When a nation develops, it leads to the development of its people too. With the advancement in the economies in terms of industrialisation, methods of agriculture and developing infrastructural playgrounds, skilling has become an integral part of the lives of people who want to have a good career along with a sustainable livelihood. If you see, today’s workforce, most of it is in urban areas or in developing areas of the states. So, what about the people who are living in the rural areas or in such small towns which are yet to get a flavour of the development? People who have not got the right kind of education? People who are struggling to earn a livelihood because they are not educated?

For this segment, skilling plays an important role. By enrolling in a skill development program or a vocational training program, one not only enhances his/her knowledge and skill but, also becomes capable of getting trained for a desired job role. When a person gets skilled, not only his life stature changes but, it also carves a stable path for the coming generations to be living in a better condition.

What is a skill?

It is an ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout activities or job functions involving ideas (cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and/or people (interpersonal skills).

What is Skilling?

It is to train a potential person or a worker who is keen and willing to do a particular task or ready perform a particular Job Role. Through skilling, a learner can acquire the knowledge for a particular job role as a part of his academic qualification or may also get trained while doing the work.

Sometimes skilling can also be a natural behavioural strength. For example a farmer’s son has always seen him farming. Upon growing up he also wants to do farming. Let us look at it from two perspectives: first one, he adapts to the same farming methods as his father, grows the same amount of crop, goes to the same market for selling and gets a similar profit. Second one, he enrols for Skill Training in Agriculture and Farming and acquires the right kind of skill sets for doing this work. He gets better productivity, good quality crop, compatibility to understand the market for buying and selling his products at a better price and earns great profit.

Skills – The Cutting Edge

Let us take an example of a young lady who aspires to become a front office executive. She does not have any degree, nor any such skill that will help her to get the dream job. Here, first of all she needs to understand and think that, is she picking up the right job? Once she has made up her mind, she should enrol for a skill training which gives her the required skills and a certification for doing a front office executive job.

Before enrolling for the Skill Training, answer following questions in your mind:

Will this training help me to shape up and get ready for my dream job?

Do the organisations consider front office executive as an important role?

What other skills should I acquire along with this skill to groom my career?

When we plot answers to these questions, we find that we have laid the stepping stones for understanding one’s core skill. When you think on these lines you are taking a step towards being job-ready.

Technology – An Inevitable Impact

So, now you have the skills, but are you up-to-date with today’s requirement? Do you have enough knowledge about today’s technology that enables you to stand shoulder to shoulder with candidates who are technologically advanced? No matter what skills you have, you should never ignore the impact that changing technology brings on your career. Technology is one giant which is always impacting each and every profession day in and day out. In a nut shell, no matter where you are, which industry or which area of work, you need to keep a pace with what’s happening around you. And, here comes the role of the certified courses that correlate you to the advancements in the industry, if you decide to skill yourself then these are the best futuristic skill investments.

While we wrap up this one, let us go through some significant data points which are quite in line with what I am trying to say with regards to Skill Development scenario.

India is a growing economy, which is opening the doors for the youth and people from rural areas and creating a cluster of opportunities via its various skilling programs. The latest mission flagged by the Indian government has increased the overall demand for skilled manpower. The Skill India emphasises on the fact that India needs 700 million skilled workers by 2022 to meet the demands of the growing economy.

Hence, the choices to be made by the learners today are crystal clear, just take an idealistic look at your future, decide the area of work, collate all your strengths and weaknesses and ask yourself, what is it that you are ready to do?

The answer to all the questions will surely funnel down to Skilling. And, when you talk about skilling think parallel to your work area and skills you require for adapting to upcoming technologies. Prepare yourself for a certain level of behavioural or attitudinal adaptation. This will help you to navigate a path through the professional complexities which you are going to face subsequently. The dire need for a person is to pursue the right skill and be in the right profession, the biggest challenge which you are going to face is to be constantly skill-ready in a technology-enabled and truculent world.