According to a report by consultancy company McKinsey & Co, India would need to upgrade the skill sets of around 500 million people by 2020 to meet its growth requirements. At current capacities, however, the country can train barely 50 million. Yet another consulting firm Boston Consulting Group has said that, of the 89 million people expected to join the workforce from 2009-13, over 47 million would be school dropouts.
“Corporates must actively commit resources — time, money and people — to innovatively collaborate with educational institutions so that academic curriculum is tuned to changing needs of the industry.” Manwani said.
In my view, students need to be counselled on their careers and what they have an aptitude for. Currently, everyone who does a basic graduation aspires aspires for a white collar job. Whereas the reality is – we need vocational training at the undergraduate level – skilled workforce to build the industry. In fact, Rashmi Bansal said it best in her blog post. Go read it.
