India Skills Report 2018-20: How has Youth Fared?

Recently, the India Skills Report 2018-20 was released to some interesting insights.

What is the India Skills Report?

The India Skills Report is a joint initiative by a Global Talent Assortment Company called PeopleStrong, along with the Confederation of Indian Industry. They had partners such as UNDP, AICTE, and AIU on board as well. The study is an in-depth analysis of employability among youth who are fresh candidates joining the workforce.

How has the youth fared?

Employability among the youth is commendable. Compared to 33% in 2014 and 47.38% in 2018, this year 46.21% have been noted as employable. Female employability is on a steady rise at 47% this year, compared to 46% in 2018 and 38% in 2017. MBA students were found to be the most employable at 54% compared to 40% over the last two years. However, a decline was noticed in employability among students from BTech, Engineering. MCA graduates, Technical & Computer-related courses.

How have individual states fared?

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh have come up as the top three most employable states whereas West Bengal and Haryana dropped out of the top ten rankings. Mumbai and Hyderabad topped as the most employable cities.

Way Forward

India is at the cusp of cashing in its demographic dividend with 34.33% of its population comprising of the youth. Employable talent has been on a meteoric rise over the past six years. The target of attaining a $5 trillion economy is rooted in a steady increase in the per capita income of Indian citizens. This can only work if the citizens are employable and have considerable skills and useful talents. To achieve this, we need better educational institutions, more skill programs and supporting startups and industries that will create jobs. With the progress seen over the last couple of years, this doesn’t seem like a distant dream anymore.