World Youth Skills Day
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Subject: Economy/IR
Context:
15 July is celebrated as World Youth Skills Day.
Concept:
- The United Nations invented day aims at spreading awareness of the importance that technical and vocational education, training, and the development of new skills holds in our lives and is relevant to both local and global economies.
- The day highlights the opportunities and challenges that young people face in employment, and this year’s theme is ‘Skills for a Resilient Youth’.
- The Skill India Mission was launched 5 years ago on this day. Therefore, the day marks the 5th anniversary of the launch of Skill India Mission.
Demographic dividend
- A demographic dividend is the accelerated economic growth that can result from improved reproductive health, a rapid decline in fertility, and the subsequent shift in population age structure.
- Since 2018, India’s working-age population (people between 15 and 64 years of age) has grown larger than the dependant population — children aged 14 or below as well as people above 65 years of age. This bulge in the working-age population is going to last till 2055, or 37 years from its beginning.
National Youth Policy
- The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) seeks to define the Vision of the Government of India for the Youth of the Country and identify the key areas in which action is required, where not enough is being done, to enable youth development and to provide a framework for action for all stakeholders.
- It is intended to serve as a guiding document, and should be reviewed in 5 years, so that GoI may re-focus its priorities for youth development, as may be necessary.
- NYP-2014 provides a holistic Vision for the youth of India which is “to empower the youthof the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations”.
- In order to achieve this Vision, all stakeholders must work towards meeting 5 key objectives. This requires specific action in one or more of 11 priority areas, identified as important for youth development.
National Skill development mission
- The National Skill Development Mission was approved by the Union Cabinet on 2015, and officially launched on 15.07.2015 on the occasion of World Youth Skills Day.
- The Mission has been developed to create convergence across sectors and States in terms of skill training activities.
- Further, to achieve the vision of ‘Skilled India’, the National Skill Development Mission would not only consolidate and coordinate skilling efforts, but also expedite decision making across sectors to achieve skilling at scale with speed and standards.
- It will be implemented through a streamlined institutional mechanism driven by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE).
- Key institutional mechanisms for achieving the objectives of the Mission have been divided into three tiers, which will consist of a Governing Council for policy guidance at apex level, a Steering Committee and a Mission Directorate (along with an Executive Committee) as the executive arm of the Mission.
- Mission Directorate will be supported by three other institutions: National Skill Development Agency (NSDA), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), and Directorate General of Training (DGT) – all of which will have horizontal linkages with Mission Directorate to facilitate smooth functioning of the national institutional mechanism. Seven sub-missions have been proposed initially to act as building blocks for achieving overall objectives of the Mission. They are: (i)Institutional Training, (ii) Infrastructure, (iii) Convergence, (iv) Trainers, (v) Overseas Employment, (vi) Sustainable Livelihoods, (vii) Leveraging Public Infrastructure.