India has the potential to emerge as the skill capital of the world, provided we succeed in equipping our working age population with marketable skills, Vice President M Hamid Ansari said today.
"India is one of the few countries where the working age population will be far in excess of those dependent on them. According to the World Bank, this will continue for at least three decades till 2040.
"This would be a potential source of strength for our economy, if we take the right steps to harness this demographic dividend," he said, delivering the convocation address at the North Maharashtra University at Jalgaon.
"If our GDP grows at an average rate of about 8 per cent till 2022, it is expected that we will need a skilled workforce of 500 million people by 2022, with around 12 million people expected to join the workforce every year.
"For an economy to sustain this growth rate, it would be essential for the workforce to be exposed to acquiring newer skills either through higher/technical education or vocation skills or a combination of both," the Vice President said.
Quoting the 12th Plan document, Ansari, however lamented that our higher education institutions suffer from problems of quality and that 'too many of our universities are producing graduates in subjects that are not required by the changing job market.'
While there are 227 million children studying in schools, only 15.3 million students enrol for higher education and vocational training, the Vice President said.
