Changing Dynamics in the Employment
and Skilling Ecosystem
COVID
19 pandemic has severely impacted the global and the Indian economy. It
is estimated that four out of five people (81%) in the global workforce
of 3.3 billion people are currently affected by full or partial
workplace closure. India along with the US, UK, Canada and most of the
European countries have begun to register huge job losses leading to
significant rise in unemployment rates. The existing scenario of
employment in India says that in urban areas, about 93 million informal
workers are involved in five sectors that are most affected by the
health crisis namely:
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manufacturing and retail trade,
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hotels and restaurants,
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construction and transport,
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storage and communications,
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finance, business and real estate.
COVID 19 and its Impact on Employment![](images/Lead.jpg)
Out of the total 93 million informal workers
in these sectors, 50% are self-employed, 20% are daily wage workers and
30% are salaried or contractual employees without any social safety net.
At present, maximum employment opportunities exist in logistics
(warehouse and delivery), medical, health and e-retailing sector,
wherein one can secure an entry level job.
Most IT-ITeS, banking, telecom companies
have enabled work from home options for employees with all business
operations being carried out digitally in this pandemic situation. Some
interesting trends have been observed in these situations such as the
demand for digital payment methods has increased, leading to higher
usage of Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe etc. Similarly, with people ordering
more essential goods and services online, E-Commerce platforms like
Amazon, Flipkart, etc are doing well. These companies will need to look
into investing more in resources through new recruitments in order to
meet the expected needs and corresponding surge.
Impact of the Pandemic on the Skilling
Ecosystem
More than 30,000 Training Centres,
Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and National Skill Training
Institutes (NSTIs) have temporarily suspended operations. This has
impacted 50,000 plus students across India. It is imperative to address
workforce-related challenges across different sectors.
Due to COVID 19 lockdown, some of the
envisaged challenges in the skill development ecosystem are mobilisation
of candidates post migration of people, low institutional capacity (not
in line with increased requirement to meet training targets), limited IT
infrastructure for conducting online training, reduced debt
serviceability of skill service providers, diminishing CSD funds for
skill development initiatives and lack of employment/apprenticeship
opportunities due to deferment of recruitment by industry.
The current situation is not only affecting students enrolled for
vocational training but also the existing workforce at large. Some of
the challenges include sectoral impact on growth and manpower
requirements across sectors, job losses due to business disruption and
its ripple effect and surge in manpower requirements across critical
sectors including healthcare and pharmaceutical, logistics and food
processing.
Development Alternatives (DA) Group has
adopted a two-fold strategy to combat these issues:
1. Skilling of stakeholders for
conducting and monitoring the digital training
Steps have been taken in the direction of
training of trainers of all the existing vocational training centres.
Different platforms have been explored to orient the trainers in
conducting online sessions. DA is also orienting trainers on “bridge
courses” i.e ways of conducting sessions with minimum facilities. For
example, using WhatsApp as a platform for training. The process of
conducting trainings on WhatsApp has been piloted in various projects
and shown successful results.
Efforts are also being made to normalise
learning opportunities for the target groups by digitising the learning
content, conducting online classes and initiating WhatsApp groups for
knowledge dissemination among the beneficiaries. Going forward, DA is
committed towards creating opportunities for skilling underprivileged
youth through skill training in logistics, health, e-commerce and IT-ITeS
sector and then linking them to sustainable livelihoods.
2. Reaching out to other organisations
and joining hands for solving issues
Development Alternatives is using webinars
as a modus operandi to ensure sharing of knowledge. Ideas are being
shared to find new solutions.
Skilling ecosystem is at the “brink of
change” and with this there can certainly be a dawn of more
techno-centric education and training in the entire country if the
government, civil society organisations and communities can come
together to adopt and understand digitalisation as a new way of
learning. This process of common endeavours must be accompanied with
spreading awareness in communities about usage of digital platforms.
Some of the suggested next steps are as
follows:
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The Centre and State governments should
constitute a task force comprising all the stakeholders to assess,
review and recommend changes in policies, procedures that can help
transform India’s education and skills scenario post-COVID19.
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Develop new manpower estimates for
recovering sectors. Re-visit training capacities to cater to post COVID
demands.
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Accelerate sectoral training plans to meet
industry demands during the recovery phase and compensate for lost
training.
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Increase in Learning Management System (LMS)
and synchronous video usage.
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Increase adoption of online and digital mode
of education.
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Government to provide backup funding to
maintain learning continuity.
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Deeper focus on completing classroom
learning hours for trainees.
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Establish tracking systems to help service
providers monitor students effectively.
Development Alternatives is also
launching an online ‘first of its kind’ revolutionary youth platform –
Bridge2Naukri (website and mobile application). It is a
comprehensive online/digital solution and platform for robust training,
placement and post placement assistance to the cohort of underprivileged
and underserved beneficiary pool, who are seeking employment
opportunities. A back-end call centre is also being setup to provide
real time solutions to the candidates regarding apprenticeship/job
opportunities available, training courses, career counselling and
employment related peer issues etc.
Along with the government, civil society
organisations have a great role to play in normalising this change. If
it is done successfully, the skilling ecosystem will successfully
witness a history of change which will be inclusive and comprehensive in
nature. ■
References:
Tanvi Arora and Abhinav
tarora@devalt.org and
akgupta@devalt.org
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