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Union Minister Jayant Chaudhary urged businesses to step up by offering better pay for certified workers and shifting away from informal hiring practices, stating, "everyone understands our skilling gap -- young people are graduating, but we cannot hire them".
Speaking at the 16th FICCI Global Skills Summit, the minister likened the current gap in valuing certified workers to the early days of carbon pricing, where the absence of clear mechanisms delayed meaningful climate action. He called for a shift in how India values skilled labour. "Currently, we don't have a price for employability, for skilling," he said. India is staring at a disconnect between formal education and employability, with policymakers and industry leaders warning that without urgent reforms, the country risks turning its demographic dividend into a liability. Reinforcing this sentiment, Jayant Chaudhary told ANI, "FICCI showed solidarity with the efforts the GoI is making to ensure national interest is kept supreme. Our Prime Minister also said that there is no way the interest of our farmers, fishermen, agricultural workers or rural artisans can be compromised." Industry leaders echoed the urgency. Bijay Sahoo, chair of FICCI's Skills Committee and HR head at Reliance Industries, pointed to India's tech talent and noted that 80 million Indians are already paying for tools like ChatGPT. "It's not that India doesn't have these capabilities -- we all need to be committed to creating an ecosystem," he said. AAP MP Vikramjit Singh Sahney, vice chairman of the Central Apprenticeship Council, announced plans for a regional apprenticeship programme across Punjab and Haryana, aiming to train 10,000 youth starting 15 October. "Skills are being taught, but there is a lack of connectivity between industry and skills. We have to make youth a dividend instead of a liability," Sahney told ANI. With over 230 million Indians aged 15-29, the clock is ticking. "The future of skills, the future of new tech and industry and disruption is already here -- we just need to prepare ourselves," Chaudhary said, stressing the role of the National Education Policy 2020 in bridging the skills gap through corporate partnerships and foreign collaborations. (ANI)
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