Youth and Employment: The Role of Skill India

Skill development today is the new mantra with the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s call in empowering the country through skilling the new hands. Skill development is imperative for our country for several reasons- today India is dubbed as a young country with 63% of our population in the age group of below 35.This demography will be actively looking for jobs, and can potentially drive domestic demand if they enjoy good economic status. Ironically, several developed nations are set to expect a manpower shortage simultaneously and expected to develop on countries having skilled productive manpower. This creates opportunities for overseas demand for our youth resulting in higher remittances for the economy and improved standards of living.

Despite the fact that India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and with a huge productive and young population base, the country still lags behind many of her competitors like China. And, one of the most important reasons behind this situation is unskilled workforce, particularly youth. Despite significant progress and achievements in the skill development arena from public and private sector initiatives, the sector is plagued with several challenges.

For the first time in our country a new initiative is being taken by the Government to address the pressing needs of our country and the world through skilling India. A full-fledged Ministry in Government of India is a testimony to the seriousness and importance of skill development. However, without understanding the skill gaps, future skill needs, and global skill demands the skill development initiative cannot be effective. Research and debate both at policy, industry and academic level are very much required for designing policy and strategy for skill development initiative. To understand the core issues related to skill development across the sectors, and to suggest and recommend desired changes at the policy and strategic level, Centre for Study of Contemporary Societies (CSCS),the research and development unit of Samarth Jeevan Trust is organizing a two days .

About CSCS:

Centre for Study of Contemporary Societies (CSCS) is an independent research and development wing of Samarth Jeevan Trust established in the year 2006 at Angul. CSCS has conducted many research on different issues and concerns of the contemporary society and has organised more than 20 seminars and both at national and regional level. There are continuous support and contribution by like minded volunteers and the members of the society for organizing regular debates, seminars, symposiums, s and research activities. The pull of resources are from across the universities, institutions, industry, NGOs and Government organisations those who have built a culture of research based dialogue and problem solving. CSCS has its registered office at Angul, but it is operating from three different local offices viz. Bhubaneswar, Nuapada, Kendrapada and Koraput. The objective of CSCS is to contribute to the society through research and evidence based initiatives for problem solving.

Objectives of the seminar

• To initiate inter-stakeholder dialogue on skill development.
• To understand the existing and potential skill gaps in India and the world.
• To recommend strategic and policy level changes for skilling India.
• To publish an edited volume on skill development initiative.

Call for Papers

We invite scholars all across the country to come up with original research papers and case studies on skill development and skilling india on the theme - “Youth and Unemployment: Role of Skill Development Initiative” to a two days s to be held on 12-13th August at Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Area of Contribution (Sub-themes)

Our area of focus includes (but not limited to) the following.

• Skill Development
• Youth and Employment
• Challenges to Human Resource Development
• Sectoral Skill Analysis (Industry Specific and Comparative)
• Global skill needs and changes
• Demographic divident through skilling