Ajay Chhangani tells you how skilling the youth will boost start-ups in the country
In course of switching from agrarian to industry economy, India is achieving one milestone after the other. As a part of this paradigm shift, skill development of youth plays a vital role in shaping futuristic economy of the country. Also, the new campaigns launched by the Prime Minister such as Start-Up India and Skill India are ardently supporting the fact. Skill development in every sector is essential to reap in the maximum demographic dividend, which ensures country’s economic development and the future prosperity. But, lack of adequate skill set and enrooting business idea, this productivity is unlikely to accrue anytime soon in our country.
However, when we talk about specific skills, it is not only for employability but also to create a robust environment for entrepreneurship among youth. A large number of youth in India are still unemployed due to lack of opportunity and proper education. An effort to train these youth and providing them with industry know how, assures their independence. By doing this, there will be opportunities of enthused job creation as well as start-ups in the country. In order to create a skilled working youth we need to focus on multi-level engagement and more impactful implementation of skill development efforts. This will not only ensure the employment growth but also India will move towards a superior demographic dividend.
Accelerating the move, the Centre has initiated practice of skill development at the grass root level in rural parts of the country. Also, in order to achieve its vision of a skilled India, Government aims to skill people on large scale with speed and high standards. At the same time, there are various funded organisations taking initiative to train people free of cost. By doing so, they not only ensure employability but also motivates individuals to initiate their own start-ups.
It is widely believed that, skilling and entrepreneurship complement each other and the most important part of learning a new skill is to implement practically. Moreover, the whole process of learning is rewarding and interesting, and one can gain insights into their own capabilities and character. Often, fundamental skills are seldom sufficient for decent jobs in the current industry scenario and one has to be multi facet in order to achieve a success. Accordingly, an improved productivity through skill development must be complemented by economic growth and employment opportunities.
Today, a lot of young entrepreneurs who want to begin a business are held back due to lack of proper skills and training at the grassroot level. In spite of having a brilliant industry knowledge one falls back in entrepreneurship due to lack of life skills. This is because, in addition to hard skills (technical knowledge), one also need soft skilling starting a business. Also, life skills are the building blocks of any business, especially for start-ups, with many people now willing to take the risk of running a business. Ignoring soft skills like public speaking, time management, and relationship building, negotiation and leadership may hamper the rapid growth of the startup environment which is otherwise possible by honing these. However, there are certain human skills even the best programmes don’t usually teach that are critical for you to master. These come with best of practice and practical familiarity, which are offered by many Government funded organisations and institutions across India.
Thus, if the Government is able to find a way to skill every youth and make them self reliant in the near future, the start-ups will receive a boost. India is the fourth biggest start-up base in the world and this is set to be even better in the coming days. In addition, skill development also contributes as a prerequisite to the Government’s pursuit of holistic development of the nation.
The writer is co-founder, of Rise India