Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Wednesday said that skilling of youth should become a national movement and urged all stakeholders to participate in a mission- mode to accomplish this objective.
Speaking at the National Institute of Personnel Management Personnel (NIPM) 2019 conference on ‘India’s Changing Paradigm: Skills and Entrepreneurship for Global Competitiveness’ here, he pointed out that automation and artificial intelligence would greatly influence the requirements of the industry.
He said it was important to anticipate the innovation and breakthrough processes required for the future and ensure the availability of high-quality workforce to meet the demands of different sectors.
He called for a paradigm shift in the way people perceive skilling and entrepreneurship and said a renewed focus on aspects such as ‘scale’ ‘speed’ and ‘quality’ was needed to make India competitive.
Urging educational institutions and academicians to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship right from school age, Naidu said: “empower the youth to become job creators rather than becoming job seekers”.
He said that strong foundations must be laid to provide vocational and technical skills to rural youth.
“There is a need to have a good mix of formal education, off-the-job, and on-the-job training,” he said.
Stating that nearly 54 per cent of the Indian population was under 25 years and 65 per cent of population below 35 years, he called for steps to encourage them to learn new technology and adapt to the changing technological requirements.
“Skill does not mean only knowing a task or performing a certain activity with precision. It is the willingness and readiness of the person to learn new things,” he said.
He noted that a workforce with appropriate skilling was important to reduce unemployment, raise incomes, and improve standards of living.
Naidu also suggested revamping the education system in a holistic manner from the primary school level to higher education with a greater focus on academia-industry interaction and enhancing the component of vocational training.
