Education and skill development for the demographic dividend of India

Demography-hitherto a problem area for India due to over population has become a storehouse of opportunities as its age pyramid bulges in the age group of 15–59 years with 64% of its population in this group by the year 2022. India is expected to have 28% of world's workforce, a billion person labour force out of approximate population of 1.4 billion citizens, with average age of 29 years. This demographic advantage has to be transformed into economic advantage by absorbing the young population productively. As the Indian economy transitions from being agrarian to manufacturing and service base i.e. a move from being commodity centric to that of knowledge centric, growth becomes largely dependent on availability of skills. Hence to meet the potential demand of 500 millions skilled workforces resulting from this structural transformation and to reap the upcoming demographic advantage, education and skills development become the key words. In this content, this paper highlights current realties surrounding the education skills level within India's workforce and also gaps, if any among skills training and job creation. Further, this paper aims to address the issue and find a potential solution so that finally, the gap between demand and supply of skilled workforce could be met with and demographic dividend be harnessed.