Bridging the Gap: Skilling Initiatives for a Changing Workforce

In India, the need for skilling initiatives is paramount, as they hold the key to equipping individuals with the essential skills required to thrive in a rapidly changing job landscape. This blog delves into the challenges faced by Skilling programs that hinder the program effectiveness. It also highlights Samhita-CGF’s innovative approach to tackle these obstacles, emphasising on the significance of skill development in driving individual success and broader economic development in the face of rapid change.

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India’s demographic dividend, characterised by a youthful population, could potentially be a significant driver of economic growth. However, to harness this effectively, India needs a skilled and job-ready workforce. Unfortunately, India’s current skilling ecosystem grapples with a multitude of challenges that hinder its capacity to prepare individuals for the demands of the modern job market. In this context, let’s delve into the challenges confronting India’s current skilling ecosystem and explore potential solutions to address them.

Young adult learning tailoring

 

Challenges with India’s Current Skilling Ecosystem

1. Limited

Women At Work In New India

In India, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected the lives and livelihoods of working women compared to working men. To understand the extent of this impact on women workers, Samhita-Collective Good Foundation(CGF), commissioned by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in India, undertook a study that analysed the pandemic experiences of thirty women workers and entrepreneurs across professions in India. The findings and recommendations of the study are presented in this report.

The research study adopted a qualitative approach and exploratory design. Furthermore, it looked at the challenges through an intersectional lens, since the pandemic has affected women differently based on their demographic, geographical and socio-economic backgrounds. While for some women, economic and social recovery has been relatively easier and faster, given their social location, networks, skill sets, nature of their trade, access to digital and other infrastructure, most women continue to struggle to bounce back.


Prior to the primary data collection conducted on field across the ten cohorts and five states the women belonged to, certain themes were identified from a secondary review of existing literature. Thereafter, several of these themes were corroborated through a thematic analysis of the narratives presented by thirty women participants.


Four major themes emerged from this research, which are listed as below:

  • Challenges faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Social and systemic support availed during the crisis
  • Adaptation and transition in livelihood choices during the pandemic
  • Aspirations and ambitions of women workers


This research study advocates using the learnings and evidence from the women

Samhita

The REVIVE Alliance was set up with the mission of creating economic opportunities for vulnerable communities disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the Alliance

Tracing the trajectory of COVID-hit digital India

Ever since COVID-19 hit India, the disease brought an onslaught of unimagined and unprecedented circumstances. Governments scrambled to impose lockdowns on short notice to control the spread of the disease and India was no stranger to adopting this global approach to control the infections. However, this strategy came with a set of complex implications that bore an impact on health, livelihoods, education and life as we

Why We Need To Talk About Nano-Entrepreneurs In India

Nano entrepreneurs are people who typically run small retail or kirana shops or earn a livelihood as street vendors. They usually have not had the benefit of a college education, which prevents them from attaining formal means of employment and many shoulder debt to survive, making it even more dire for those who have faced a health or a financial crisis during the pandemic.

The challenges faced by nano entrepreneurs are different than their medium or small scale counterparts. With the line blurred between personal and business income, they are often just a nudge away from being pushed into poverty.

Samhita-CGF’s REVIVE Alliance realised the significant role & enormous potential of nano entrepreneurs in reviving India’s post-pandemic economy and since have been working with our partners to create better opportunities these cohorts.

Read the full article by our partner Michael & Susan Dell Foundation on why we need to talk about nano entrepreneurs.

Reviving India

Just as India was recovering from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second and more vicious wave pushed many to the brink of livelihood loss. As news of the health crisis takes precedence, the economic ravages of the pandemic and its impact on livelihoods has been less documented and discussed. The devastating effects of the pandemic have had compounding negative effects on women