Despite the Government spending more than Rs30,000 crores towards skill training, vocational skilling and education, India is still plagued by low esteem and demand supply mismatch states Teamlease Signalling Value of Skill Education and Hands on-job report.
According to the report, only 2 per cent of the workforce has opted for formal skill training making it one of the least preferred streams of education. The report attributes the low penetration of vocational learning to the lack of appreciation for hands on training, limited upward mobility, weak labour market linkages and strong perception of labour as inferior which commands mere subsistent wages.
Moreover, apart from social standing, the current vocational education system has not been able to impress the employers either. Employers viewed vocational educated candidates to be marginally better than the untrained. In fact, most corporates were skeptical about the quality of training and hence provided the recruits with in-house training. They were also wary of trained candidates attiring within a short period.
Career decisions are still guided by non- professionals with 76 per cent of respondents depended on parents to help them choose their careers, whereas only 53 per cent of the candidates relied on teachers and career advisors. While corporates are struggling to fill their blue collar/skilled profiles, talent regardless of gender aspires to secure an administrative job. Desk jobs are ranked right at the top by talent.