Perceptual Differences Across Various Stakeholder Groups: A Study of Challenges for Skill Development in Sikkim, India

Introduction

India has been estimated to have around 64% of the total population in the age bracket of 15–59 years by 2026 in which only 13% of the people will be more than 60 years of age. By 2020, India is all set to become the world’s youngest country. The average age of Indians would be 29.5 years, and they would account for being 28% of the world’s workforce. India is expected to be a developed economy within the next 10–15 years in terms of human resources. Assessing the need of skilled and competent manpower in the current scenario, the Indian Government is aiming to fulfill the mission of achieving the formal/informal skill development of country’s working population by providing them vocational training education and other upcoming learning methods to make them competent and employable (Kumar, Mishra, & Das, 2016).

Sikkim is the least populous State in India and the second smallest State having an area of 7096 sq.kms. The population of this state is 6.1 lakhs which is about.05% of total population of India. It has 3 ethnic groups i.e. Lepchas, Bhutia and Nepalese. The State is divided into only 4 Districts- North West East and South District. Around 60% of the state’s population is in the working age group while 35% falls into the age-group of 0-14 years. As per the NSDC skill gap study of 2012 the projections for Sikkim state that there will be an increase in demand for human resource by the year 2021 for near about 1.48 lakhs of people. 7% of job vacancies is estimated to be created by people in the age group of 50-60 years who would be retiring. Thus, there will be a shortfall in demand for human resources to the extent of 1.31 lakh people. The literacy rate is as high as 82% after Kerala but employment opportunities are not adequate to meet with the requirements of the youth of Sikkim. Around 68000 are working in the organized sector and there are very few industries to generate employment other than pharmaceutical companies.

The state capital, Gangtok is the centre of social infrastructure and houses major centres of health, education, Government and legislature.is mostly concentrated in Gangtok. There is in migration within the state in the East District from other regions of the State. Vocational training in the state is provided by three Polytechnic and three ITI (Industrial Training Institute) educational institutions which provides courses and programmes as per the domestic demand. The rate of growth of primary sector has been slow compared to the growth of secondary and tertiary sectors. During the years 2004-2011, the tertiary sector has witnesses a doubled growth while the secondary sector has tripled. The Public Sector Undertakings (PSU), have been taking care of fruit preservation, watch and tea manufacturing along with few other precision industries. However, NSDC (National Skill Development Corporation) skill gap study has identified migration and skilling opportunities in various sectors within and outside the State.

Globally various challenges have been identified in the skill interventions across the world. A Report on Skill Development: attitude & perceptions, City & Guilds Center for Skill development 2008 (UK) based on a study indicated 3 common challenges across 9 countries:

• 1.

  ‘Skills crisis’ needs to be addressed;

• 2.

  Students fail to get employment after completing skill enhancement training;

• 3.

  Parents attitudes are greatest barrier towards attainment of vocational education and training as they have a high regard to academic education.

Other concerns include recognition of skills gap within and between countries due to globalization which further leads to marginalization on the basis of social class, gender and ethnicity. Due to modernization, the Asian countries are facing skills mismatch. The education systems are not being able to fulfil the demands of evolving skills. Lack of the governments and its educational institutions to create capacity and growing dynamism of the economy and absence of good strategies and policies to respond to the demands of the market also further widen this gap at global level. Problems associated with sexist norms and practices have limited the involvement of girls and women in TVET (UNESCO, 2011). Their participation is driven more by necessity than being asp rational for womenfolk (Unterhalter, 2007; Maclean, 2010; Klasen & Pieters, 2012) Material provided to the trainees has found to be inappropriate to the curriculum, the ability of learners, their cognitive levels and their language proficiency. (Heugh, 2002; Canlas et.al., 2009).