None can stop India emerging as world's skill capital: Rudy

Bhubaneswar, Sep 26: India has the potential to emerge as the human resources skill capital of the world although only 4.5 per cent of its total workforce is skilled now.

This was stated by Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy while addressing the 50th convention of Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) here today.

"Though China has moved forward in manufacturing, India's strength lies in its diversity, talented human resources and English language base. The country has the potential to emerge as the world's human resource skill capital. And nobody can stop us," Rudy said.

Noting that Korea's 96 per cent workforce is skilled, the minister said only 4.5 per cent of India's work force has been considered as skilled. China has 46 per cent skilled man power, USA 58 per cent, Germany 70 per cent, UK 68 per cent and Japan 80 per cent, the Union Minister said.

"This figure rattles us," Rudy said, adding that even the youths having engineering and management degrees, face problem in finding jobs. As many as 16 lakh engineering seats remained vacant due to lack of demand of engineers in the country, he said.

Stating that only basic degrees are not sufficient to get employment, Rudy said, "Twelve years in schools and colleges may not provide employment, but the skill training of 12 months ensures that."

He said India required a huge investment in the skill development sector in order to provide employment to the youths. While 250 million people working in different sectors immediately require skill training, every year 12 million join them.

Therefore, the country required to train at least 310 million people in next five years which involved a huge investment. As 70 per cent of the workforce is not in a position to finance their skill development training, the government would take care of it, he said.

"If we spend Rs 20,000 per head, country would require Rs 5 lakh crore to train 310 million people in five years," he said urging the hotel owners to impart training to youths in hospitality sector which is considered as the second biggest employment provider in the country.

"The Skill Development Mission under the chairmanship of Prime Minister will change the landscape of India," the Union Minister said adding that all will get employment if trained in proper manner.

PTI