Ms. Neeti Sharma is the Co- Founder and President of TeamLease Edtech. In this opinion piece, she shares her insight on how Indian corporates can play a pivotal role in building India a skilled nation & transform the livelihood opportunity for the youth in the country.
India with a population of 1.3 billion, India is home to a fifth of the world's youth population, of which more than 50% is below the age of 25, and over 65% is below the age of 35. The 2023-24 union budget with its special focus on skill development is heralded as one that seeks to empower and equip our demographic dividend with the skills necessary to actively participate and thrive in the world of work. Some of the key initiatives that facilitate these objectives focus on skill d
evelopment in new age courses such as coding, AI, Robotics, 3D Printing while others target demand-based formal skilling to create a link with employers including MSMEs, and facilitate access to entrepreneurship schemes.
In addition, several other initiatives such as the establishment of 30 Skill India International Centres across different States and the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme indicate a comprehensive effort to create a future ready workforce. The inception of these initiatives indicates a strong political will towards making India the skill capital of the world, which must be welcomed and supported by industry stakeholders. India Inc. must work in tandem with government bodies to build an empowered, equitable, and inclusive future ready workforce.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can become the springboard that enables India’s youth, women, and other traditionally under-represented groups to push India forward into the global economy. The corporate social responsibility landscape in India changed dramatically when India became the first country to make CSR a legal mandate in April 2014. Over the past nine years, corporations, employees, and society have become socially responsible and conscious about giving back to the community. A continuously evolving mindset is leading corporations to look at their CSR activities as a community building platform rather than a mere PR enterprise. CSR programs must be leveraged to deliver the goals of employability, equity, inclusion and prosperity for all as envisioned in the union budget.
CSR can bridge the skill gap between Education and Employability
CSR programs in the skilling and education sectors can emerge as the conduit through which India’s employability issues can be solved. Over the last five years, unemployment has been a key concern, majorly due to the turmoil caused by the pandemic. In fact, in 2022, India recorded an unemployment rate of 8.3%, highest over the last sixteen months. The concerning aspect is that unemployment has not just been an issue for mid-level or senior level talent but also for entry level professionals who have been educated at the most prestigious institutions. This indicates a glaring disconnect between education and employment which is impacting the country’s socio-economic dividend and GDP growth.
Effective CSR programs can help to improve employability by providing industry specific skill training that will equip the youth with the necessary skills required to participate in the workforce. This will be instrumental in bringing a large scale of the population that is currently operating in the informal sector to move towards formalization. The implementation of high quality skilling programs across industries can help to improve the plight of numerous daily wagers who are relegated to a life of rampant exploitation at the hands of contractors. A well-designed skill development program as part of their CSR initiative can thus help organizations find and train the right candidates, increase employability, and facilitate in increasing the formalization of the workforce.
It is also worth noting that only a small percentage of the graduates that come out of India’s education system are considered employable with only one in five engineers and one in four MBAs considered to be fit for employment. In such a scenario, CSR-led vocational skill enhancement training programs, internships, and apprenticeship programs will be crucial to bridge the skill gap that exists.
A robust collaboration between India Inc. and the Government of India is another critical link in the evolution of reducing the skill deficit across the country. India’s push to create the world's largest productive workforce and become a manufacturing and technology leader must engage its youth through well-implemented CSR skilling programs on a micro and macro scale. Apprenticeships are recognized by the government as an employment enhancing skill development program and hence apprenticeship stipends are eligible for CSR benefits, as per Schedule VII of Section 135 of Companies Act , 2013 and Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014. In addition to augmenting employability, apprenticeships can emerge as livelihood enhancement programs that are a win-win for all the stakeholders.
Leverage CSR to create a culture of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Although in principle the concept of equal employment opportunity for all has been around for a long time, it is only recently that we have begun to articulate what it really means for the individual and the value it holds for an organization. Organizations in India are initiating measures to make the workplace more diverse and inclusive, but most of these activities revolve around recruiting more women professionals primarily in supporting roles and non-leadership roles. Although, there is a paradigm shift in India Inc’s attitude toward people with disabilities (PwD) and LGBTQ+ communities with inclusivity policies becoming the flavor of most HR blueprints, there is a lot that needs to be done. Despite the progress towards inclusivity minority communities continue to witness high rates of unemployment either due to prejudice or lack of skills. CSR activities need to focus on improving the plight of these underserved or marginalized communities by way of education, skilling, and implementation of large scale sensitization programs for the entire workforce. This will facilitate the true implementation of DE&I within the organization.
As the world of work is undergoing a rapid transformation, all organizations are susceptible to facing large-scale disruption. The best way to anticipate and prepare for these disruptions is by expanding our horizons and cultivating the ability to look at every issue from diverse perspectives instead of the common viewpoints that arise from a set of people belonging to the same cohort. Thus, embracing DE&I is essential to keep pace with the changing tide in the world of work.
Expanding the scope of CSR to focus on skill development and DE&I offers very high potential for businesses to impact their bottom line and at the same time invest in the development of a future-ready workforce. This will require a change in organizational mindset, implementation of policies that support and embrace this outlook and the investments in large-scale infrastructure development. To conclude in the words of Alexis Herman, Former United States Secretary of Labor, ‘Inclusion and fairness in the workplace…is not simply the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.”
