New Delhi: India needs to shift its focus from training more people to ensuring skilling leads to jobs, higher wages and career progression, NITI Aayog said in its latest report Wednesday, proposing an overhaul of the country’s skilling architecture.
The federal think tank has recommended introducing courses on employability and entrepreneurship skills from Class 6 onwards, making apprenticeships (on-the-job training) a primary route to employment and moving towards skills-first hiring where a formal degree will not be essential.The recommendations are part of NITI Aayog’s latest report ‘Reimagining Skilling for Viksit Bharat@2047’, which says more than 7.67 crore people have undergone skills-based training since 2014-15.
The Union Budget had allocated Rs 34,000 crore for FY 2025-26 in skilling-related expenditure across central ministries.However, the report notes that “outcomes remain uneven”.It maps India’s workforce and learners across five segments, together representing around 60 crore citizens—school students; tertiary education; formal and informal workers; not in education, employment or training youth; and women.It says the system should allow people to move between education, skilling and work without restarting their learning journey at every transition.Start skilling in schools
