas which can exponentially
improve the impact of the skill development initiatives. The quality of
trainees and the absorption of skill sets by them is directly
proportional to the quality of trainers in a skill development centre.
The challenge however is in finding good quality trainers who are aware
of appropriate pedagogy, skill gaps, NSDC norms etc. While laptops and
computers remain costly and require training to operate, mobiles are
cheaper and are readily available with rural youth. Mobile penetration
in India is at an all-time high. India’s fastest growing area of new
internet users are coming out of rural areas or Tier 2 or 3 cities, and
they are using their mobiles to access the internet.
While mCommerce has the potential to take
skill development to the masses in an affordable and fast manner, the
existing skill development centres require highly trained and certified
trainers, which are difficult to find. There is an immediate need and
lot of potential in the new business models that can leverage on these
two missing gaps. ■
Manisha Mishra
mmishra@devalt.org
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