The Importance of Skilling the Youth for Economic Growth
The youth makes up the majority of the employability facet, and skilling the youth is paramount now more than ever to ascertain a sustained growth in the economy. The world is observing a shift towards a knowledge-based economy wherein skilling the youth has become an integral part of every endeavour. A skill-set will determine an individual’s job-specific abilities, leading to easier employability, in a realm where technology advancement and globalization are taking over. Skilling the youth makes an individual job-ready and also enhances self-reliance that will help the individual as well as the sustained growth of the economy.
The Unemployment Challenge
Although the youth makes up most of the population, UN estimates project that the youth are three times more likely than other adults to face the wrath of unemployment. Low-quality jobs, market inequities, increased labor, and inefficient school-to-work transitions are some of the reasons holding back the skilling of the youth. The global pandemic also has a huge role to play in the unemployment factor as it hindered education and job possibilities as the economy plummeted.
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Positive Aspects of Developing Youth Skills
Let us look at some of the positive aspects of developing the skills of the younger generation:
- Job-Specific Competencies: An individual will acquire the required competencies and knowledge to help them seek jobs specific to their skill-set.
- Self-Reliance and Confidence: It encourages the individual to be more self-reliant, confident, and in acquiring higher self-esteem.
- Promotion of Entrepreneurship: Skilling the youth also promotes entrepreneurship as they become capable of starting a job based on their competencies, also creating jobs for others in parallel.
- Bridging the Skill Gap: To help bridge the skill gap, youth skilling is of utmost importance. The market will observe a sufficient supply of skilled employees, which will reduce the unemployment and underemployment rates in a nation, especially in developing nations.
- Driving a Knowledge-Based Economy: A knowledge-based economy needs skilling the youth so that the economy is driven by innovation and healthy competition.
- Adapting to Market Changes: It creates a skilled workforce that enables adapting to changing market conditions and novel technologies.
- Higher Value Jobs: Lastly, skilling the youth creates the scope for higher-value jobs due to the emergence of specialized skills and knowledge, which in turn leads to economic and individual prosperity.
Addressing the Challenge
Solutions are needed for every challenge that emerges. Skilling the youth is a challenge that is very much looked at from a distance, but it is high time that we start to ruminate and then act on the basics of youth skilling.
Approaches to Achieving Youth Skilling
Here are a few instances of how this could be achieved:
- Primary Education as the Foundation: Primary education is the base point in which youth skilling could be taken more seriously. Vocational training should be introduced with full zeal so that students can understand their areas of interest, and this will lead to skilling the youth in such a manner that a potential workforce for the future will be created based on their interests. This will also lead to job life satisfaction.
- Leveraging Digitization for Skilling: With the surge of digitization in India, remote and virtual-mode learning should be made more effective to provide skilling of the youth.
- Focusing on Young Graduates: The focus should also be on skilling young graduates who usually lack job skills because their education is focused more on academia than practical vocational aspects.
- Upskilling the Existing Workforce: The next step is to provide upskilling opportunities for people who are already in possession of a job.
Conclusion: The Collective Responsibility
Developing the skills of the younger generation is immensely important for the sustained growth of the economy. When we talk about the economy, we tend to miss that the youth makes up a huge chunk of the economic progress that will enable the country to progress at par with developed nations. It is not just a single-faceted work or a one-sided job; it goes multiple ways. The government, educational institutes, organizations, and businesses should join hands toward the goal of developing the skills of the younger generation so that there is sustained progress and growth in the economy.
Reference: Skilling the youth: The surest way towards sustained growth, The CSR Journal
