NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan urged the industry to be proactive to generate employment and ensure that the country does not miss Industrial Revolution 4.0.
He pointed out that each year, 1-1.5 crore people are coming into an employable category and there is a need to create an enabling ecosystem of skill development so that they get job opportunities.
“We should not miss industrial revolution this time,” Pradhan said at the Global SkillsSummit, organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) held on Thursday.
He said four key stakeholders - Centre, states, NGOs and civil society - have a responsibility and should collaborate and work together in skill development.
He stressed that industrial revolution 4.0 and automation have to be accepted by the country and private sector.
Ficci asked the government to come out with a data on job creation. Ficci Skills Development Committee Chairman T V Mohandas Pai pointed out to Pradhan that about 1.8 crore jobs have been created in the past three years. He also sought the intervention of the government to rework on education policy and incentivise people who create jobs.
Pradhan raised the concern that an average of five per cent of people in the workforce are not skilled.
According to Pradhan, in developed countries, skilled manpower ranges from 50 per cent in certain sectors to 90 per cent in others. In India it is about 10 per cent.
The ministry has entered into agreements with several countries such as the UK, the US, Australia, France and Germany with the purpose of technology transfer in vocational training, setting up of centres of excellence, international mobility through mapping of job roles and development of transnational standards.