New Delhi, May 24, 2012: The European Union and India joined hands to launch a skill development project in India on Wednesday, towards which EU will invest €6 million over the next four- and-a-half years.
Emphasising the need for such a project, the Ambassador of EU, Dr João Cravinho, said that by 2020 the world is likely to face a shortfall of 47 million skilled workers, while India is estimated to have a surplus of 56 million workers.
“For India to realise the demographic dividend, the young people need to be properly skilled. If India achieves that there will be no stopping India in the 21st century,” he said.
This assistance from EU is part of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by India and EU on exchange in the field on employment and social policy and for technical assistance n skills development.
Further, Dr Cravinho said that the India-EU partnership is at a moment of transformation. “Perhaps we are moving from a development assistance character in the past towards becoming partners,” he said.
The Indian government aims to skill 500 million workers by 2022.
“No country has taken up the task of skilling 500 million people in the span of six to seven years. This is an important partnership for India, said Mr Dilip Chenoy, Chief Executive Officer of the National Skill Development Corp.
He added that the focus will be on three segments — training and skilling the trainers for the project, developing the National Skills Qualification Framework and on the on developing a national information system for the labour market.
