Empowering More People In Rural India Through Skilling

In India, only 4.69 per cent of the workforce has formal vocational skill training compared to 60 to 90 per cent of the workforce in developed countries.

The country is pegged to be the youngest in the world, with an average age of 29 years. Its 869 million-strong workforce accounts for around 28 per cent of the world’s workforce. However, if the youth are not skilled they may face unemployment challenges, and turn out to be liabilities rather than assets.

As an obvious reaction to the pandemic, many aspects of our daily lives switched to an online method. Devices like mobile phones and tablets, the internet, and their applications like social media etc are a part of our lives and routine. It touches every aspect of society and changes it dramatically.

This has also created a set of new requirements for job openings like being skilled with handling laptops or entering data and more.

The one solution to ensure the youth are secure is skill development. This will help prospective employees get easier access to the formal job market where they can bargain for higher incomes, work under more congenial labour conditions, have greater job security and better access to healthcare and medical facilities.

What is skill development?

Education and skills are essential for everyone. They walk hand in hand in every person’s professional journey. Skill Development is the process of identifying the skills gap in youth and providing training to strengthen them. In turn, also provide employment benefits to them.

Skill development programs aim to acknowledge the ability of the youth and extend their support by serving them with the proper guidance, infrastructure, opportunities, and encouragement that help them achieve their ambitions.

Addressing the need of the hour, BharatCares, a non-profit organisation in India is working towards empowering the underprivileged. They strive to do this by providing education, life skills, and creating an entrepreneurial environment.

Skill development programmes

Through their initiative BharatCareers, currently, three programs are being offered - Youth Job Readiness Program, Computer and Digital Literacy Program, and Banking and Financial Skill Development Program.

The Youth Job Readiness Program prepares final year undergraduate and graduate students for the job market. They mentor and train youth with life skills or offer entrepreneurship training to make them future job-creators.

The Computer Training and Digital Literacy Program provides basic computer and digital literacy training for girls and women who have either dropped out from school or are currently pursuing their education. The onsite training program opens up avenues for housewives and married women who want to get hands-on training in the digital literacy space.

BFSI Skill Development Program aims to open avenues for the aspiring youth of our country who are keen on making their career in the banking and finance sector. The program focuses on equipping 12th pass students, final year undergraduates and graduates with the BFSI skills and relevant job-readiness skills.

They regularly conduct placement-linked training programs that have empowered several individuals.

Roshini Muthukumar

Roshini Muthukumar, a native of Chennai, started her career as a content writer but made a switch to journalism to pursue her passion. She has experience writing about human interest stories, innovative technology, entrepreneurs, research blogs, and more. Previously, Roshini has done internships with The Hindu, Metroplus and worked as a correspondent with The Better India.