India Skills 2023-24 Program

India Skills 2023-24

Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Shri Dharmendra Pradhan launched India Skills 2023-24 in New Delhi which aims to develop industrial and entrepreneurial skills among Indians through training programmes, bridging the gap between industry demands and skill requirements. In his address, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan underlined the need to increase the number of participants from 0.25 million to 2.5 million. This visionary move aims to accelerate the ecosystem of skill development and underline the importance of competencies over traditional degrees. The Minister stressed the importance of imparting employable skills, which will increase the market acceptability of the workforce.

What is India Skills 2023-24?

India Skills 2023-24 is a skill development competition that aims to encourage and enhance the skills of individuals in various fields, preparing them for national and international skills competitions. India Skills is the precursor to the World Skills competition. Participants who excel in India Skills at the national level get an opportunity to represent India on the global stage at the WorldSkills competition to be held in Paris next year.

Objectives of India Skills:

• Promoting employable skills: The program underlines the importance of developing employable skills in line with market needs, thereby increasing workforce acceptability within the industry.
• Addressing the skill gap: It aims to identify and bridge the skill gap with an emphasis on mapping the skills required in the industry, reducing the disparity between degrees earned and practical skills.
• Integration of competencies and knowledge: Equal emphasis is placed on competencies, applied knowledge and practical training to prepare individuals to lead effectively in the 21st century.

World Skills Competition:

The World Skills Competition is the world's largest skills competition, held once every two years. It is run by WorldSkills International, which has 86 member countries. These competitions provide both a benchmark for high performance and an objective way to assess business excellence. The duration of the competition is 4 days i.e. 16 to 22 hours.

India's performance in WSC- 2022:

• Indian contestants were selected through the India Skills Competition 2021 and were trained by experts and trainers from World Skills India.
• India participated in 50 skills and achieved its best ranking of 11th position with 2 silver medals, 3 bronze medals and 13 medals for excellence.
• The participation included a wide variety of skills like hotel receptionist, mechatronics, mobile robotics, water technology, bakery, web technology etc.

The winners of World Skills Competition 2022 are as follows:-