With the onset of Industry 4.0, the demand for digital competencies and 21st-century skills have grown tremendously. This called governments to take major actions in upgrading the skilling ecosystem in the states and at the Centre level. Highlighting this in the context of Haryana, Anant Prakash Pandey, Director General & Secretary, Foreign Cooperation Department; Mission Director, Haryana Skill Development Mission and CEO, Haryana Kaushal Rojgar Nigam, spoke at Elets Digital Governance Summit, Haryana Edition.
Skill development is a core and thrust area and the Prime Minister has also named skill mission as one of the top priorities. This is because around 65 per cent of the Indian population is a part of the working- age group. Therefore, the right kind of skills to be provided to this huge number is a challenge as well as an opportunity.
The Government of India has taken numerous steps on this front including setting up a dedicated ministry and dedicated institutional framework. Similarly, the Government of Haryana has taken key initiatives to bolster the skill development ecosystem in the state. The state government established Haryana Skill Development Mission which is named the nodal agency for all the skilling initiatives in the state.
Around 15 government schemes are running skill development programmes in the state.
Speaking on how technology is being leveraged in upskilling the youth of Haryana, Pandey said, “The Haryana Skill Development Mission is coming up with a dedicated portal that will have a plug and play model for skill training which is taking place in different departments. The portal will further facilitate the candidates to opt for the type of skills they want to learn or what type of job they are planning to pursue.” On one hand, there are candidates, which is the supply-side, who are getting benefits from the schemes and on the other hand, there is the demand-side, the employees who will have a dedicated portal to have candidates from different skilling courses under any scheme according to the national norms.
As far as futuristic skills are considered, he said, “We know that this is a technology-driven world and industry 4.0 is asking for skills that never existed before. Therefore, to keep the youth updated with the latest skills we are trying to collaborate with multi-national companies (MNCs) and big organisations. Recently, we collaborated with TATA and they are running programmes for our school children and youth on the latest trends and technologies.” This is how the government is closely working with the industry, trying to bring in new-gen courses and making the youth of the state industry-ready. This way both the demand and supply sides are balanced, he added.
Addressing other initiatives towards improving employability in the state, he mentioned that the state government is running different schemes for jobs. Also, it has developed HUNAR (Haryana, Udyam, Naukri, aur Rozgar) portal for entrepreneurship development. “We’ve realised that we not only need jobs but we also need job creators. Whatever, training that will take place, we will be integrating entrepreneurship skills through the Hunar app which has almost over 200 entrepreneurship skill training. The entrepreneurship training offered covers the last mile wherein the trainees or budding entrepreneurs are connected with banks to present their ideas and gain funding. Hence, the lifecycle of a small business is captured and, on that basis, a training programme is designed for the budding entrepreneurs, he added.
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