Human resource companies such as TeamLease Services and Witthaus Consulting feel that there is a strong need for the government to monitor and incentivise skill development for pharma and healthcare in rural India.

Under the Skill India project, which is part of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), implemented by the ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship to bring down the unemployment rate of 4.9 per cent in 2014-15 is now designed as a reward-based training scheme. It is envisaged as an incentivised skill training programme by providing financial rewards to candidates who successfully complete approved programmes.

The government had stated that between August 2015 and July 2016, PMKVY would skill 24 lakh youth in the country. The effort was to recognize the skills of young people who lacked formal certification, Through its ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ (RPL), 10 lakh youth are to be assessed and certified for the skills that they already have.

Temp staffing major TeamLease has noted that India ranks amongst the lowest in vocational skills. Over 19 ministries have skill development budgets, however the utilisation and monitoring needed to be output driven. It has also observed that the vocational skill industry continued to reel under low signaling value. One way to resolve this is to have the industry hire ‘skilled-certified’ job seekers.

“Going forward, we expect reforms that will act as a strong support to provide the right skills for the youth entering the labour market. The government in its Budget 2016-17 can aid the process by providing few incentives to the industry for hiring skilled labour and paying them a premium salary as against unskilled labour. We would also be keen to see that government to promote technology usage for skill development, monitoring and hand holding,” pointed out Neeti Sharma, senior vice president, TeamLease Services.

According to Rahul Nene, managing director, Witthaus Consulting, tax sops are required for human resource training service firms which are ready to take up such programmes in towns with a population less than 100,000 people. The government should provide access to government schools and community centres free of cost to those ready to provide jobs, technical or leadership training for people at entry level.

There is also a need to offer minimum support allowance to human research firms to adopt one government school for a training programme on communication, presentation, cleanliness and environment annually. The government could even consider that if more such schools are identified then it could increase allocation of training allowances. We also need to make certain that the funds allocated need to be managed judiciously to prevent it from being siphoned off, said Nene.